Former President Trump Comes to Ottumwa, Iowa
An analysis...
Photo courtesy of Kyle Ocker, Editor of the Ottumwa Courier.
According to news reports, the line to enter former President Donald Trump’s campaign event at Bridgeview Center in Ottumwa began to form at 7:30 a.m. Sunday morning, October 1. The event was to begin at 2:30 p.m.
I arrived about 11:00 A.M. and above is my view of the line in front of me. At the bridge in the background, the line turned to the left, and then back toward the venue. It was 86 degrees, and I waited in line for over an hour.
I don’t mind standing in line at Trump rallies. One always hears interesting things.
One woman in front of me was asked by a reporter where she stood on abortion.
She paused, and then said something like, “I’m pro-life…except, well, when my daughter got into this situation…a few years ago…but I’m pro-life!”
Two private security guards who were large, handsome, bodybuilders walked past. “Frisk me!” a woman behind me called out to the men. “Me too!” said a woman standing beside her in line. The men smiled.
A teenager told her friends, “I’m so excited to see President Trump! If I get a chance to shake his hand I will never wash it again!”
People were turned away at the door as the event was ready to begin.
Above is the crowd inside waiting for Trump. The Bridgeview Center Seats about 3,000 people, and it was standing-room only. I asked the Ottumwa Fire Chief in attendance if we were violating the fire code. He shook his head at me and said, “Well, they’re pushing it…”
Trump rallies remind me of cosplay.
Cosplay, a portmanteau of "costume play," is an activity and performance art in which participants called cosplayers wear costumes and fashion accessories to represent a specific character. Cosplayers often interact to create a subculture, and a broader use of the term "cosplay" applies to any costumed role-playing in venues apart from the stage.
In semiotics, Trump gear is a signifier, and Trump or some aspect of MAGA identity is what is signified.
At a Trump rally, most people wear a costume of one sort or the other, and everyone knows they are in a safe space. The “Blue Collar Patriot” shirt is a brilliant marketing effort by Howitzer Clothing. Flags, eagles, skulls, and “Don’t Tread on Me” imagery closely associated with blue-collar, biker, military, gun, and even gang cultures provide edgy, radically individual “patriotic” clothing that as far as I can see avoids direct party affiliation. It’s a counter-culture “patriotic” smorgasbord of imagery and art that closely resembles tattooing styles. It’s also a “Grateful Dead” aesthetic that blends seamlessly into a 1960’s counter-culture movement.
I couldn’t get a clear shot of the woman on the right’s t-shirt, which says “Donald Trump Matters,” clearly mocking the “Black Lives Matter” movement.
The “Free Trump” t-shirt clearly anticipates one possible Trump future.
The boy wearing the Confederate cowboy hat is the saddest image, for me. Iowa sent 76,534 men to fight in the Civil War, which was 17% of the state's population in 1860. Of those, 13,169 died.
Furthermore, the Iowa 22nd Infantry out of Johnson County broke the back of the Confederacy at Vicksburg. The war may have dragged on for years, or maybe even been lost without those brave men and their families.
I’ve been to maybe ten or more Trump rallies over the years, and they mirror what anthropologists call rites of passage and rites of intensification. In a rite of passage, there are three stages. We first leave our normal world, and then transition in a sacred or semi-sacred space gaining new knowledge and status, and finally being reincorporated into the real world, born anew. Sometimes we endure hardship, and we always bond with others to be reborn.
Rites of intensification are gatherings made by groups of people to affirm, maintain, and strengthen bonds of solidarity.
A rite of passage has three stages. They are separation, transition, and incorporation. With respect to a traditional Western marriage ceremony—the bride and groom are separated, come together in a sacred or semi-sacred space among friends and family where they transition, and finally emerge born anew and re-incorporated back into society as husband and wife."
The Trump rally does a similar thing, bringing people from different spaces together into a “sacred” space where they are transformed and “reborn” affirming their fealty to Trump.
Cross-culturally, the most effective rites of intensification involve dancing, singing, speeches, and ideally, the use of intoxicants. Bonding occurs as part of the process, as emotions are elevated, our brain is stimulated, and endorphins are released. Endorphins are chemicals that help relieve pain, reduce stress, and improve your sense of well-being. Our bonds to each other are reinforced and become perhaps unbreakable.
To the attendees, the rallies are great fun, and serve as stimulating rites of intensification where bonding occurs; once this bonding occurs, loyalty is difficult to undermine, even with logic. The bond is emotional—logic has nothing to do with it. This is, of course, why it is so hard to convince our Trumpy friends and families to break those bonds.
Some people suggest that the MAGA movement is a cult. I argue elsewhere that it is not—it’s worse. It’s a new “Christian” sect that transcends Trump.
Trump is a brilliant showman. Watch what he does when he walks out to Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA.”
With a regular politician, the music fades as they take the stage and immediately begin to speak. Not Trump. He stands gazing lovingly at the crowd for the full length of the song. He takes the time to catch the eye of every person in the audience, offering a personal connection. Each and every word of the song not only promotes the USA, and the idea that God blesses our country, it also implies that God also blesses Trump.
Trump then effectively embraces the “mantle of God.” In the Bible, a mantle is a cloak or outer garment that symbolizes a man’s gift, the call of God, and the purpose for which God had called him. It can also represent empowerment and an assignment from God.
This is a new “Christian” sect.
I left a little early (my friend Emily Hawk with the Oskaloosa Herald and Ottumwa Courier has the story). As I was walking away I encountered the woman above, a bus driver for the Ottumwa Public Schools. I stood and talked with her as pickups with Trump flags and young men riding in the back screamed obscenities at her, most commonly, “Fuck Joe Biden!”
Here is my short interview with her. Please listen:
She urged Trump followers to examine and return to the Christian faith and expressed that she didn’t understand the hatred those at the rally and other Trump supporters have for the immigrant kids who ride her school bus.
They're all so wonderful and they're from all over the world, and I cannot imagine anyone hating them because there's such good kids. I just love them and they're good kids.
It wouldn't be a beautiful world without every color in the rainbow. You can't get the spectrum of light without every color in it. And that's the only way you can see is with light.
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I loved the interview with the bus driver.
So glad you took the time to interview the school bus driver, Robert. What a beautiful soul ❤️