I know the title of this post comes from a classic Pink Floyd song, but what it really is about comes from the opening lines of that classic Buffalo Springfield song:

There’s something happening here
what it is ain’t exactly clear.

If you follow the mainstream media the CNNs, MSDNCs, Washington Posts, and New York Timess of the world, you can be excused into thinking that, at least as far as this year’s presidential cycle is concerned, 2020 sounds like 2016 all over again. You’ve got the pollsters all agreeing that Biden is ahead by a lot but that the polls may, or may not, be tightening. You’ve got Donald Trump running as a political outsider hosting large and enthusiastic in-person rallies while his long-time Washington insider opponent is virtually nowhere to be seen. And you have the mainstream media doing everything it can to suppress anything negative about that Democratic candidate while pushing everything negative it can find about Donald Trump.

Can we at least all agree on that?

But this year there is something different. Go to Google, Facebook, or any other internet search engine you wish and under news type in “Trump car rallies” and see what you find. What you will see is a phenomena you will never hear about from the national media and the cable news networks. Here is just an example:

In New York.
In Beverly Hills, California.
At a Joe Biden rally in Pennsylvania.
In Arizona.
In Connecticut.
In Miami, Florida.
In Ohio.

…and that’s just a handful of what has been going on every weekend for the past few months. I think it all started with massive boat rallies in Florida and other places, and the concept just spread like wildfires across the country. They’re everywhere, they’re large, and they’re unlike anything seen in any election cycle, like, ever.

What this tells me is that there is a wellspring of Trump support out there that few, if anyone, have an idea about – how deep it might be. Frankly, even I don’t know – I’m just communicating what I see and hear. What’s most interesting to me is that these rallies are not spontaneous – they’re being coordinated using the very same social media tools the firms who provide them are using to suppress Trump support and help Biden any way they can. It’s quite satisfying to hear about. Talk about live by the sword and dying by it! These people are not stupid, they see what’s going on out there:

They see the media in every form, national and local, overwhelmingly aligned against Trump.

They see Washington and the political establishment overwhelmingly aligned against Trump.

They see Wall Street overwhelmingly aligned against Trump.

They see the nation’s intelligence infrastructure (DOJ, FBI, etc.) actively working against Trump.

They see the war-mongers of past administrations all aligned against Trump.

The see the Facebooks, Twitters, Googles, Apples, and Microsofts of Silicon Valley universally aligned against Trump.

They see the education establishment, the universities they attend and finance for their children’s education and their local school boards, universally aligned against Trump.

They hear the calls to end funding for law enforcement and, even while “Big Tech” attempts to stifle any news about them, fear Antifa and Black Lives Matter radicals, protestors, and looters coming after them and their neighborhoods should a local police officer harm in any way some doofus of color who refuses to follow their orders to cease and desist.

I have a theory: until COVID-19 came along, I don’t think the average American truly appreciated the vast societal and cultural forces aligned against President Trump. But after nearly eight months of “fear porn” being shoved down their throats by ever form of media there is, day in and day out, they’ve been given a glimpse to the extent and depth of these forces. They’ve seen their jobs go up in smoke, their children’s learning reduced to remote and after-school activities curtailed, and their churches closed. They see the various COVID-19 rules, regulations, and restrictions handed down by their elected officials as confused, conflicting, and of little sense. They hear ad nauseam about the number of COVID-19 cases but little or nothing about their actual chances of dying from it. They know the virus is dangerous and that reasonable precautions need to be taken, but there’s a nagging suspicion that it’s nowhere near as bad as folks are making it out to be.

They sense this because whenever any kind of promising or alternative drug or regimen for treating COVID-19 comes out they see and hear the mainstream media, politicians, social activists, their state and local health officials, and – incredibly – even doctors and scientists belittle and argue against those treatments.

So when it was announced that ~ 40 White House people – including the President and the First Lady – contracted COVID-19 and all seem to have recovered – and quickly, they’re now suspicious that they’ve been lied to all along. And if they can be lied to about COVID, they know they can be lied to about anything and everything. And as a result, they are now seeing – perhaps for the very first time – what the majority of well-meaning, wanting to just get along, “live and let live” Americans who don’t live in Washington D.C. or in the elitist, liberal enclaves along the east and west coasts have been seeing and saying for years:

They hate us.
They disdain and despise us.
They hate this country and the freedoms it was founded upon.

So in 2020, unlike perhaps any prior election before, this has become a battle of “us” vs. “them”. What Democrats and liberals refuse to understand is that the people who support Trump don’t just support him, they believe in him To those like us, Trump isn’t just a president, he’s a leader of a movement. Sure, he’s far from perfect: he’s crass, egotistical, and abrasive. But he means what he says and says what he means. He doesn’t bullshit or blow smoke up your ass like your average politician. He doesn’t disguise the fact that he loves this country and puts America first. He doesn’t care what color, creed, gender, or race you are, he’s a defender of America and everything its stands for. He said in 2016 what he would do, plain and simple, and he’s followed through on pretty much everything.

The majority of Trump’s supporters don’t care about Hunter Biden – they know the Bidens are no different than anyone else in Washington or in their state and county governments who pad their pockets in return for influence. But what they are now seeing, for perhaps the very first time, are the vast forces arrayed and aligned against the president. They feel the hatred and disdain shown us by the so-called “elites” who think they know better than anyone else what’s best for everyone except them. They fear that if they so much as hint at supporting Trump in any way they risk losing their job, their friends, and even the prospect of seeing their grandchildren. The fear is palpable: I’ve seen it and heard about it first-hand working the pool supply gig this summer.

The great unknown, of course, is how deep this sentiment is; we won’t know for sure until all the votes are counted. But there is evidence, both anecdotally (above) and in early vote by mail numbers and trends seen in Florida and certain “battleground” states, that something unusual may be going out there. And I have a sense we’re going to know exactly what that unusual is a week from tomorrow.