“Muslims? Is she talking about grandma?” her four-year-old daughter asked Kelda York. “Yes,” Ms. York replied, “Grandma and other Muslims.”
What aroused the child’s curiosity was Democratic presidential aspirant Hillary Clinton’s call to “hold our Muslim friends close to the rest of the society”. Ms. York’s mother had converted to Islam two decades ago. “My mother started reading about Islam when my father went to Iraq as a solider in 1992 and converted,” Ms. York said. She brought both her daughters to Ms. Clinton’s rally. “I want them to grow up proud and confident,” she said.
In defense of diversity
Ms. Clinton is facing an uphill task in New Hampshire that will choose between her and Bernie Sanders, Senator from the neighborliness State of Vermont who commands significant influence in the State. Ms. Clinton was advised by many to skip the contest in New Hampshire altogether and focus on States where her presence is more formidable. “I could not have done that. So I am here,” she told a crowd of around 500 on Wednesday night. Carefully seated in the camera frame, right behind Ms. Clinton, were girls with Islamic scarves, blacks, whites, browns and Latinos; transgender people and women’s activists milled around. “Fighting for us,” their placards said, as they swayed to Rachel Platten’s Fight Song, a 2015 song released as a single that sold two million copies in the U.S. “Can you hear my voice this time?, This is my fight song, Take back my life song, Prove I’m alright song,” the song goes.
But waiting for Ms. Clinton’s arrival earlier in the evening, 20-year-old Miranda Monaghan was holding her placard down. “I have not decided yet,” she said. “I am not so sure she believes in all this,” the undergraduate student said, as Ms. Clinton explained how she and Mr. Sanders were in agreement on reining in the Wall Street and ensuring health care for all. Ms. Monaghan found Mr. Sanders more suitable for the job.
At Ms. Clinton’s rally, hours after Barack Obama made his first visit as President to a U.S. mosque, American diversity was being celebrated. On Tuesday evening, at Republican front runner Donald Trump’s rally some miles away, it was a different atmosphere. Mr. Trump, battered in the Iowa caucuses the previous night, was playing defensive and explaining his second place as a big victory. Ann Coulter, an immensely influential conservative commentator and author, outlined the agenda, speaking before Mr. Trump’s arrival on the stage. If anyone speaks clearer than Mr. Trump this season, it must be Ms. Coulter. Not that Mr. Trump’s philosophy needs explanation.
“Trump announced his candidacy talking about Mexican rapists. We are not supposed to say this, we can talk about American rape culture, but not about Mexicans raping. There is a whole list of politically incorrect things that one is not supposed to say... Donald Trump seems to be going through each one of them… one by one, he is going to use each one of them by the end of this campaign,” Ms. Coulter explained the virtues of her candidate. And she can’t wait to see Mr. Trump in the White House. “Can you imagine that?” she asks, and helps them imagine.
“The director of immigration will come and tell President Trump, ‘we have admitted 1.5 million Muslims since 9/11. Ninety per cent of them go on welfare immediately and some percentage of them kill Americans. Should we keep admitting a million Muslims every ten years?”’
“No… No,” the crowd replies.
“Yes, that is exactly what President Trump will say.”
Director of Immigration comes back again, “Should we keep replacing Americans with Mexicans, Somalis and Pakistanis?’’
“No… No… No.”
By this time, Trump supporters must have been looking for some Mexicans or Muslims inside the venue. “Please don’t react if anyone protests. Those who want to protest may protest outside,” a particularly law-abiding organizer announces before Mr. Trump takes the stage. At a previous rally in New Hampshire, Trump supporters beat up protesters.
“We have a movement. It is a people’s movement,” Mr. Trump declared. He then goes on to talk about the dangers that lurk around — “three people were killed by illegal immigrants” in unspecified places and climate change is a hoax Mr. Obama is playing. In a moment of gender sensitivity, Mr. Trump also points out to a woman who, he says, could be carrying a gun to places such as this gathering to prevent terror attacks. “This man, that man, and yes, we must have a woman too… you here.”
Judie Brown, a 65-year-old lady at the Trump meeting, is worried primarily about the economy and fears that her social security pension may be affected. In a measured tone, she explains the economic stress that the middle class is feeling. Does she agree with what she just heard about Muslims? “I was trying to avoid that topic. You know, I think they are unable to integrate into the society.” Does she support a ban on Muslims entering the country? “I support a ban on immigration altogether. Not only for Muslims,” she said, continuing to measure her words. And she had not finalised her choice in the primary — the other option she is considering is Marco Rubio, Senator from Florida.
As Mr. Trump signs autographs and poses for photographs, Adele can be heard in the background: “You’re gonna wish you never had met me… And I’m gonna make your head burn, Think of me in the depths of your despair….” Playing this Adele song in recent rallies is the latest controversy that Mr. Trump has courted. A spokesperson of the singer has said the candidate is using it without permission.
The rise of Rubio
Ms. Coulter ridiculed Mr. Rubio as the “Cuban kid who likes his high heels” but he is making it tough for Republican front runners Mr. Trump and Texas Senator Ted Cruz. After finishing a close third behind Mr. Trump in Iowa, Mr. Rubio is moving gradually to the center, projecting the image of a ‘compassionate conservative’, and is attracting more and more Republicans towards him. A compassionate conservative is what many others in the fray also want to be seen as — Jeb Bush, John Kasich and to a lesser extent Chris Christie have sought to build the same image. But Mr. Rubio’s advantage is that he is more charismatic and has managed the expectations better than others. He seems increasingly the choice of people such as Ms. Brown, and that indeed that is his pitch at a morning gathering on Thursday.
Mr. Rubio says he favors a compassionate criminal justice system that considers drug addicts as victims rather than criminals; a social security mechanism that will keep the elderly secure. He goes on to explain how, as a teenager, he got involved in a drunken brawl and almost landed in jail. “That would have ended my life. We have people who get caught for minor offences and get sucked into the justice system without any possibility of escape. Poor people, mostly black, are forced to plead guilty because they don’t have money to pay lawyers,” Mr. Rubio’s compassionate agenda in response to convenient questions goes on and on. But Mr. Rubio considers Mr. Obama’s mosque visit a ploy to “divide Americans”. “It gives an impression that Muslims are discriminated against in America. We have to address all these issues without dividing Americans based on gender, race, or class,” he says. He does not mention religious divisions, though his speech had numerous references to his own Christian faith. “Obama wants to change America. I want to restore America,” he says.
A few miles away and two hours later on Thursday, Mr. Cruz’s political speech sounds more like a bad Sunday sermon. Forty-year-old James Mosher, who was at the previous Trump rally too, has a question for Mr. Cruz — why doesn’t he get the support of “good people” such as Ms. Coulter? But still, he declares his support for Mr. Cruz. “Trump wrote a book called The Art of the Deal, it should be called The Art of the Con,” he explains later. “He has married thrice.” “Because of my faith in Jesus,” he cites his reason for supporting Mr. Cruz. Mr. Cruz says he is leading America to a “revolution”. “We are bringing power back to ‘we, the people’.” Revolution for him is a recognition of Judeo-Christian values that he thinks Mr. Obama has undermined.
Oldest man, biggest dreams
But the prospect of a more this-worldly revolution is inspiring the Bernie Sanders’s camp that a merchandise vendor described as a “bunch of broke college kids”. But that is not exactly true. John Baronowski, a 70-year-old man sitting behind Mr. Sanders, is on his feet numerous times through Mr. Sanders’s one-hour speech, just before his debate with Ms. Clinton on Thursday night. “The planet craves for him. Mankind needs him,” Mr. Baronowski says. There are people of all ages — some 500 of them — in the room.
The oldest man in the fray, 74-year-old Sanders is inspiring the biggest dreams. “How many of you have student loans?” Mr. Sanders asks. Numerous hands go up, many of those people in their fifties. “Your only crime is that you wanted education. We need to have free college education in this country,” he says. “We will pay for this by taxing Wall Street speculation.” A long list of welfare measures, all to be funded by more taxes on corporate America and by breaking the unfair practices of insurance and drug companies, cheer up the audience. “We need to dream big.” A dose of humour helps too. “Republicans like families. Particularly the wealthy families,” he says.
Can he deliver on all these promises? His supporters are divided. “All progress depends on the unreasonable man,” a state Senator quoted George Bernard Shaw while introducing Mr. Sanders. “If minimum wage is raised to 15 dollars an hour, my employer will shut shop,” Ms. Monaghan, who has a part-time job that pays 10 dollars an hour, says. Renee Bolduc, 17-year-old high school student, says: “Unless we try, how will we know?”
Playing in the background is John Lennon’s 1971 song, Power to the People. “You say we want a revolution, We better get on right away; Well, you get on your feet, And enter the street.”
