"We can't talk about it to them anymore"
Gayle is quite shocked to discover that when she asks the folk we are staying with about their president and whether they know anyone who voted for him, the answer has invariably been yes. As to the whys and wherefores, well, there seem to be lots of reasons.
But the striking aspect of the current political situation here is that people feel they can't talk about the subject to Trump supporters. "They won't listen" or "They won't admit he's an idiot". If there's no dialogue, then there's no reasoning. It bodes ill for the future. And what seems to disturb most people about Trump, aside from the abhorrent possibility of a nuclear war with another country, is the effect his style of leadership has had on the US itself. They worry that his bullying, nasty, brutish, mean outbursts have given voice to a previously silent minority who now feel emboldened to say and act in a similar way. He's given voice to the racists and reactionaries.
Kelly, one of our Warm Showers hosts, tells us that now, when someone in a car does something stupid on the road, she automatically thinks: Trump supporter.
We've seen only one pro-Trump sign whilst cycling in New England these past two weeks. But there are plenty of "rednecks" knocking about the backroads in their pickups. In one town I was cut up by a pickup that had overtaken me. It got stuck at lights and as I rolled up on the inside of the lane I looked in the window at the driver as I passed. He had a beard. I wasn't thinking Hipster. He had denim overalls. I was thinking Hillbilly. Gayle followed behind and heard him say "What're you looking at?" What's he going to do, I wondered when she told me this, shoot me?
Another time, another place. We are on a bike trail outside Keene and an older couple stop to chat to us, ask us where we're going. Mexico, we say. The man is interested in our route. We start to explain that we want to go down the eastern seaboard, through North Carolina and on to Cuba first. The wife interrupts. "You want to be careful there, they'll lock you up and throw away the keys." In North Carolina? "Do you mean Cuba?" Gayle asks. They don't lock British tourists up in Cuba, I assure her. "They must be Americans then" she harrumphs. Or do you mean Guantanamo? I ask. "Well, they all deserve to be locked up, they do" she shoots back. If that's so, why didn't any of them get a trial? I ask. "Have a safe trip" she hisses back, before striding away. Her husband is still standing there, mute, stunned by what has just happened. We are shocked and angry too. What was just a normal pleasant conversation between strangers has just exploded into an angry exchange, because of one stupid thing said. We shrug. Trump supporter, is all we think.
Gayle is quite shocked to discover that when she asks the folk we are staying with about their president and whether they know anyone who voted for him, the answer has invariably been yes. As to the whys and wherefores, well, there seem to be lots of reasons.
But the striking aspect of the current political situation here is that people feel they can't talk about the subject to Trump supporters. "They won't listen" or "They won't admit he's an idiot". If there's no dialogue, then there's no reasoning. It bodes ill for the future. And what seems to disturb most people about Trump, aside from the abhorrent possibility of a nuclear war with another country, is the effect his style of leadership has had on the US itself. They worry that his bullying, nasty, brutish, mean outbursts have given voice to a previously silent minority who now feel emboldened to say and act in a similar way. He's given voice to the racists and reactionaries.
Kelly, one of our Warm Showers hosts, tells us that now, when someone in a car does something stupid on the road, she automatically thinks: Trump supporter.
We've seen only one pro-Trump sign whilst cycling in New England these past two weeks. But there are plenty of "rednecks" knocking about the backroads in their pickups. In one town I was cut up by a pickup that had overtaken me. It got stuck at lights and as I rolled up on the inside of the lane I looked in the window at the driver as I passed. He had a beard. I wasn't thinking Hipster. He had denim overalls. I was thinking Hillbilly. Gayle followed behind and heard him say "What're you looking at?" What's he going to do, I wondered when she told me this, shoot me?
Another time, another place. We are on a bike trail outside Keene and an older couple stop to chat to us, ask us where we're going. Mexico, we say. The man is interested in our route. We start to explain that we want to go down the eastern seaboard, through North Carolina and on to Cuba first. The wife interrupts. "You want to be careful there, they'll lock you up and throw away the keys." In North Carolina? "Do you mean Cuba?" Gayle asks. They don't lock British tourists up in Cuba, I assure her. "They must be Americans then" she harrumphs. Or do you mean Guantanamo? I ask. "Well, they all deserve to be locked up, they do" she shoots back. If that's so, why didn't any of them get a trial? I ask. "Have a safe trip" she hisses back, before striding away. Her husband is still standing there, mute, stunned by what has just happened. We are shocked and angry too. What was just a normal pleasant conversation between strangers has just exploded into an angry exchange, because of one stupid thing said. We shrug. Trump supporter, is all we think.
