MAGA Report for 8/22/2024 - DNC checkin
A hostile pro-Trump rally outside Chicago, low interest on the forums, plus a photo spread of some DNC protests
Tonight is the last night of the Democratic National Convention and I have been waiting to bring you some sort of insight about how the MAGA community is reacting to it. I have waited and waited because there is not much interesting going on.
On the forums I monitor, there is very little reaction to the convention. There are half-hearted, bad faith attacks against Democrats (e.g. Nancy Pelosi led a coup against Biden, there’s a measles out break in “Tim Walz’s Minnesota”), but the majority of posts are about the usual MAGA topics - stolen election conspiracy theories, speculation that RFK Jr. will endorse Trump, anti-trans and anti-DEI rants.
On the ground, it’s not much different. Trump supporters are not big protesters (setting aside January 6th), so I was not expecting to see many of them in Chicago. The protests that went on were largely pro-Palestinian and very much not conservative. I’ve posted a few photos from those at the bottom of the report.
However, there was one Trump event.
On Sunday, the day before the DNC started, there was a pro-Trump rally in Woodstock, Illinois, about 60 miles northwest of Chicago and just a few miles from where I grew up. Trump himself did not come, but some pretty high profile figures from the far right, including Gen. Flynn and Roger Stone, were on the agenda.
I have been to a lot of Trump events this summer and, setting aside all the politics, the people attending them have been polite and often friendly when I’ve asked them for interviews. My approach is simply to get them talking, which means I do a lot of active listening and no fact checking. It’s not uncommon for us to wrap up and for the Trump supporter to tell me “that was a great conversation!” (considering that I basically don’t talk during these “conversations”, there’s probably something to probe there, but that is another topic…).
I was glad to have an opportunity to get more interviews for my MAGA project during the DNC trip, so I packed up my rental car on Sunday and headed to them.
Relevant to the story I’m about to tell is how I show up to these events. I am always dressed the same - cargo pants, a button up work shirt, press credentials around my neck, a camera on one shoulder, and a thumb-sized microphone clipped to my pocket to record interviews. It’s neutral and inconspicuous, there is nothing political about it, but if you look, it’s unmistakably “journalist”.
I was expecting this rally to be similar to the others I’ve attended, and maybe even easier since I am from the same place as these people. I was wrong. The crowd was remarkably hostile toward me. Walking through the parking area while I was still getting myself ready, I was repeatedly stopped and asked if I was with the press. At first I tried a technique that worked unfailingly well for me at the RNC in Milwaukee - I’d flash then a smile and say “I am! Would you like to give me an interview?”. It did not work at all. One guy told me “You’d better not - I’m a camera smasher”. (He spotted me again later and reminded me that he smashes cameras.) When I gave up on interviewing anyone and just started answering “yes”, I got a lot of dirty looks and curt replies before people walked away.
There was no other media at this event nor had they prepared for the press to be there. When I showed my credentials to a woman who was working the bleachers and told her that I was just going to take a few pictures and move out of the way, she started to say something that I speculate was criticism of the “lame stream media”, stopped herself, and then said “It depends - are you a Democrat? If so, you should leave.”
I had a lot of complicated feelings about going “home” and being treated so antagonistically. I’m trying to write about that separately and I may share with all of you as my thoughts clarify. More on topic to the MAGAReport, though, it was pretty sparsely attended and the program was almost entirely based in conspiracy theory.
And as all this likely conveys, there are no organized plans for protest or demonstration from the groups I monitor. The energy is pretty low these days.
Bonus Photos from DNC Protests
…where the energy level was extremely high…
(I was not there protesting, just photographing.)
Jen, I am sorry to hear that the people were so hostile. It especially upsets me that it happened so close to your hometown (and close to where I taught HS). I am wondering if the high profile people there and milling about in the small crowd contributed to that. Dangerous bullies one and all. I have been worrying about you. Personally I was hoping you were in Chicago to go inside the Democratic convention.