Comfort Zone
At the moment, we are inundated with political news related to the upcoming American presidential election. Even after Hurricane Sandy, it has been impossible to turn on the television or view a Website without hearing about either Barack Obama or Mitt Romney. My Facebook feed is full of political rants and banter. However, most of my friends are liberal like I am. My parents have been members of the Democratic Party since they were my age. Their views influenced mine, and I have gravitated towards like-minded friends. Therefore, I decided to attend a Republican rally in fulfillment of this assignment. A Republican political rally would take me well outside of my comfort zone. I do not understand right-wing views and especially not the religious fundamentalism in America. When Mitt Romney himself came to town, I jumped at the opportunity to step outside my comfort zone and write about my experiences. The rally took place on November 2 in a large public park.
I was more excited than I was apprehensive before the big day. I had been planning this for quite some time, and was eager to see what the "other side" actually looked, felt, and sounded like up close and personal. What I hadn't decided was whether to go incognito, pretend I was a pro-Romney conservative, or go as I am or even as a protester. I opted to go as a disillusioned Democrat. Donning this psychological disguise meant that I could speak to others at the rally truthfully about my political past, while also avoiding suspicion that I was there as a subversive.
I bought a red shirt purposely for the occasion. It was my little joke to myself. I decided that I would have more fun by designing my own posters and signs. Not having a whole lot to work with, I went with the...
As a
student, I can get away with such things and I believe it seemed more realistic.
Not surprisingly, it took an hour just to get into the rally. There was a security check, which made me wonder whether it was possible to bring
guns to the rally. Republicans have long been supporters of gun rights, but at the same time, a political rally does not seem like the best arena to allow guns. Keeping an eye on what was going on around me, I did finally notice a man who took out his gun for the security tray. The security officer then passed the gun back to the man after he went through the scanner, and thus I realized that carrying a weapon into the rally was acceptable. A small tremor of fear was mingled with a healthy dose of humor as I passed through the scanner without a glitch.
Once inside the gates, I joined a sea of humanity standing in wait for the speakers. I had plenty of opportunity and time to make observations before the main speakers, including Mitt Romney, took to the podium. Using my iPhone to take notes, I jotted down some initial impressions. The demographics were overwhelmingly white, which was as expected. I saw a few Latino families throughout the day, and one African-American man in attendance. However, I did notice that African-Americans outnumbered whites among support staff, security staff, and cleanup staff.
The ages were more varied than I expected. There were quite a few families in attendance, likely because
school was out for the weekend. I saw some people that frankly frightened me, especially knowing they might be carrying weapons. There were many biker-types: large men and women wearing biker clothes with posters bearing racist slogans like "Get the Money Out of the
White House." I noticed several people with slogans that accused Obama of being a socialist.
The signs were sometimes funny, but if I thought about them too hard, they made me angry and…
