Following the elections in Wisconsin is like being in a pub crawl. One after the other, the candidates hit the place for the not-yet-sated to lap up more of the same. Last weekend, Milwaukee was the epicenter. Trump and Harris rallied seven miles apart the same Friday evening, and on Sunday afternoon, Barack Obama showed up. I went to all three.
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«Retail politics» used to be mano-a-mano, the candidates popping up at diners, doling out ice cream, hugging babies or giving interviews to the local media. Maybe I don’t pay attention, but I do not notice a lot of this. Also, no TV or radio ad mentions the party affiliation of a candidate. It’s all about the persons. The parties are only identifiable by their colors, blue for the Democrats,red for the Republicans (this still irritates me: where I come from, red is the color of the left). In these last days the Harris campaign puts a lot of emphasis on «unity» and overcoming the divisions in the country. Donald Trump on the other hand appears angrier by the day, driving up the volume on his warnings of coming catastrophes should Harris lose (two thirds of Americans think the country is «on the wrong track») . Trump signals Endkampf, Harris signals compromise. She tells people that she doesn’t consider her opponents the enemy and will put a Republican in her cabinet.
In Wisconsin, the Trump campaign seems to put a lot of stock into tickling the widespread unease with wokism and gender sensitivities in language and workplace codes. An ad showing a clip of Harris advocating access to sex-change operations in prisons is run on and on, and Wisconsin Senate candidate Tammy Baldwin the first openly Lesbian in the US congress, is lampooned with the «they/them» attribute. Such things are not done without cause. I found Muslim Americans responsive to «the thing about men and women», and one utterly catholic Deli manager in Detroit said: “ 99.9 percent of people don’t care about who you want to be. But if I see a man and am told to call him «Miss» – that’s a no go».
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It is worth noting the issues that are excluded from both campaigns. No one talks about the government debt which has grown to more than 35 trillion dollars under both Trump and Biden. No one says anything meaningful about America’s future course in the Russian war against Ukraine. Trump lately postures as the peacemaker and tells the «war hawks» to go fight themselves. He suggested to put the Republican crossover Liz Cheney in front of the barrels of an execution squad for her to feel like it is to be shot at (Democrats call this an incitement to murder, Republicans brush it off as another Trumpism). In Milwaukee, it is kind of surprising to see that the announced Trump tariffs on all imports are at best marginalia. Harley Davidson, which just reported dismal sales globally and domestically, is still in the eye of a tariff war between the Trump Administration and the European Union. They were hit by tough European retribution measures which were lifted in a compromise by the Biden administration, but the conflict is not resolved.
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Sunday, 3 November 1530 hrs.: Barack Obama still is a master of the game. He came the help push Harris and Baldwin over the finish line in too-close-to-call Wisconsin, and he shows how to deal with an opponent like Donald Trump. The crowd is a bit smaller than the one at the Harris’ rally, but not by much and the enthusiasm is the same. He acknowledges the economic hardship of average Americans, and he signals sympathy for the demand of change: «I understand people who want to shake things up. What I do not understand is how Donald Trump could shake things up for us». He ridicules Trump’s «concept-of-a-plan»-answer on health reform: «Imagine your wife asks, honey how about doing the dishes, and you say, I’m watching football, but I have a concept of a plan». Why, Obama asks, should this work for the President of the United States if it does not work at home? He says Trump had no tangible economic concept – other than Harris «who has a plan». For an hour the 63-year-old Barack Obama mesmerizes an audience of thousands with humor, entertainment, polemic and sharp argument – a political firework which is rarely seen during the current season.
Of course he praises Harris. He does not stray from the script: «generational change», «not going back», «economic plan», personal integrity. But he accentuates differently. Harris avoids the name of the unloved President Biden, Obama mentions him several times, positively. He focuses on the question, what and how much four more years of Trumpism will mean to the average man. Abortion, a mainstay of Harris’ rhetoric, is one parenthesis among others in Obama’s speech. The warnings of a coming quasi-dictatorship of Trump, another strong Harris argument, are unmentioned. Obama sticks to the many documented character flaws of the Republican candidate (military casualties are «losers») and asks whether this is the right personality to make the lonely decisions in the White House.
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Friday, 1 November, 1600 hrs.: Wisconsin State Fair Park in West Allis, we are waiting for the Harris rally to start. The hall, capacity 10000 is slowly filling up with folks from all walks of life, black, brown, white, young, old. There are less freaks in this audience than at a Trump event, the enthusiasm is a tad tamer, the rowdiness factor lower. A conversation with two bench neighbors, women, advance age, both from the suburbs, gets going. The issue is abortion. Conventional wisdom has it that Harris will get conservative women votes because she is very clear about putting Roe v. Wade back into law. True? «It is not so important», says Tayyibah, a lawyer. «It’s coming up, yeah, but it is not the most important». She thinks that Harris is talking too much about abortion and not enough about «the economy». Her friend also shares a skepticism, but from another angle. She votes for Harris not because, but despite her stand on abortion: «I was a maternity nurse. I have seen too often that abortion was just used as another form of birth control. I don’t like this to this day. »
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These are not the only reservations against candidate Harris I encountered on the road trip from New York to Milwaukee. It popped up fairly regularly, and not from Trumpists. There are Democrats who wish for less rhetorical fluff and more Obama-style presentation of the message. «Sleazy», «sneaky», «shifting» are adjectives heard about the democrat candidate. “She tells everybody what they want to hear», said a woman last week in Brookfield. She said that she could not decide between one or the other of the candidates: «Trump is a jackass, and Harris I don’t like». A young non-voter in Boston («here, my vote makes no difference») says about Harris: «She does not say what would change for me. She is a lawyer. She was trained to speak and say nothing. »
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Friday, 1 November 2015 hrs.: I move to the fabulous Finserv Forum, home of the Milwaukee Bucks The Trump event. At the merchandise stands outside the misogynistic T-Shirts («the ho») are not to be seen. Inside, the crowd is massive, red-capped, similarly diverse as the one in State Fair Park, with one difference. The men look perhaps a tad more toned than over there, the gaits a little bit more determined, the chins more angular. This fits. Donald Trump projects himself as an very masculine human being. In his speeches he cultivates the manly-manness of the action heroes. He surrounds himself with prize fighters und show wrestlers, and he dog-whistles to the macho that it is ok to let the man be a man and to put the foot down if needed. For his opponents he might be a felon, but his supporters by the T-Shirts that say «I vote for the outlaw».
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At the soda cart a conversation with a man gets going. Asked what would happen if Harris should win, he says: «War». He says that Harris and the Democrats are planning to curb the right to free speech. He means the «hate speech» rules that are talked about. This, he says is the red line. «If tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. In there, they all think like this». When a first sentence came down, rebellion could start with a march to the courthouse, says the man. But how about the book bans in libraries and schools? «Liberal lies. These are not bans. This is just taken pornography away from kids. You still can buy it» The man is not the only one talking about a coming war. At a rest stop in Michigan, I talked to Chad, a truck driver and possible non-voter: «I don’t like either of them» he says. And as a matter of course: «I think we will have a civil war within ten years». He believes that a state like Texas might secede over the dispute about securing the border, and that there could be civil war 2.0.
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Friday, 1 November, 2130 hrs.: Cardi B. walks on the stage. She says that she actually did not plan to vote but changed her mind after Kamala Harris became the nominee. Then Kamala Harris. Roaring applause, wide smile, very white teeth. Harris says “we won’t go back” and” the page will be turned”. And prevent the return of am man “who is increasingly instable and obsessed with revenge” to the presidency. She says “I will be a President for all of you”, and “I will fight for you”.