Going Trump
by Tom Sullivan
The Charlotte Observer the other day (h/t beninsc) published a long article on the social fallout from HB2 in North Carolina. Gov. Pat McCrory signed the Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act (the "bathroom bill") in March. Much of the media focus has been on the effects the bill has had on the state's national image and on the businesses that have pulled out and the concerts and sporting events cancelled in response. But the Observer looked this week at the effects on people of the state — what do we call it? — "going Trump":
Last month in Charlotte, a 24-year-old transgender man said he was confronted outside the restrooms at PNC Pavilion by several women who demanded to know if he was “a boy or a girl” and then lifted up his shirt to see.The Observer reports, McCrory denied last month in Charlotte being aware he had ever heard of “one example of any type of discrimination" towards people in Charlotte during his term as mayor there or during his term as governor. The Observer found otherwise. Hate crimes tend to go underreported.
Early on a Saturday evening in June, a lesbian chef said she was body-slammed to the ground in Uptown Charlotte by a teenage girl hurling homophobic slurs.
In Waynesville, in the Smoky Mountains, a newlywed gay man left work late one night last fall and discovered “DIE FAG” spray-painted in huge black letters on the side of his Jeep.
Trump Supporter Threatened to Beat Up Black Woman — October 2016The Washington Post's Chris Cillizza reports that Trump is priming his followers to believe that a November win by Hillary Clinton will be as illegitimate as Obama's supposed long-form birth certificate:
A 55-year-old man in Albany, New York, was arrested after approaching a 27-year-old black woman outside a grocery store and yelling, “You [racial slur] had your time. Your eight years are up.” He also added, “Trump is going to win and if you don’t like it I’m going to beat your ass.”
Man Says, “I Can’t Wait Until Trump Gets Elected So I Can Force Bitches Like You Down on Your Knees” — October 2016
Writer Sara Nović shared a screenshot of a text message from her younger sister, in which she described being pestered by a man in Penn Station until she told him, “I don’t mean to be rude at all, but I’m just not interested.” He reportedly replied, “Wooowww, fucking bitch! I can’t wait until Trump gets elected so I can force bitches like you down on your knees when you talk like that.”
[...]
Muslim Women Attacked by Someone Trying to Rip Their Head Scarves Off — September 2016
Two Muslim women pushing their strollers in Bath Beach, Brooklyn, were attacked by Emirjeta Xhelili, a 32-year-old woman who allegedly yelled, “Get the fuck out of here, get the fuck out of America, bitches,” while punching and kicking them. She also tried to rip their head scarves off. Upon investigating her Facebook and Twitter accounts, it was found that she posted messages like, “America is the ark of Noah. Trump’s gonna win.”
Muslim Woman Attacked Outside D.C. Starbucks — May 2016
A white blonde woman reportedly began to verbally harass a black Muslim woman on the patio of a Washington, D.C., Starbucks, and ultimately threw a “liquid-like substance” at her. Per DCist, the victim told CAIR [the Council on American Islamic Relations] that the suspect said that she was voting for Donald Trump in hopes “that he would send ‘all of you terrorist Muslims out of this country.’”
Given that rhetoric, it's difficult for me to imagine that in 25 days time, if he comes up short to Hillary Clinton, Trump will simply concede the election. He is actively fomenting the idea that the results on Nov. 8 will be invalid no matter what they say because of the “rigged” nature of the whole process. He is priming the pump among his supporters to never accept that he actually lost but instead had it stolen from him by the Democratic-media complex, which couldn't deal with the truths he was telling.Trump believes himself the ultimate winner. Yet he and his team know the prospects are not good. So he has left himself only two options. Either he emerges the winner or he and his followers will be the victims of a vast left-wing conspiracy that stabbed them in the back.
Trump rips apart his teleprompter after it breaks mid-speech https://t.co/AxRtT4Y6ZU pic.twitter.com/C02IfyZbvR
— The Hill (@thehill) October 15, 2016