Reply With QuoteStretch (10-28-2020)
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PennsylvamniaTrump House
Stretch (10-28-2020)
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It's about a place in the western part of the state known as a "mecca for the silent majority."
Each day, about 1,000 people visit "Trump House" in Latrobe. It's really a house, a former rental property painted like a giant American flag and transformed by its owner, Leslie Rossi, into a center where Trump supporters gather, pick up a free Trump hat, or shirt, or flag, and pose in front of the 14-foot high cutout of President Trump in the front yard.
More importantly, it's a place where Trump supporters meet others who share their political views. It's a place where people who have never voted can find the necessary papers to register. It's a place where registered Democrats who want to change to the Republican Party can get it done. And now, it has become an important indicator of the intensity of Trump support in perhaps the most important battleground state in the 2020 election.
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The creator of Trump House, Leslie Rossi, first opened it in the 2016 campaign. It became hugely popular almost right away. Back then, she got lots of visitors who were skeptical about Donald Trump. She talked with them, persuaded them, encouraged them -- and registered many of them to vote. In the end, she contributed to Trump's narrow 44,000-vote margin of victory in Pennsylvania.
Now, with the president running for a second term, there's a different vibe at the Trump House. Rossi's work is no longer to persuade doubting voters to give Trump a chance. Instead, she is providing a place for Trump supporters from all over Pennsylvania to meet and see that there are in fact a lot of other Trump supporters out there. "It's so different now," said Rossi.In part, both Rossi and her visitors are fighting against the perception, heard daily in news media reports, of Trump trailing Joe Biden, of 2016 Trump voters abandoning the president this time around. Trump supporters watch and ask, Is that really true? The constant media drumbeat can make those supporters feel isolated. At the Trump House, among large numbers of people who share their opinions, they don't feel alone."They like coming here because they feel so connected. They are so proud of their president. They get to come here and celebrate him -- their movement -- with like-minded people."
"They don't trust or believe the media," Rossi explained. "The media tells them every day they're going to lose. They come here and say, 'Show me that log book,' [the book Rossi keeps signed by thousands of visitors] and when they see it they go, 'Thank God, I knew they were lying.'" That attitude is perhaps behind the fact that Rossi's most popular item, the one she runs out of constantly, is a flag that says: TRUMP 2020: NO MORE BULLSHIT.
The Trump House gets a lot of media attention -- just not American media attention. "I did six interviews yesterday," Rossi said. "Russia, two from Japan, one from South Korea, one from Denmark, and one from France." When I noted that there was a country missing from that list -- the United States -- she said, "Oh, the U.S. media barely covers me. Last time [2016] they did, and that helped Trump win. We only won Pennsylvania by 44,000 votes, and I registered thousands of people here."
It has made a difference. Westmoreland County, where the Trump House is located, has become less Democratic and more Republican. According to the Pennsylvania Secretary of State, in November 2016, there were 113,582 registered Democrats in the county. Today there are 103,335. In November 2016 there were 103,853 registered Republicans in Westmoreland County; today, there are 119,020.
One important fact: Rossi and Trump House have nothing to do with the Trump campaign or the Republican Party. She pays for everything, including all the stuff she gives away, with her own money. She is part of Trump support that has risen organically in Pennsylvania.
Stretch (10-28-2020)
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No one doubts the undiscerning, unflappable loyalty of Trump supporters.
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As I noted before, just endorses a James Carville observation regarding Pennsylvania, "it is Philly on one side and Pittsburgh on the other with a whole lot of Alabama in-between"
Althea (10-28-2020), christiefan915 (10-28-2020), dukkha (10-28-2020), Phantasmal (10-29-2020)
It's OK to Be White
That's so sad.
Cypress (10-28-2020)
DeadHead
^The grossly overweight, disheveled Deplorable in red tee shirt, camo pants, camo hat is an avatar for my mental image of the average Trump voter.Originally Posted by dukkha
Stretch (10-28-2020)
Althea (10-28-2020)
Verified User
yep. middle America. Biden calls them "chumps"
Being a CA liberal you are clueless of the heartland
Stretch (10-28-2020)
DeadHead
Poor kids.
Glad my parents would have never tortured me by dragging me to something like that.
Although as a 12 year old, watching a production of Shakespeare seemed like torture at the time
Verified User
Practically Perfect
Kind of weird, but, okay...
"It [the draft] is duty rather than slavery. I part with the author on the caviler idea that individual freedom (whatever that may be to the person) leads to nirvana, anyone older that 12 knows that is BS."
-(Midcan5)
"Allow me to masturbate my patriotism furiously and publicly at this opportunity."
-(Ib1yysguy)
"There is no 'equal opportunity' today unless the government makes it so."
-(apple0154 )
"abortion is not killing Its birth control"
-(Desh)
Verified User
id say it's odd, yes. But Trump people have a ton of enthusiasm -even myself who is blase on political figures
completely support Trump -Twitter account and all.
He's delivered. few politicians ever do that
Minister of Truth (10-29-2020), Stretch (10-28-2020)
Althea told me...........
I did a service call way up in a deeply Red area of our Blue state. The farther I got from the nearest town, the more trump banners there were. One lawn had a life size cardboard cutout of trump next to their signs. I'm thinking there weren't many teeth in that family
Once in a while you get shown the light, in the strangest of places if you look at it right.
christiefan915 (10-28-2020), Cypress (10-28-2020)
Althea told me...........
Are they giving away free chewing tobacco?
Once in a while you get shown the light, in the strangest of places if you look at it right.
Cypress (10-28-2020)
conservative democrat
JPP Staff
Is this what it has boiled down to? Urban vs. Rural? Oncelor and I had a long talk about this back at the end of the Clinton years. Kind of sad.
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