Finley and Buss: Trump's messianic message resonates with the forgotten
Three buddies are sitting in an Irish bar in Waterford Township, drinking beer and talking politics.
It’s Saturday night, and one of the trio is waiting to go to Donald Trump’s fly-in rally at nearby Oakland International Airport. The other is killing time while his wife attends the event. And the third is not sure where he stands on Trump and would like to hear what the former president has to say. But he doesn’t have a ticket.
“You wouldn’t happen to have an extra one, would you?” he asks us.
That’s our first indication of what the night ahead holds. Most politicians have to bus people in for their appearances to make the venues look full. For Trump, the crowd is scrounging for tickets.
At the airport, the Trump supporters are lined up a full mile along the road leading to the hangar where the former president will speak. The temperature is in the mid-20s. The structure is unheated. And there won’t be enough room inside to accommodate most of those who are still in line. And yet they wait, on the chance they’ll find a spot to stand outside and listen through the open doors.
Donald Trump remains a political phenom. Other politicians would have been doomed by the serial scandals and indictments that have dogged him. His departure in disgrace from the White House just over three years ago after trying to upend America’s democratic norms should have sent him into exile, like Richard Nixon.
And yet there Trump was on the stage before thousands of adoring fans who wanted nothing more than to witness his second coming to the White House. Why?
“He’s endured untoward suffering on our behalf,” said Ed Chandler, a pastor and bus driver from Grand Blanc who arrived early and found a place to stand right up front. “The least I could do was to show up in person to support him. It’s important for all of us to take a stand for what we believe is right.”
The messianic undercurrent ran through the evening, and Trump played to it. After a lengthy diatribe on the litany of legal attacks on him by what he called crooked judges and corrupt prosecutors, Trump told his devotees, “I’m being indicted for you. Never forget.”
Intentionally or not, it brought to mind Christ’s communion promise, “This is my blood, shed for you.” Trump’s new covenant sounds much like the old one, built on promises to build a wall, put criminals in jail, derail the green agenda and bring China, Russia and Iran to their knees with just the sound of his voice.
In proposing a Reciprocal Trade Act, Trump summed up his governing philosophy: “If you screw us, we’ll screw you.”
His America First message resonates for the same reason it did in 2016. A large number of Americans feel the country is broken, and their government isn’t working for them. They see Trump as the fixer.
They’re not crazy, as Democrats and others have tried to make them out. They have rational reasons for supporting Trump, and those are made stronger by what they see as a conspiracy to bring him down.
This is the new GOP base, far different from the old country club Republicans. As Trump said, “Those Republicans are mostly gone. We’re all MAGA Republicans now.”
While Saturday night’s crowd was still mostly White, we noticed it was a lot younger than in the past. A generation that came to age during the upheaval of the COVID pandemic is also looking to Trump to save it.
“My generation is most concerned about housing,” said Christian Armstrong, a 21-year-old Wayne County Community College District student from Detroit. “We want to be able to buy a house to get a start in the capitalist system, and we can’t.”
Armstrong also is sympathetic to Trump’s claims of persecution. “They’re trying to keep him off the ballot, and that’s not right,” he said. Rola Makki, a young woman from Livonia who showed up in a red “Arab Americans for Trump” shirt, explained her attraction to the enduring figure.
“He’s never dismissed the suffering of the Palestinian people,” she said. “He’s always highlighted that yes, it’s both sides. To me, that’s someone who has humanity and compassion for people no matter what their background is.”
Her perception of Trump’s empathy can’t be dismissed. Trump speaks directly to the frustration and fears of a large portion of the electorate. President Joe Biden hopes to convince voters they’re not really as bad off as they think they are and has ignored their worries about inflation and immigration. Trump gives voice to their angst. He hears people who believe no one else is listening.
“We’re all in this mess together,” Trump said Saturday night. “I’m here to straighten it out.” That’s what resonates with Adam Kirshner, one of our new acquaintances from the Irish bar. The beer salesman is looking for a secure border and a smaller government that focuses on the problems in this country, not those overseas.
And he just felt more at ease when Trump was president.
“I was better off,” he said. “My household was better off. I thought we were in a better place as a country.”
Clay feet or not, Trump is their hero. And you have to believe if they’ll turn out for him at a sub-freezing airport hanger in February, they’ll show up for him in November.
nfinley@detroitnews.com
kbuss@detroitnews.com