Trump Phenomenon a Patriotic
Movement supported by
Silent Majorities
By: Faramarz Ghasemi
They biggest surprise of this election was that it was unbelievable to imagine that a billionaire businessmen, will lead a grass root movement and become President.
By any stretch of imagination, it has been a most watched, most bizarre and most exciting election in recent history of USA.
I participated in the process of 2016 election as a Persian American Reporter representing Javanan Magazine. I carried an official ‘pictured reporter’ card all the time.
Because of excellent standing of Javanan Magazine and on-line Radio, it was easy for me to get a Press Pass that provided me exceptional access and passage to Presidential Rallies. It also provided me a legitimate credibility to mingle with supporters of Trump, Clinton and Sanders.
In this article, I have tried to be truthful in reporting my observations with no bias and no fake news.
I will only highlight the process and reasons for the success of winner of this election, President Trump.
There has been numerous biased and unbiased analysis of this election and many books are written and will be written in the years to come.
Therefore, to save the reader time and brain energy, I will focus on the process, reasons and feelings of Trump supporters that gave him this amazing victory.
The reason that the general public came to support Trump, was the feeling that Democrats have not been able to deliver national policies as promised during the eight years of President Obama, America has been humiliated and Americans are not walking tall as proud Americans anymore. Therefore, patriotism was a major force.
1- The passionate anger at democrats, Obama’s presidency and disastrous failure of Obama care.
2- International Terrorism and threat from radicalized Muslims.
3- The rapid fall of millions of middle class people into below poverty standard of living.
4- Over 23 Trillion dollar debt that Americans will have to pay for 3-4 generations.
5- The serious concern regarding Second Amendment of Constitution being changed by Democrats.
6- The valid and serious concerns in moral and religious values.
7- The overconfidence of Hillary campaign, specially their attacks on Trump supporters calling them ‘deplorable’.
I can make a statement with confidence; that the silent majority had a big role in Trumps’ victory. Millions of people voted who had never voted before in presidential elections.
The silent majorities are honest people of this great nation who go about their life as law abiding, tax paying citizens that do not generally get involved in politics and most of the time they are keeping low profile.
The silent majorities are minimum wage workers, retail and service industry workers, plumbers, electricians, truck drivers, miners, and hardworking single moms that work two jobs to make a minimum living wage.
The following is a very brief summary of feelings and comments of republicans and democrats and Sander supporters that I met at rallies and voter’s registration centers. I hope it gives the reader a brief and to the point analysis of the Trump phenomenon and how and why his message turned into a full-blown movement.
Here are a collection of most important quotes by President Trump supporters:
“This election, this movement, this unprecedented excitement and participation that was created, is not about Trump, it was about people. It was about a nation who has been held back by 8 years of Obama
and years of Democratic Parties Brain washing.”
******
“We, the supporters of Trump are the silent majority and 10’s of millions of middle class men and women who have been driven to poverty”.
“We are 10’s of millions of American retail workers, fast food restaurant workers, medical workers and minimum wage workers who have been forced to work part time and buy a disastrous Obamacare medical insurance which had failed. It was about Doctors who had been forced to close their practice, it was about college graduated who can only get part time jobs with no insurance coverage, about teachers and college, university professors who can only get part time jobs.”
****
“Look, greater than 50% of kids in their 20’s for 40’s
Who are forced to live with their parents because they can never buy or even rent a home.”
****
“We Americans are very proud people and want to feel secure. People want their jobs back and want to have a paycheck instead of a welfare debit card and food stamps. We need a strong President who is an outsider and is not politically correct. We want our jobs to come back to USA.
We do not want to be humiliated by nations taking our people hostage and we do not want to be afraid of terrorists.
We want to walk proud and feel safe in our day to day living. We want Trump to restore and resurrect the Glory and grace that America has had as one nation.
****
“President Trump has said many times during the campaign and now as the President -This is a movement,
It’s not about me, It’s about you.”
We like Trump because he is rich and he has a ton of courage. He will not accept bribes or favors and he will clean up the swamp in DC.”
****
President Trump was living as a King, did not need fame and popularity, He has had all that before running for presidency. In fact , his salary as the president is one dollar a year. And; He is going to voluntarily donate all profits from foreign government payments made to his hotels to the United States Treasury, this way it is the American people who will profit.”
He has done the ultimate sacrifice; giving up all the comfort for himself and his family, and has awakened an enormous enemy and army of greed and ego, against himself.
There are worldwide Elitists that are threatened by America being Great Again. They want America to continue borrowing money, closing it’s factories, and distributing money to other countries and special interest groups.”
****
I attended a gathering by Christians praying for Trump
Victory. Here is part of the prayer:
“Mr. Trump knows how enormous and how powerful are the enemies of his movement, yet he is doing this all for his true love for America and American true values. His love to resurrect American grace and glory. His love for America and its righteous people who want true liberty and freedom, not the misery, that the Democrats have given them for many years since Jimmy Carter. Trump will stop all this! Amin.
“But the success for this movemant will not come easy. This movement is facing big money and special interests both domestic and foreign. Big corruptions, Big media and gigantic evil forces.
But just like David who defeated Goliath, President Trump has the courage to face this enemy and with help of the Lord will defeat his rivals and restore glory, pride, and righteousness back to this great and unique nation. Amin.
We pray that the holy spirit will always help and protect our president and vice president and their families.
Amin.”
****
After the election, this is what his supporters said at a republican election celebration party:
“The relatively peaceful election of President Trump and his success will be challenged due to the embedded deep ideology
That is extremely deep in American psyche. It’s extremely disappointing and dangerous to notice that the opponents of President Trump believe it is cool and “intellectual” to destroy this movement.
The proof to this brainwashing is Hillary’s speech when she called Trump supporters “A basket of deplorable”.
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In fact the strategy of Democrats to attack and insult Trump supporters benefited the Trump campaign.
During the election, Sanders supporters were disappointed that Sanders started campaigning for Hillary, as a result quite a few of them either did not vote at all or they voted for Trump.
There were quite a few democrats that wished Joe Biden had run for presidency, they were convinced that Hillary was a wounded candidate and the email scandal is a big negative deal.
They were also disappointed at the debates where Hillary looked as a low energy with not much passion vs Trump who has tremendous energy.
****
Covering the election as a Persian newspaper reporter had a surprisingly rewarding experience for me. People will talk to me about Iran Hostages, and I found it surprising that common people were so informed about Iran.