Trying to Understand Cullman

 

The rally in Cullman, Alabama, in the midst of a state of emergency due to COVID-19 (things are pretty dire), was exceptionally well-attended, despite the weather. This is definitely Trump country. It isn't vaccination country.  They're pretty solidly Republican.  They went pretty soundly for Trump--although Biden voters exist in that county. Cullman was settled by German immigrants just post Civil War and is considered by some to be a sundown town. As in--people with direct experience of it. 

Their local ABC affiliate is in the Sinclair Broadcast Group. The Cullman Tribune looks fine. This is one of those areas where ivermectin might be more available than hospital beds, but these folks aren't stupid--there are good schools in Cullman. I can't help but note, though, that this crowd was stroppy two times during the show put on by the Trump travelling political players:

The first time was when Mo Brooks, Senate candidate, I guess, suggested that Trump stalwarts move past the stolen 2020 elections to concentrate on 2022. (Ignoring whatever Mike Lindell was on about, which is pretty easy to do.)

Did he think these people were stupid? If you admit that the 2020 election was stolen and don't address that--how are they supposed to accept the 2022 election as anything but bullshit? Where are their assurances? What the hell? It's as if you were just saying 2020 was stolen to make noise but just hoped you would get voted for later! (The folks of Cullman could see through that devious fuckery, that much I can tell you.)

The second time was when Trump recommended that the crowd get vaccinated.  Was Trump seriously going to act as an agent of Bill Gates and make sure everyone gets a microchip, or what? And what about the vaccine injury, and the other twaddle these folks have drank deep of at wells no more or less polluted than the Joseph Flynn (brother of Mike Flynn) Twitter feed, where he eschews the vax for ivermectin. How in the world is Trump not aware of this incredible predatory bullshit?

So despite boring the good people of Cullman, who braved rain, which is a very real thing, and COVID-19, which could be a hoax (it isn't), with tales of listening to crying men and 5 year old children in forming his foreign policy, and also lying his ass off in other ways too good too be fact-checked, Trump came really close to these folks wondering what he really was about--because that kayfabe is what makes the wrestling match work. Does Trump want another January 6 or what? Are they supposed to spread the Wu Flu to spite Biden or what? 

I'd love to think they have questions. But as they stood check and jowl where there's about 15% Covid infectivity, I worry more about their lives than their minds. Because I think they have been lied to a lot and they deserve better than anyone dying for this one trick pony and other assorted dogs show.