Along with corny fair merch and anime ponchos, every, and I mean every T-shirt stall was draped with Trump flags: “I’m voting for the felon,” “F— Biden” and the relatively anodyne, “I’m With Trump.” While browsing the pet supply shop across from the local Republican Party’s stall, I saw GOP staff greeted with cheers and raised fists — echoing Donald Trump’s triumphant pose after the assassination attempt on him — by numerous fairgoers wearing red caps and “Ultra MAGA” shirts. “Boo, Kambala!” yelled a woman, laughing.

In packed queues for roasted corn, I squeezed past parents balancing their children’s plastic lemonade cups in their arms with “Trump/Vance 2024” lawn signs tucked under their armpits. “Nice sign!” one blonde, elementary school-age girl shouted above the din, with her thumbs up at a woman holding one of them.

One of my cousins saw clusters of young men walking the grounds in floral Hawaiian shirts, which have recently become an unfortunate sartorial symbol of the far-right “boogaloo” movement, a militant group that aims to incite a second Civil War. I asked my cousin if he was sure about this because the idea seemed completely absurd. Maybe it’s just a bunch of dorky kids, I thought. But my cousin grew up there and probably went to school with their parents — he was sure.

I was just trying to have a chill time looking at show rabbits. But I was bombarded by right-wing politics.

  • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    104
    ·
    edit-2
    3 months ago

    FWIW, a few weeks ago I went to a Midwestern county fair. The state went blue in 2020 but this particular county voted 60% Trump, higher than the one in the article (56%).

    Before I arrived I braced for the worst.

    Nothing. No one sold Trump merch. At most I saw one or two people who brought their Trump hats or t-shirts. There was a monster truck show and the announcer never mentioned politics. I counted a handful of Trump bumper stickers in the parking lot.

    Zero Trump yard signs spotted on the road back to where we were staying, even though there were lots and lots of yard signs for various county or municipal candidates. So they weren’t completely disengaged politically.

    I’m sure many of the people I saw will vote for Trump again this year. But they weren’t so willing to advertise that.

    • Mayor Poopington@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      29
      ·
      3 months ago

      Noticed something similar this past memorial weekend. I went boating in a deeply red part of a very blue state and saw significantly less trump flags compared to last year.

      • Nightwingdragon@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        13
        ·
        3 months ago

        I went to visit family in New York about a month or two ago. I wouldn’t say it was a “deep red” part of the state, but definitely pink at the very least.

        We passed by a house that the owner had covered in Trump slogans in spray paint. Literally a two story home covered in Trump graffiti. And I’ve been told that since our trip he’s added to it. Hey look, if you want to support Trump, you do you and all that. But I don’t care what your political views are…why the fuck would you destroy the value of your own home like that?

    • Cadeillac@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      15
      ·
      3 months ago

      It’s bad in the south. People wave Trump flags from their homes and cover their cars in garbage. I’m trying to get out of here or at least find a hidden sanctuary amongst the bull shit

      • officermike@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        3 months ago

        Down in Palm Beach county there’s still occasionally people who hang out on overpasses over I-95 holding Trump banners on the bridge over rush hour traffic. This was happening in 2023 when we weren’t even in election season.

        • Cadeillac@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          3 months ago

          It used to make me angry. Now I just laugh. Allow the fools to show themselves so that I may avoid them

    • rhythmisaprancer@moist.catsweat.com
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      3 months ago

      It probably is regional. I live in a heavily conservative area, and for multiple months now, folks who have been rocking big flags or personal billboards have been displaying them, and then they will take them down. After a while, back up, and then eventually back down. Not sure what is happening. Our fair is in a couple weeks…

    • prole
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      3 months ago

      Awesome… That’s the thing with these people. They will never admit they were wrong, but sometimes they will shut the fuck up.