Unless you live under a rock somewhere, you must have noticed by now that it is election season. Election season seems to bring out the irrational and exaggerated actions of United States citizens nationwide. Personally, I am not very interested in politics. This is because most of my experience discussing politics has ended with two people in an argument. Who wants to willingly expose themselves to arguments? People argue as if they know the government official personally. These useless and empty minded arguments have turned me away from politics completely.
This being said, when the 2016 election started gaining traction in its humorous race to November, I stayed away. I knew that if I were interested I would probably vote for Bernie Sanders. Being a college student who is slowly sinking into student loan debt, it seems like the obvious choice. I also knew that out of the middle of nowhere, billionaire Donald Trump decided to run for President. I agreed with some of his thoughts and disagreed with others. I knew of the other candidates as well, but I was not dedicated to opening supporting anyone. Especially if that meant putting a bumper sticker on my car.
Still, I did not pay attention to politics. It was not a friendly topic for me and something I did not find a heaping amount of interest in. However, I did start paying attention when I saw what a mess this year’s campaigns were all making. I especially started paying attention when one started making a mess in my hometown, specifically five minutes away from my house.
Donald Trump visited my town in April 2016 to speak to the state of Rhode Island. In his visit he addressed jobs, military, Tom Brady, and of course, his wall.
What he did not address was the chaos that was occurring outside the building. Yet again, there was violence at a Trump rally.
A man by the name of Rod Webber, documented the supporters outside of Warwick’s Crowne Plaza Hotel chanting, cheering, taunting, and punching. Oh yes, punching. The original video filmed by Webber from Monday's rally was made private out of respect for the arrested man featured and the affect this footage had on him and his family. The video now shown on YouTube has appropriate editing.
In the video, posted to YouTube, Webber documented a Latino man being punched. The man is arrested, but the other gentleman who was involved in the assault is left alone. He is significantly younger and hides his face when the camera points to him. Webber asks a state police office about the arrest of one man and not the other, who replies with, “there will be an investigation that’ll take place.”
Two other men involved were arrested at the end of the week. One of which was the man shown specifically in the video.
Following this, you can hear someone in the crowd say, “If you notice you’re all white for a reason.” Webber's YouTube page features many videos of violence at Trump rallies, as well as videos focused on other presidential candidates.
Later in the video, Webber’s camera is tossed by a Trump supporter like a football. Another Trump support spits at his camera. Crowds chant the infamous, “ten feet higher, ten feet higher.”
I did not care about Trump or the ridiculous acts of his supporters until I came home from work on Tuesday to see this video shared over 40 times on Facebook by people I knew. It had been “talked about” over 5,000 times on Facebook and received over 24,000 views on YouTube within the first few hours. I did not care about Trump until he brought out the worst in my hometown. My small town went viral for being violent.
This is not the first time an altercation and behavior such as this has been documented at a Trump rally. As we all know, Trump’s rallies often include a brawl, which sometimes involve his own staff. Trump aside, violence at presidential campaigns has been making history since the late 1800’s. America is not new to this.
So why are we letting this happen to our country? Why do United States citizens go into a frenzy of disruption during election season? Maybe it is time for me to care. I now have an interest in politics not based on the candidates, but based on their supporters. Supporters are supposed to speak highly of the candidate they are in favor of. The should be trying to persuade others to vote for their preferred candidate. Instead, they left a sour taste in my mouth. We're not looking very "great again," America.
