So as an Australian in America during an election I decided I had to go see the show. Flew to Duluth, Georgia to see the Trump rally last night. Thread of a few takeaways:
Firstly, picked the trump rally because frankly it seemed like it would be more interesting. Also they’re all listed on his website and while they ask for you to register, you can just turn up. Kamala seems to make you jump through a few hoops to find her schedule.
The rally was, in fact, packed. People missed out (don’t know how many but I spoke to two at the nearby Waffle House afterwards who said they didn’t get in). I got there at 3pmish - 4 hours before trump’s scheduled time and it took about an hour to get in.
By the time Trump came on it was full. No spare seats, and people standing in the upper concourse. People went nuts when he came out.
On the other hand, people do leave early. By the time Trump finished probably 30-40% had left. Good crowd size dunk fuel but it’s little more than that. It doesn’t tell you that much about enthusiasm
I spoke to a couple of women at my hotel after who had left early and they said they loved it, but watch all the rallies on YouTube so knew the speech and after a long day they were happy to call it early.
While the the crowd was majority white, there were a lot of other races there. You didn’t have to play “where’s Wally” to spot the black person. Black, Hispanics, Asians and others were dotted about in pretty decent numbers (compared to what Dems like to claim)
Spoke to a young black dude (also at the Waffle House) and he took his mom along and had a great time. Vibe was positive and friendly overall.
As for the content: well, I’m not going to come over here and preach. Australian and US politics don’t really map over each other very well. But I was surprised by how 90% was pretty normal political rev-up that you’d see in australia (on a much *much* smaller scale).
Trump’s speech was long and he rambled and told stories. But he is still very funny at times, he’s surprisingly self-depreciating too. Crucially, he’s really a symptom not the cause. He’s tapped into something real and become the Main Character of the world for 9 years.
He’s obviously aged but he’s still with it and the attempts to Joe Biden him by the Dems is obviously absurd when you see him in person.
The rally was full of believers so i can’t say if he’ll win or not. But the enthusiasm doesn’t seem dimmed. And whatever he’s tapped into won’t go anywhere if he loses. But also I don’t have a dog in this fight, so it was just fun to experience a bit of this moment in time. /end