Labor Day is here. Summer’s heat starts to give way to the cooler mornings, the days get shorter. Life begins to slow down from the frantic, pack the cooler and swim clothes, load up the kayaks and head to the lake. Lawns are easier to mow, they don’t grow with the frenzied, manic madness of the summer months.
Swapper’s Meet in Johnstown is where we normally begin, a wild affair where you can buy anything from old tools to Amish baked goods. And weapons, knives, guns, bows and arrows, swords, bayonets, there are people walking through the throngs with rifles slung across their shoulders, loaded into wagons, carried in baby strollers, it is common to see people stop, admire a man’s firearms, and bicker over the price. I’ve never seen any deals struck it might be just part of the fun. It is a rural area and hunting is part of life, guns, in many ways are tools. It goes deeper than that, though. They are viewed as art, almost idols, admired for their artistic attributes as well as the brutal mechanics and efficiency. It would be a bad place to discuss gun control laws.
It’s been Trump country since the 2016 election. People have been wearing MAGA hats since early during the first campaign. They are proud Republicans. I’ve never minded that, and they never minded me. I could wander around, never looking at guns, buying a few bandanas, and a boonie hat for kayaking, all of which were made in China, which always seemed a little funny. Live and let live, though. We all felt that way, we felt that way about the vendors hawking their wears, used and new, the volunteers driving utility vehicles laden with ice through the reluctantly parting crowd, and we felt that way about each other. I was just another swapper, looking for a bargain.
After the 2020 election, though, things have changed. There is a current of anger and hostility running through the crowd. A lot of the Trump Pence banners have been replaced by “Let’s Go Brandon” posters and some of those have been translated to their underlying message. Shirts carrying messages like “I eat meat but identify as vegan,” “Stop the Steal,” have become common.
The mood has gotten darker. Everybody is more demanding, ruder, more callous. The crowd has taken a shift toward belligerence. Politeness has been replaced by impatience, there is no feeling of community, it’s been swallowed by the hubris of individual importance, the Id has been given the controls.
It’s hard to blame them. Trump has given license to coarseness. Crudeness is acceptable, possibly admirable. Certainly electable. Moreover, if they believe the election was stolen, despite all the evidence to the contrary, then their anger is almost understandable. If you think the establishment is rigged to deny elected office to the person who so thoroughly represents your beliefs it would be infuriating. Who can blame them for being angry? Our incompetent, incapable federal bureaucracy finally managed to act in unison just to steal their future. It would be maddening.
Here’s the troubling thing, though. Trump doesn’t represent these people, not in any meaningful way. I know these people, in many ways I am these people, I come from a small town, my family has roots in agriculture, I understand them. They go to church, and manage businesses, they work hard and help their neighbor.
Nobody ever accused Trump of being an intellectual, but he is an east coast snob. He is not a midwesterner, his roots are in metropolitan New York, his idea of rural America is a golf course in New Jersey.It doesn’t make sense how completely they’ve accepted him as a suitable representative of their values. He just makes noises they like to hear, sounds of golden days that never existed. He wouldn’t know how to drive a tractor, a backhoe, or a zero-turn mower. He couldn’t pray the rosary. There are numerous, creditable, sources who say Trump rarely goes to church. He has used bankruptcy to escape foolish business decisions, he has no piety, courtesy or common decency. Somehow, they’ve managed to imprint his immodest, sometimes obscene antics on their own solemn, pious virtue.
I watch and I wonder, what happened. I didn’t feel threatened, or even noticed. But the situation had changed. Trump has made insult and arrogance acceptable.
It became obvious when we left. The line of cars was long, and it became tense, people trying to merge. One lady tried to force her way in front of us, almost running into the side of our car. She hung out of her car, yelling, insulting, angry. It was hard to understand her fury, nobody was going anywhere anyway. We sat there for over an hour. Finally, an older man, outraged, stormed to the front and demanded some satisfaction, stopping to yell at cars trying to crowd in. The authorities sent someone back to direct traffic, and after 90 minutes of sitting there we finally got out. it was more anger in an hour and a half than I had ever seen at Swapper’s Day. I thought about these people, they’ve changed. Somehow, Trump and his anger had changed them, charged them with a self-righteous anger. I probably won’t go back. Everything has changed.
I’m sure they won’t miss me, but I already miss them.
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Photo credit: Flickr
