Look at the face of the older man on the left. Such rage and hatred!



This article frightened me;  I feel compelled to share it here:

The phenomenon of Trump rallies

By John Baer | For PennLive    December 12,2019

If you stop and think about it, it’s extraordinary.

Same thing over and over again. From summer 2015 through Tuesday’s rally in Hershey, the running count is 431, more than 100 as president, part of a never-ending campaign. A driving force, maybe the driving force, of American politics.

Donald Trump’s rallies keep coming. And they have a ritualistic ring of religion.

The chants. The music. The amen-like affirmations. The same prayers: build the wall, drain the swamp and (yes, still) lock her up, or lock somebody up. The call-and-response to boo the media for dishonesty and “fake news.”

And, more recently, condemning the “witch hunt” by Democrats and the deep state and the litany of nick-named enemies: Shifty Schiff, Nervous Nancy, Sleepy Joe, Mini Mike, Pocahontas, Crooked Hillary, et al.

It doesn’t matter if the wall’s not built or the swamp’s not drained or nobody’s locked up, except for the likes of his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, former national security advisor, Michael Flynn, former campaign advisor, Roger Stone, the last two awaiting sentencing.

Nothing matters but the display. Packed arenas with roaring crowds and lines outside regardless of weather, MAGA hats and shirts and signs, all in adoration of a politician with no like in our lifetime.

So it was Tuesday in Hershey, on the same day he was hit with two articles of impeachment, abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, related to charges he leveraged foreign aid to bolster his own campaign.

• Former Pa. Gov. Tom Ridge says Trump asking a foreign leader for a political favor is an ‘abuse of power’

He’ll be the first president impeached while seeking reelection. He swims in chaos and controversy. Mocked by world leaders at a NATO summit. Long labeled corrupt, unbalanced, a pathological liar and con man unfit to serve.

Yet Tuesday evening he was undeterred, combative, defiant, playing to his people, a veritable shepherd among his flock, basking in adulation.

“Impeachment crap,” he said, is “flimsy, pathetic, ridiculous,” a product of “do-nothing Democrats,” destined to backfire to his benefit.

The crowd yelled, “Four more years!”

He said he’ll win Pennsylvania again, “even bigger” than in 2016. “The best,” he said, “is yet to come.” And somehow it seemed so. Despite everything, he’s positioned to compete for, if not secure, a second term in the White House.

Because of these rallies. Because of these people. Because of the other side.

And the thing is? I get it. I do. I grew up in Central Pennsylvania. Lived here all my life except for a year in Washington where I learned what a disconnected, isolated, self-absorbed place it is.

I know the tropes describing voters as coastal elites in a D.C. bubble living along the Acela corridor are more than figurative expressions. I understand non-urban voters’ politics of resentment, recently, eloquently depicted in these pages by former Chambersburg Opinion editor Becky Bennet who wrote, in part:

“The slogan `Make America Great Again’ has served as code for racists, but for many mainstream rural Americans it’s meant building a society in which the rural working class is again a valued part. That shouldn’t be particularly contemptable or beyond reach.”

Intensity among Trump supporters -- many of whom, I maintain, hide from pollsters – will only grow as impeachment plays out, which should worry Democrats.

And after he’s acquitted in the Senate, and if the economy, with record-streak job growth and historically-low unemployment, continues or even holds, it’s harder to argue he can’t win again.

This despite his polarizing nature and destructive impact on government and society, especially as it relates to race, empathy, economic equality, civility, tolerance and common-sense approaches to climate issues and gun violence.

We are a nation that elected a New York City real estate developer/reality TV host with no experience in public service or political office because then (and, so far, now) no Democrat matched voter passion for him.

We’re a nation where, routinely, close to half of those able to vote do not.

We shouldn’t be surprised then by anything. Not by what Trump says or does. Not by rallies impacting our politics more than, say, reason.

Still, if you stop and think about it, it is extraordinary.