On Tuesday, March 1, 2016, Williamsport, Penn. Mayor Gabe Campana did an abhorrent thing. Campana expressed his support for Donald Trump as president. On his public Twitter, Campana wrote “as the first mayor in PA to do so, I announced that I am endors[ing] Donald Trump for President.” While he may be the first mayor in Pennsylvania to do so, he is not the first mayor to spark outrage among the city he is supposedly speaking for.
Perhaps this shouldn't be looked at as a feat so much as it should force us to consider why no other Pennsylvania mayors have endorsed Trump -- the answer is because people in good ol’ PA, a state dominated by college towns and two large, Democratic cities, do not actually agree with his views. So naturally, I would love for Trump to visit the city of Williamsport.
Williamsport’s standing as a small city of about 19,000 people guarantees that should the Donald make an appearance, it will be at one of the two colleges in the area, Lycoming College or Pennsylvania College of Technology, or their affiliates. And while Penn College’s facilities are newer and larger, Lycoming has a reputation for bringing presidential candidates onto our grounds. During Hillary’s four at campaign trail, former president Clinton made a pit stop in the Lycoming College Recreation Center to promote his wife's quest for the nomination. In October 2008, Bowman Field, just down the street from Lycoming, saw a visit from Sarah Palin to rally support for her running-mate, John McCain.
While the city is dominated by Republicans and the area is not as urban as traditionally thought of PA cities, Campana forgot to take into consideration the opinions of a group of passionate, highly motivated individuals from all parts that do not necessarily share the same thinking as native Williamsportians.
Should Trump take Campana up on his offer, he may find he is faced with a group of activist college students who support a candidate that will help them out of the surmounting pile of debt they are steadily acquiring thanks to the elitist political system Trump has no intention to fix. As a liberal arts school, Lycoming is experiencing a resurgence of political activism thanks to the upcoming election. Every single one of my social media news feeds are chock-full of Bernie interviews and campaign ads, ISideWith results indication near-socialists and tie-dye shirts featuring “the Jewish grandpa America needs.” The millennial generations are speaking up, and they're speaking loudly.
For this reason, I welcome Donald Trump to speak in our neck of the woods. Come, Donald, and we can show you the hordes of people that will be this country's beacon of hope show you how strongly they feel you are effectively sh*tting on our government and our future. We will line the streets with homemade picket signs and banners, the way we were taught to defend social justice, declaring without fear the fear we will feel with you in office. The fact that Trump has neither accepted or acknowledged Campana’s tweet, yet there is already an active Williamsport Protests Trump group forming to rally at any mention shows that in reality, Mr. Campana, the people of Williamsport’s future do want you to bring Trump here, but not because we send “best wishes from the home of Little League Baseball.” Instead, we want to peacefully and effectively show you and your campaign team that your ideas, attitudes and racial views are no longer in line with how the future of America thinks -- and that is something to listen to.
