Today I took my daughters to my in-laws' house to enjoy their pool and relax. They live in Morris County in a heavily Trump area, something I never felt so palpably before today. We tend to talk of "blue states" and "red states" but that is a reductionist model because there tend to be political divides within most states. In New Jersey they are pretty stark and today was a pretty clear illustration.
As we drove from our neighborhood through Maplewood and South Orange, we spotted several Black Lives Matter signs. Once we took South Orange Avenue west over the mountain those signs disappeared, replaced by signs for Republican candidates for the upcoming primary. Soon after that it was the blue line flag. In the space of a couple of miles we traveled to two very separate realities.
I enjoyed some time in the pool and take-out pizza for lunch, then let my in-laws watch the kids while I ran some errands. My first stop was a nearby liquor store to get some local beers to take with me for a visit with old friends in Pennsylvania next week. I'd never been there before, I was only going there because it was on the way to the Italian bakery and deli I needed to go to. When I got into the store I heard the fifty-ish owner tell someone about shooting skunks from outside of his window with a .22 as a child. That seemed odd for sure. When I got to the counter I noticed a handwritten sign on the register with a quotation attributed to Maximilian Robespierre. It said something to the effect that "the power that be keep the people in ignorance to keep them down." I was struck by that, and wondered if this place was owned by a secret Jacobin. Then I looked behind the counter, and saw all the Trump ephemera, including a sign that said "make liberals cry again, vote Trump in 2020."
The owner was futzing around with something else and at that point I put my merchandise back on the shelf and walked out because that asshole was not going to get my money. I felt like asking him if his dumb ass even knew who Robespierre was, but I wasn't in the mood to start a fight with someone with a hard-on for guns.
So I went to the Italian bakery and deli. I was glad to see a lot of signage on the door saying "no mask no service." When I walked it I got a bad omen, though. There was a tatted-up rough customer ahead of me in line wearing a prison guard uniform. Another guy, straight out of Morris County middle-aged reactionary white guy central casting, started going off on a profane tirade to the guy behind the counter, who he evidently knew. He started by lamenting "it looks like things are changing." Then it got uglier, saying "if they get their way this whole fucking country will go wild" and "can you believe they are trying to make Friday a special day" with a pretty clear insinuation as to who "they" were. He also kept repeating this phrase about "people need to know their history." I am not sure which history he was referring to. The guy behind the counter did aver that the cops had been acting poorly, but the ranter wouldn't have it.
I wasn't sure how to respond, so I just started loudly chuckling to myself. It seemed to have worked because the guy shut up. I realized in that moment that the Trumpists are starting to reckon with a loss of power. The stuff about "this country is changing" came with a certain weary tone. Perhaps, at last, they are the ones on the run.
Seeing the half-empty arena in Tulsa only seems to confirm that observation to me. Of course, that doesn't mean that Trump and his crew won't try to rig the system now that it's obvious that they've lost any kind of popular mandate. My trip into Trump country also showed me that the reservoirs of white rage that propelled Trump the White House are not going away.
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