A Super Tuesday [View all]

[H2O Man]

Tuesday, March 15, is an important 24-hours in the presidential primary contests. Five states are in play: Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, Illinois, and Missouri. Both Democrats and republicans will be voting. I hope that tomorrow is a good day for the Democratic Party, with an extremely large voter turn-out.

The contest for our party’s nomination is, no matter who you favor, one of the most intense that we will witness in our life-times. It is not what anyone anticipated a year ago. We all remember the intensity of the 2008 Democratic primary, which eventually led to Barack Obama’s historic presidency. And many of us can recall other primaries and conventions being contested fervently. But none were as important to the future of life in the United States as 2016’s.

Of particular concern to me -- although it has to do with the republican primaries -- is the ever-increasing violence on the part of Donald Trump’s supporters. It is an undeniable fact that the more unhinged of his following believe that his campaign has granted them a license to be violent. Of course, this comes as no surprise to anyone in the DU community. You might be supporting Bernie Sanders, or you might be supporting Hillary Clinton -- it makes no difference -- you’ve seen this coming.

When Trump feigns being a tough guy on stage, and says that he’ll pay the legal fees for anyone charged with “roughing-up” a protester, there’s really only one outcome. That doesn’t mean 100% of the audience is going to engage in an orgy of violence. But it does mean that we are coming closer to it. Crowd psychology comes into play.

I remember that John Lennon, during the last tour with The Beatles, had a frightening insight while on stage. When he bend one knee, and dipped his guitar in one direction, the crowd reacted; if he looked in another direction while singing, another section of the crowd reacted. He recognized that it wasn’t a group of individuals any more: the crowd was an organism, and entity. And, despite some performers’ gimmicks, he knew The Beatles no longer had any control over the crowd. Indeed, the fact they needed security, to both get on and off the stage, reinforced his understanding that crowds are not easily controlled.

A few years later, of course, Jim Morrison of The Doors conducted fascinating “experiments” with crowds of people who, as individuals, were laid-back, peaceful people. But, as a crowd, they became anything but the vision of “hippies.”

In my own experience, I’ve studied two types of crowds. The first was those who attended boxing matches, both amateur and professional. I’ve seen people behave in totally out-of-control ways, that they would never do as individuals. In fact, after my 329th bout, which was my last, the father of the fellow that I had just easily defeated jumped into the ring, and challenged me to fight him. I was polite, but very firm, in communicating to him as an individual that he didn’t want to go there.

The other example involves public meetings, where people are tense, because important social-economic-political issues are being debated. I still keep both sections of a board that a gentleman broke by hitting me over the head with it. One half includes a piece of an American flag decoration that he had applied to the board, to identify -- in his mind -- what “team” he was on. In recent years, at public hearings about fracking, six people have -- in front of plenty of witnesses -- threatened (or promised) to kill me. (Note: this does not bother me, as I believe that if anyone was serious, he would not warn me.)

When an associate and I were handing out an epidemiological study’s survey, going door-to-door in an upstate New York community, my partner was shocked at the aggressive behavior of several people in an upper-middle class neighborhood. He wanted to get his rifle, quite literally, and stand guard while I continued going door-to-door. He was that intimidated. (Obviously, I would not call upon this associate for further public work. More, he was not the only person to react that way.)

The amount of fear plus hatred that Trump campaign on convinces these gadflies that they have the right and responsibility to “destroy the enemy.” And you know that they hate both Hillary and Bernie. In fact, they hate you as much as they hate me. They have identified you as their enemy, and a threat to their family’s security ….simply because you have decided to vote for a specific candidate, and/or feel strongly about a specific candidate.

We need a huge voter turn-out tomorrow. I don not care if you are supporting Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders …..what is important as that if you live in one of those five states, get out there and make your voice be heard. For in doing so, you are not only supporting one candidate, you are saying “No!” to an aggressive, mutant form of cancer growing within our society. And that is huge. It is essential for our effort to revive our constitutional democracy.

Thank you.

Peace,
H2O Man