After covering the recent Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump rallies in Albuquerque, Matthew Reisen offers his personal opinions on the current political atmosphere in America. They do not represent the views of the Daily Lobo.
This is an assessment on what seems to be happening in America: a situation I like to call “political extremism.” Recently, I covered both Bernie Sanders’ and Donald Trump’s political rallies in Albuquerque.
The first rally I attended was Sanders’ at the Albuquerque Convention Center. Inside and outside, the feeling was reminiscent of what it must have been like during the anti-Vietnam protests of the late ‘60s, with a harder edge. Rather than a peace sign, Bernie supporters were holding up a clenched fist. There was this glimmer of change felt in the crowd, this feeling of revolution.
But the question hung in my mind: can a revolution save us? Is it what we really need, and if so, what would that look like?
It was not hard to observe that the large percentage of Sanders supporters are the future: younger generations, full of piss and vinegar, ready to fight for their values. Some of it is admirable and the beating heart of change, while other aspects seem too lofty for reality.
Despite the revelry, there was an undercurrent of oppression from the opposition. Even Sanders himself, speaking on the immortality of super-delegates, seemed worn down by the odds. The Bern, along with his energized supporters, represent Leonidas at the end of 300 when he says, “then we will fight in the shade.”
Nobody seems to realize how stacked the deck is more than Sanders himself, but he is a champion of his people, I’ll give him that. In a perfect world, an alternate universe, Sanders may just win the election and save America. But this is no fairy tale and it’s not news; we’ve always been heading to this realization.
Any hype that was garnered for Bernie’s rally was all but washed away by the following Tuesday, when Trump arrived. Protesters on 2nd Street yelled, “F--- Trump,” while a woman across the street answered with “Go back to Mexico, where Mexicans are killing Mexicans.” And this was on the walk-in, hours before the rally even started. It was a foreboding feeling, very different from the Sanders event.
Trump attendees were an opposite demographic altogether. These supporters were older and largely Anglo. The atmosphere was very different. With all the red, white and blue, it had the look of patriotism but not the feel, as if someone took a pig and draped an American flag over it.
Instead, it felt like a room full of scared and angry people who believe they are being persecuted for something and only Trump can save them. They cheer and rave as he has protesters booted with the wave of his hand, like some kind of boisterous magician.
This group seemed to be largely the opposite of Sander’s people. Rather than change, they want more of the same. More, more, more is the chant of Trump’s America: more walls, more money, more insults, more empty promises. And with Trump, they may get just what they want, at the expense of the last vestiges of the American dream.
You probably heard a lot about one rally and not so much the other. While national news was relishing in the chaos that erupted after the Trump rally, the underlying issues were obscured. It’s not about who is to blame or who is the victim, the question is: how did we get here?
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By here, I mean the 2016 political race. A race in which the two-party system has been so diluted that our most polarizing candidates are completely off the grid of Republican or Democrat.
On one end we have Donald Trump, a businessman and reality TV star who has risen to be the GOP candidate through a tumultuous race. Trump represents the aging middle-class and wealthy population. He appeals to their biggest concerns: money, power and safety. This demographic wants a protector and they have reached a point where they are more than willing to step on a few toes to get him.
Trump appeals to a crowd that is sick and tired of following rules and being told they have to be polite. They are so desperate to feel secure that they put their unrelenting trust in a man who slings more low-blows than policy. Trump says: “I’ll get this done,” without any detailed methodology and his supporters just believe it. At least Jesus had to literally walk on water first.
I’m still waiting for Ashton Kutcher to bust into a Trump rally, declaring the whole campaign has been a long overdue episode of Punk’d. But alas, I’m starting to fear that this is all too real. Trump simply defies politics and honestly should have a whole new party named after him: Trumpism (working title). If America is truly going to be run like a cutthroat, unforgiving business, then Trump is the answer.
But that’s not America, that’s the Frankenstein image of America that has formulated through greed, insecurity and apathy. Trump’s first action as president would probably be to put a trademark symbol over America, and it would be all downhill from there.
Now let’s talk about the other side, the left: Bernie Sanders. If you’re against everything Trump stands for, then you are most likely feeling the Bern and visa-versa. At 74 years old, Bernie Sanders’ campaign represents the youthful backlash against Trumpist (working title) politics.
Sanders’ campaign is the collective yell of those who “aren’t going to take it anymore.” While Sanders’ rally felt like a political “party” more than a rally, it was uplifting to see all these young people who truly want to dethrone the old politics of yesteryear along with the encroaching tyranny of Trumpism.
The sad truth is, the game is rigged against Bernie in this current pace. Those protesters feeling the Bern and fighting for a better future have been obscured by Trump’s media blitz over violent protesters and rioter who are playing right into his hands.
Oh, and here’s a message to those protesters inciting violence: Don’t you understand? Trump wants you to riot. He wants you to prove him right; that his opposition is a swell of uneducated, violent criminals whose best political discourse is “F--- Trump.” If someone asks you why you don’t like Trump, there are legitimate answers better than “F--- Trump”; from “he’s a misogynist” to “he knows nothing about foreign policy.”
Don’t burn the world down while Trump gets the vote. Don’t do his job for him, don’t make it so easy. Just take a moment and think of something more proactive, because what protester were doing deep into the evening after his rally is only making it worse. And in the process they take the effort of proactive protesters out of the limelight.
Do I think it’s realistic that Trump or Sanders or Hillary can change this nation? No, it’s not up to one person. It took the mistakes of too many people to be changed by just one. What America really needs is a therapist. America needs to go into the forest and find itself, because America has been making more bad choices than a first-time spring breaker in Cabo.
That’s how we got here. Wage gaps, drug epidemics, political controversies, law abuses, etc. These problems have created a tide that has separated the sea of public opinion. Instead of finding a middle ground we have created this “my way or the highway” atmosphere on both ends. Something has got to give because the political system in this country is broken.
It’s not too late though, we can still turn it around. Whatever is to happen, it needs to be fast because we are slipping into a time of great divide.
In the current American atmosphere, I fear for a campaign in which Trump is one of two, for this reason: Trump is all about what he has, while Bernie is all about what he can do and I think everyone can agree what matters most in this country is what you have.
