BY MIKE BILLINGS

He lifted his shirt and my photographer got a shot of his Trump tattoo for this article. “I got this one in Sturgis” he said.  Most of my interview subjects would not not give their names.  Homer, a handyman in Concord, allowed use of his first name.  He displays a Trump/Pence sign in his yard.

Some of the more shy people I talked with were what they call “secret Trump voters.”  Snobbery  and hypocrisy seem to most offend these voters. These people are not conservative voters because they like the Chesterton puns in National Review.  Cultural resentment drives them. These people surprised the “experts” in 2016.  They might again.

Most are more guarded about identifying themselves than Homer was. “With all this political correctness, if you say something they don’t like, you’ll be branded a racist or worse.  They’ll destroy your business. They’ll get you fired. And they say we’re intolerant.” Thus spoke the store clerk.

I spoke with a convenience store clerk with a heart condition,  a school custodian, a laundromat attendant, a realtor, and Homer.  Homer had just returned from a month camping in Sturgis, South Dakota. He seldom misses the Biker Rally there. All four I spoke with revel in Granite State biker culture, at least vicariously. Some of the language they used was pretty raw.

These people were all affable fellows, neighborly “give you the shirt off their back” types.  When I tried to pay for a beer at one conclave, a stranger in a MAGA hat behind me piped up. “It’s covered partner. Keep your money. You’re among friends here. “

That said, Biker Trumpers  are mad with folks. Homer sports a shirt that says “Donald Fucking Trump.”  He wears a hat that says “Fuck your feelings.”  He revels in stories of mask free non social distancing in Sturgis. “What do you know, I’m still here!  How about that?” The store clerk sells MAGA hats. The ice box out in front is plastered with Trump stickers.

New Hampshire Biker Week in August in Laconia seemed a good place to unscramble this mystery, a least a mystery to the latte sippers.  It was almost the same time as the “virtual conventions” and Wisconsin looked like it was verging on a race war.

The part time store clerk has a heart condition.  “ Obamacare was useless to me. Useless! I remember four years ago, people could not find jobs that allowed them to pay their rent, and what was on the cover of national magazines?  When they were not slinging mud at Trump, you would have thought unisex bathrooms was the nation’s most urgent need. This is what liberalism has become.  The Dems don’t care about the working man anymore.  Blacks and Hispanics vote as a block.  Gays and atheists are militant and organized. So are the militant feminists. They join forces with rich white snobs and socialists, the kind of people who bus working class kids across town to dangerous integrated schools, while their own kids go to lily white private schools. These people make me sick! Defend your culture, your traditions, and you are called a bigot. But the Libs are the worst bigots going!”

This is the live free or die state.  Granite staters don’t like the Nanny State. This is deep in the culture. You make your own decisions here. It is easier to start a business here because the government does not grab your earnings in sales and income taxes.  You don’t even need a learners permit to learn to drive.  You drive when your old man thinks you’re up to it, then you take the road test. New Hampshire has no seat belt law, and if you want to ride your bike without helmet, go right ahead. The state legislature is the largest in the country, in one the smallest states, and serve as volunteers. Chances are, a few people at the Biker events served as legislators at one time or another.”

The laundress had some things to say about race.  “I don’t see race. My brother risked his life to register blacks to vote in the south, when he was young.  If somebody was being lynched, I bet the people you see here would step in and stop it faster than the fancy Dans who call us racists.  But we are a long way from that. BLM is a hate group. Look, if a cop kills somebody without a good reason, prosecute him. Hell yes. But these jerks who want to abolish or defund police?  And replace it with what?  That’s bullshit. George Floyd and that scumbag in Kenosha Biden sucked up to, these people were no angels. Floyd was on PCP or something, he was passing funny money. The guy in Kenosha was violating a protection order. Should we send a social worker to see him?  What ever happened to Martin Luther King’s idea of your character mattering more than your color? “

“They say there are no Black racists,” she continues, “because Blacks ‘don’t have power.’ Blacks don’t have power in cities? Biden was forced to pick Harris because Blacks don’t have power?  People have to go to bullshit sensitivity training to keep their jobs, because somebody doesn’t like the language you are used to.  They used to be called Negros, King used the word all the time. Then colored people. Remember the NAACP? Colored wasn’t an insult.  Then it was Blacks. Then you were a racist if you didn’t say African American. Now it’s People of Color.  If you are quiet you condone racism. If you support their bullshit you’re trying to be a White Savior. If you disagree with them, in any way, you’re same as the KKK. There are words Blacks can use and we can’t. This is a gotcha game. It is not about understanding or tolerance. It’s about payback and control. It is bullying, by the politically correct Left. Well guess what?  You come to my home to loot and burn and pillage, I’ll give you reparations from my friends, Smith and Wesson.”

The custodian had  some thoughts about what might be called Sexual Politics, and he echoed the laundry lady’s sense that “minorities” were spoiling for a fight, playing gotcha games and control games, not “raising consciousness.”  “How many genders do we have to keep track of now?  How often are they going to change the language, make different rules about pronouns?  They call us bigots, but we don’t care what color you are, as long as you’re willing to work. We don’t care where you come from, if you accept our culture, are willing to work, and come here legally. We sure as Hell don’t care about your private sexual likes and dislikes, but if you proclaim them from the housetops, some people will be offended. That isn’t private anymore, is it?  That isn’t live and let live, is it? That is a demand that their behavior be acknowledged and celebrated by people who deeply believe it is wrong.  It’s an attempt to use the force of government to force respect that wasn’t earned and isn’t honest. For how many thousands of years has marriage been one man and one woman?  What about the rights of people who accept that? What about the rights of children gay people can now adopt?  And you want to lecture me about the ‘norms’ Trump shatters? “

I suppressed a smile.“You can laugh all you want,” the custodian concluded, “but it’s the Liberals who are prejudiced, who won’t live and let live. A Christian bake shop owner doesn’t care to participate in a Gay wedding, and he gets sued! That’s live and let live, huh?   The queers can’t find another baker? I’m telling you that this kind of shit is why real Americans stand with Trump. Laugh if you want, but if the y’all don’t back the fuck off, there is gonna be a shooting war here, and we’re gonna win it.”

Despite the stereotypes, and these folks were very stereotypical, not all bikers are alike.  Not all Trumpers are alike.  There were some LGBTQ bikers, some Democrats, and a lot of bikers are professional people. One biker  has his own real estate and insurance business.  He also favors Trump. He shares the reluctance to use his name, fearing it will hurt his business, but invited me for coffee at his office a week later.

Immediately my host apologized for the demeanor of the Trumpers in Laconia.  There was no need. They expressed authentic sentiments and experiences.  This was how they saw the situation. The insurance man then explained his own journey.  He majored in History in college. He is an evangelical Christian.  He admires Mitt Romney, and George W. Bush. He confides that sometimes he wants to “smash Trump in the mouth.”   He explained “I was a volunteer for Jimmy Carter in 1976. The Christian vote elected him.  Look it up.  Evangelicals tended to steer clear of politics. It was unseemly.  We wanted to save souls one on one, not muck around in the carnality of struggling to gain and hold power. This was true in the free wheeling Sixties.  If the culture teaches abortion and homosexuality, fine.  We won’t. Then the government started taxing and regulating our private Christian schools. Demands for tolerance where taken to extremes that were themselves intolerant.  Liberals indulge a conceit that everybody who differs with them is just stupid, or hateful. How did Mr. Obama put it?  We ‘cling to our guns and bibles.’  Would you call that civil discourse?”

My new friend warmed to the subject.  “There has been a liberal bias in the media. Study after study showed this. It proved more true of reporters than publishers, I’ll grant that, but when three networks had a monopoly on what most people learned of the days events, you did not have a balanced presentation. This was the Manhattan cocktail party take, and they were insufferably arrogant about it.  Agnew was a crook, and that was too bad, because his 1969 critique of the three  networks  was right on the money.  This is how you got groups like the Moral Majority in the 1980s. This is why you got Fox News. With the internet opening things up there has been excess on both sides. But we should all reflect on how we got here.”

My host gave me one more example of liberal media bias, of “liberal alternative facts.”  “It is just accepted that Trump ridiculed Senator McCain’s suffering as a POW.  First, McCain attacked him first.  In a half  jeering  and half sporting manner, Trump then said ‘I like people who were not captured.’  What is never reported is Trump repeatedly credited McCain with heroism.  The towel snapping about being a hero because you were captured was engaged in by Al Franken and Chris Rock in 2008!  Go google it!  They said almost the same thing Trump did, the same edgy joke, but Trump is this unforgivably cruel man.  Everybody thinks they know Trump came down the escalator and called all Mexican’s rapists.  Not true.  Look at the tape.  He was talking about people come here illegally. Some dangerous criminals.  Some good people. His point was we should have legal immigration. That is reasonable, but the media caricatures it, and demonizes Trump.  People notice this.  Of course it hardens hearts.”   He concludes by saying  “Look, I don’t care for Mr. Trump. I want to send the missionaries after him. If he loses it will be his own fault. Mr. Biden is not a formidable challenger. He is a nice man, but everybody knows that. I would not let Trump near my daughter or sister.  Nor Bill Clinton by the way. But I don’t look to politicians for that.  Christians know the story of King David. Elections are not a good conduct medal. They are about public policy. Trump’s policies line up with my beliefs.”

As I departed, I asked my host why I felt like I was conducting some kind of anthropological study, talking to bikers and Trumpers.  He said something very incisive. “Brother, this may be the beginning of wisdom on your part. We need more understanding and less demonizing all around.”  I asked if it was too late. What if the election is contested, if one half of the country thinks the other half is cheating, and assaulting their own freedom? “That,” he said, “would be time to pray.”