Trump trumps the Democrats in this New Hampshire town
Plymouth, N.H. -- This is a college town and generally considered a blue political spot on the red rural northern New Hampshire landscape.
And so when I asked some of the Democrats working the campaign front Sunday, organizing horn-honking demonstrations on the main traffic circle into town, about a planned visit later in the day by Donald Trump, I got some big eye rolls.
“They will come out of the woods,” one Democrat told me. “You know, live free or die.”
In fact, the field house at Plymouth State University was certainly packed for the Trump rally when the candidate finally showed up on stage, a bit late -- “We drove and drove” to get here, he said -- as the house music changed from Elton John to the Beatles’ “Revolution.”
Indeed, as my Democratic guide had suggested, there was a woodsy feel to the Trump crowd, more plaid and camouflage than gray flannel. It seemed like more a snowmobile-leaning crowd than cross country skiers.
A guy leaning against the wall next to me said he had to walk his son back to their parked pickup, after the Secret Service security screeners found the boy’s three pocket knives.
I’m guessing not many knives turn up at Clinton rally screenings.
Even the shirtless protester with a painted smear on his back calling Trump a racist, who got dragged away mid rally, looked like he might have been splitting wood in the morning, not drinking lattes.
“Get him out of here,” candidate Trump said from the flag-lined podium as police led the man, still shouting, out of the hall.
I ended up at the busy Trump rally kind of by chance as I made a pre-primary day swing through New Hampshire. It’s hard to pass up a chance to take the political pulse here in primary season because it’s so much fun, real retail politics.
The political volume is at maximum no matter where you go. Even the recording from the gas pump where I filled up my car was talking about the big vote.
“We all expect to meet and talk to each candidate. It’s New Hampshire,” said Susan Mathison, who was helping organize Bernie Sanders volunteers at a big Sanders headquarters on Main Street here.
Scores of volunteers were expected Sunday to show up for a noon lunch then fan out to knock on doors. Just the volunteers with the Plymouth headquarters expect to visit 3,000 households before Tuesday’s vote. Everyone will be offered rides, no matter whom they plan to vote for.
Out-of-state strangers have been showing up for the last week, asking to volunteer, Mathison said. They are given quick tutorials, told not to bash Clinton or Trump, and sent out to door knock.
“We had a van full of Yale students show up last week,” Mathison said. “We sent them right out.”
Sanders and Trump were not only leading the polls for New Hampshire over the weekend, but their two campaigns seemed to have the most energy here in Plymouth.
Some of the volunteers at the Sanders’ headquarters worked eight years ago for Hillary Clinton. But for some of them that is already beginning to seem like ancient history.
Steven Rand, the third generation to run the family hardware store in Plymouth, was in charge of things at Sanders central in Plymouth Sunday.
He told me people working for the campaign are excited for the momentum the candidate seems to have. He said he is glad to see the issues and values Sanders is promoting seem to be getting traction with voters.
He said he is most pleased with the attacks on special interests.
“He is taking big money head on,” Rand said. “It’s not the only thing that is wrong with the system, but it needs to get fixed first.”
It’s funny, but that was a lot of what Trump talked about later in the day at his Plymouth rally.
He talked about being a self funder and not taking money from special interests that want to dictate American policy. The government doesn’t negotiate for drug prices, for instance, because of the political interests of the drug companies, Trump said.
Likewise, big oil and big defense contractors dictate too much of government policy, the candidate said.
Like Sanders, Trump also railed against trade agreements that hurt American workers.
Come to think of it, you might expect “Revolution” to be played at the start of a Sanders rally, not one for Trump.
Indeed on Sunday in Plymouth, the Republican and the Democrat leading in the polls both seemed to playing some of the same song
As the lyrics say: “We all want to change the world.”
It’s sort of live free or die channeled by The Beatles.
This is the opinion of David Collins
Twitter: @DavidCollinsct
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