Day 2632 “Hello Holland!”

29th October 2024

I took another step into the surreal world of American politics today by attending my first political rally.

The running mate to Trump, JD Vance was speaking in Holland so Kelli quickly signed up to attend. I thought it would be an interesting experience so I happily went along to see what it was all about.

The venue was a newly completed warehouse outside of town. We made our way there and followed the signs to the car park. All around us were construction machines resembling prehistoric creatures. That is when we saw the line of people snaking around various parked cars. We joined at the back, moving very slowly. Queuing maybe an acceptable English thing, but over the last couple of days I had my fair share.

There were the large muscular bearded, tattooed beasts, and the men were just as grotesque.

There were the young and old, the fit and not so fit, and then there was me, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible. Kelli wanted a new cap which then meant I had to wear her old one. Now I was one of them.

The line snaked around, all heading for the entrance. From the outside, the building looked big, there were eight loading bay doors, so very impressive. 

As we got closer we had to pass the security area where everything was inspected, I had new underwear on as a precaution, but I got away without the close inspection.

Then it was in through a large doorway to be met with a wall that divided the building in half, “What! “ I said, “We’ve waited all this time to arrive at a brick wall?” I was not impressed.

Gradually we eased forward, like water drawn to the plug hole, then magically there was space inside that we immediately filled. It was then that we noticed the temperature inside. It was not a cold day, in fact it was mild, and I was glad I didn’t put on the hoodie I was considering.

There were small fans in the ceiling that did very little but move the warm air around. We stood for over an hour before someone had the bright idea to open the loading bay doors a little. The first one they tried failed to open because the control wire snapped much to the amusement of the crowd. The others were more successful, giving a little relief. Kelli, her face red, was busy fanning herself with a fruit jerky pack.

Finally, the man came on to a rousing welcome from the crowd, as one would expect from a loyal following. Unfortunately where we were standing, we couldn’t see him at the podium because of a stack of speakers in front of us. I could see something if I looked through a small gap, but generally I was listening to the speech.

I quite like JD Vance, I have watched many interviews with biased media where he has ripped into their predictable questioning, and emerged as the stronger voice.

His speech has been polished after many similar events, he knows how to encourage the crowd, he knows when to raise his voice to get the applause, it’s all a lesson in public speaking. But like all campaigns they attack each other for not answering the real questions, but actually avoid to answer the questions themselves.

 No one has given a precise answer to the question “How are you going to lower the price of groceries?” They all talk around the subject but don’t even tackle a small part of it.

There are questions from the media, but they are just as incepted are media questions are. The only question that got any reaction from the faithful was when a young girl journalist asked about transgender treatment for young children without parental consent. The crowd went wild, cheering, standing waving their arms about, I bet she wasn’t expecting that kind of reaction.

Then the event drew to a close, JD walked off probably into an awaiting car to take him to Grand Rapids for, I guess, a repeat of the same.

Now it was a race to the exit, more swirling, this was like heading for the light and the air, and it felt good.

I had survived my first political event, and as the red wave dispersed, there was a feeling of excitement that a person of this standing had come to little old Holland to encourage everyone to vote.

This election is probably the most important one in the last thirty years, so votes will count.

Exhausted, we drove home, we had a customer arriving soon to collect a dresser and side table, we had to stay vertical a bit longer.