hahahaha **** you guys I had 'a day' so sorry for the wait. The event was fairl, poorly planned which is understandable to an extent. They moved the rally from a facility that seats 20k to a football stadium that is listed as having a capacity of 7k, but could easily hold much more. The 2 HS teams that play there regularly play in front of 12 to 15k people. There's 7 gates to the stadium and they opened exactly 1pm. The rally wasn't scheduled to start until 4pm. We were there at 11am and didn't get in until almost 2pm. We had a slight altercation with a security guy, which is another story for another time, but it's fairly funny. I'll tell that tale later. By the time we were in, we were able to nab some actual seating on the home side, which was behind the Donald and to his right. It was a great angle to see everything going on and what was said. This rally clearly seems to have taken the political world by surprise because I've seen nothing but lies written about it. I'll bullet point the highlights. -Those attendance numbers were real. You easily had 6k people sitting on each side with another 20k on the field. That's 32k. Because of the **** planning, not everyone was able to get in, so you had the stadium totally ringed maybe 3 rows deep. The areas outside the stadium, but closer to Donald, was probably 10 rows deep. That's easily another 5 to 10k. That crowd was huge. -Hillary Clinton is as hated as Trump was popular. This is a very anti-Admin rally. -The loudest moment was not when the Donald was announced, it was clearly when the 2 Benghazi survivors were announced and they endorsed Trump. -The biggest moment was when Senator Jeff Sessions came out with Trump and endorsed him. Sessions had previously not endorsed a Presidential candidate and his word is gold in Alabama. This state is a sealed deal. -Trump's followers are an effing scary blend of angry white (read scared) middle class white people and good old fashion racists. There was only 1 rebel flag, and that was taken down before the Donald got out there. -Despite reports that the Donald doesn't give specifics, he actually did get quite specific in certain areas. It appears he plans a 35% tax on businesses that leave America, or have left America. People can call it vague, but saying you will eliminate the trade barriers that put America at a disadvantage against devalued foreign currency is pretty damned specific. He also mentioned that he'd bring the nuclear option to the table of foreign policy. -It sounds very much like Trump would bring the following to the tables: Isolationism, regrouping of military and military spending, trade wars and the bomb. -Donald talks too much. He went on about 20 minutes too long. He ended with a crowd of about 20k and most of them were outside the stadium. -We had a Black Lives Matter protest, which is fine, but then I saw the social media reports from the kids who did it and they just effing lied through the whole thing. I can say this with all confidence as I saw the entire thing. They claimed they were kicked out by Trump, and I can say honestly, he didn't know they were in the stadium until they were halfway out. They did it right. They stood up quietly holding a single black lives matter sign, holding their fists in the air. Security booted them, not for dissent, but for their own safety. This was a rabid crowd that had been sitting in the bright Alabama sun for 6 hours at this point. The kids marched out with fists in the air. As I said, I'd have been fine with what they did, except they totally lied in their online postings about what happened. -If Trump doesn't win easily, I'll be shocked. -It was a true carnival of humanity and we got everything we wanted to see. We got to see the good and bad in people. We got to see crazies and kindness. -One group of ladies went around demanding to know why you were there at the Trump rally. When I said that I wasn't sure who I was voting for yet, they demanded to know why I was there. I explained that it's a political rally and I am hoping to hear this candidate explain some policy that I have questions about. That's a reasonable answer. These are not reasonable fans. I found myself answering questions about my opinions on things. They did this to hundreds of others. It appears the answers of Vinny and myself that being quite conservative, pro-Abortion, Atheists really wrinkled their nose. They exclaimed 'ewwww, you're liberals, not Republicans!!' They went on to say that our votes were not welcomed here. I just smiled, nodded and said 'well, thankfully your candidate is not as short sighted as his followers.' -I believe I was able to relay a good lesson onto my son. (some of that deals with the altercation) I was able to show him that you can be yourself. You can be your own man and you can defend both what you believe, and what you know is right without violence or demeaning people's value...even when you're faced with 32,000 people who don't agree with you. Don't ever be ashamed of who you are, because it's all you have. Think for yourself and always be willing to listen, even if you find the message offensive. Fortunately, he was able to see folks on both sides of this spectrum to show the folly of the mindless. -The day was gorgeous and we couldn't have asked for more.
Glad to hear you guys made it out alive! To be fair you should take the lad to a Hillary rally so he can see that the crazies are on both sides. He will now have real experience to think about as opposed to reading the various skewed versions on social media which I believe is going to wreck this country before all the other things we thought would do it.... I'm not a fan of the Donald but will vote for him if he's the nominee. The possibility of Hillary appointing a SC justice is terrifying for the real lasting damage it could do to the constitution...
This I fully believe as well... I am still on the fence if I can actually vote for Donald, he says enough (If he would just shut up every now and then) to continually make me wonder if he can be manipulated into scenarios our Country doesn't need to make based on the bruising of his ego. I'm hoping he is similar to Teddy Roosevelt with a lot of bluff but calculating as well with well thought ideas. As far as Hillary she is the opposite of everything I believe in and find her revolting at times and a danger to what I hold dear... Either way whichever of these two candidates winning spells endless turmoil and strife to the other sides belief system and very ugly politics for our country in the future. And its hard to imagine it getting much uglier than what it has been for the past seven years. Then again even the Republicans don't like Donald as he is the peoples choice and not the Super Pacs nominee...There may be hope he unites both sides in a bazzaro kind of universe as they come together in their disdain.. Great post Corey, thank you for sharing...
He detests Hillary. I told him that I once saw Bill speak and he told me he'd listen to Bill speak, but not Hillary. Carson is more than kind of tech savvy and every word out of her mouth regarding the email situation is right in his wheelhouse of knowledge, ergo he is deeply offended. I'd take him to see Sanders, but they'd probably have free brownies and we couldn't pass a drug test for weeks if you eat any snacks at a Sanders rally. I'm really surprised that the black vote sticking to Hillz. They are really the dumbest of the voting blocks by 10 miles.