"This is Trump Land"

Not on my watch

Reporting from the road.

I was driving over the speed limit on my way home yesterday. Nothing dangerous, but I can’t drive the speed limit on a seven-hour trip. I was coming home from Perry County, MO where I met with rural Democrats and a few candidates. I told a friend I was headed to Perryville a few days before my trip and she assured me there are no Democrats down that way…

I found them.

Perry County Democratic Club

About two hours into the drive home, I was switching between listening to Timothy Snyder’s book On Tyranny, which is so important and also makes me a little anxious if I’m being honest, and Gilead by Marilynn Robinson.

Gilead follows three generations of preachers from Iowa told in a series of letters to the fourth generation. I especially enjoy the story of the oldest preacher, an abolitionist. In my mind, he is John Brown. Fire and brimstone and righteous anger.

The book is calming. Soothing. I’ve read it before so I am comfortable in knowing that I know how it ends. Something I need right now in the chaos of the last days of democracy or dictatorship. A little bit of balm for these last frenetic days of the election cycle.

Frenetic is a word I should use more often when speaking on campaigns.

I was deep into the Iowa preacher story when I saw a billboard that caught my attention. I read hundreds of billboards and signs on these drives, and I am accustomed to seeing one claiming “Jesus Saves” right next to others advertising “Beautiful Girls” and “XXX.”

This is I-70 after all.

This billboard was one I had not seen before. It read, “This is Trump Land.” I think the sign is near Wright City, Missouri. This one made me think.

Trump Land.

It sounds cartoonish and vile and daft and dangerous all at the same time. It sounds like an orange mascot with a thinning yellow bouffant and a pinched round mouth sorting folks by skin color and birthplace and religion and bank account. It sounds outrageous and fascist. It sounds un-American.

What is going on with these signs? What is going on with that party?

The Republican Party has often had a hard time telling the truth, but what I’m seeing now is a flat-out denial of facts in favor of demented lies and bizarre messaging that is messy to say the least. Flooding the zone with shit to make it impossible to discern fact from fiction. Lies from the top down. Stupid and lazy lies. The dumbest lies.

And some are falling for it. Or holding their nose as they swallow it.

Trump Land Kool-Aid.

Missouri has abortion on the ballot this year and the signs against the amendment are everywhere. I mean everywhere. And many of the signs have lies printed on them.

The most shocking claim is that Amendment 3 is the “baby murder” amendment. Luckily, I’ve only seen a few of those and they were small signs — hard to read from the road.

Not this one…

Digital sign on Highway 169, St Joseph, Missouri.

By far, the biggest lie put out about Amendment 3 is that it will allow for “child gender surgeries” which would be laughable if there weren’t folks who actually believe this lie.

This lie has been spread from both GOP politicians and churches. I have read letters sent home to parishioners with lies, and when I called to confront one of those churches about the lies, Waypoint Church in St Charles, there was no one available to take my call. When I called the next day, all the church staff were in an all-day meeting. When I called a third time, they hung up on me.

If your church is lying to you, find another church.

Trump Land. Where your church will lie to you and big signs confuse you and politicians pick your pocket while you ponder the new lay of the land.

Trump Land. Where your schools close and factories open. Where unions are illegal and overtime is mandatory. Where religion is forced and so is birth.

We aren’t there yet. I refuse to cede America to Trump Land. I will continue to travel across this state and other red states bringing the good news of democracy — a little like the fire and brimstone preacher in Gilead. Righteous anger.

The preacher wandered into the Kansas wilderness…I now understand that compulsion.

I will continue to drive to all parts of the state to meet with the few and the mighty. The folks doing the work in their communities. The people standing in the way of the fascists and the ideologues and the extremists. The heroes you will never know because they don’t have a SubStack, but they show up.

Bless them.

In the last two weeks, as these signs have gone up all over my state, I have met with Educators for Harris. I met with the Platte County Democrats. I spoke to hundreds on a Women Wednesday call. I was a guest on a Chicago radio show. I was a panelist on the Sexy Liberal Show in KC. I spoke on a Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense call. I moderated a town hall with two Missouri Congressional candidates. I spoke at a fundraiser for rural Dems across the country. I drove to Perry County.

If the Trump Land folks think they can outwork rural progressives, they are wrong. We are built differently and used to fighting to get what we need. We can’t relent for a second.

No rest for the weary.

When I reach out to local campaigns, they email back in the middle of the night. I have passed nominees for Governor and AG and Secretary of State and Treasurer traversing the state. They are traveling with exhausted staffers. These folks are sleeping out of their cars and eating food from bags with grease stains and speaking while sleeping on their feet.

Frenetic.

This is how we stop Trump Land.

We won’t let our country go down to a very dangerous and yet cartoonishly foolish and ghoulish movement. They won’t turn our country into a theme park that resembles a gulag.

This is not Trump Land.

This is America.

~Jess

Here are two more events:

I will be at the Together we Rise Rally in Springfield on Oct 22 from 6-8 pm at the Teamsters Union Local No 245.

I will be in St Joe with Democratic nominee for Governor Crystal Quade on Oct 23 at 914 Penn Street at 6 pm.