Trump is always wtf, but...
Jun. 22nd, 2016 02:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
I'm still just kind of boggling that Trump came to Oregon to talk about how he's going to swing the state red and get back to cutting down our trees (*hiss*). And he gave this speech in Eugene, of all places.
If you're not familiar with the peculiarities of the PNW political scene: geographically, most of Oregon and Washington are conservative, particularly Oregon. They get their hardcore progressive reputation (and votes) from small regions west of the Cascades, mostly concentrated in ultra-liberal urban centers like Seattle and Portland and, uh, Eugene—home of the University of Oregon. However, the population is also concentrated in those areas, which produces its own problems. There are more or less local issues, like secessionist sympathies ranging from violent to wistful, and intense environmentalism that is particularly intense among Democrats but part of PNW culture in general. In the last midterm elections, disastrous for Democrats, Republicans had talked about increasing logging and it ... ended badly.
So giving a speech about how he's going to make Oregon great again by chopping down more trees in EUGENE is just "???????????"
But he didn't end his tour of Democratic Cascadia there!
I was just reading about a dumbass speech Trump gave in Washington (HILLARY’S GONNA TAKE YOUR GUUUUNS) and normally I’d be indignant and morbidly amused, but I can’t get past the fact that he was there at all.
I mean, for one, he’s wasting his time going to Washington at all. It’s a deep blue state—more than Oregon, and I was certainly o.O at his speechifying in Eugene. But he didn't go to Seattle or Tacoma or even Walla Walla, but
LYNDEN
like... why on earth did he go to Lynden
why would anyone go to Lynden
...Except for speculaas and Edaleen Dairy, obvs. I assume he wasn’t there for the delicious, delicious ice cream.
This is maybe more bizarre to me than most people, because my hometown (Blaine/Birch Bay) is in the same county as Lynden and actually adjacent to it. As a child, I lived on Birch Bay-Lynden Road. Lynden is this little quasi-Dutch town known primarily for record-setting numbers of churches per square mile. My high school team's archenemy was Lynden Christian (because God forbid anyone suspect that the schoolchildren weren't Christian). There are severe town ordinances about lawnmowing. And about everything. Also, it's shit.
Seriously, I'm not exaggerating. Lynden is so heavy on farms and dairy that they constantly spray, uh, brown fertilizer around like other towns do water. You know the instant you reach Lynden by the reek of it.
Well, and because the entrance to the town is through a cemetery.
Also: while Whatcom County isn't particularly liberal, the county still overall votes Democratic (probably because the tiny towns are swallowed up by Bellingham). So Trump went to a blue county in a deep blue state to give a speech blatantly lying about HRC to an archconservative religious village that is a horror movie waiting to happen and literally shit.
It's ... the GOP race in a nutshell, I guess. But I have no idea why he's wasting his time with a town that's already going to vote for him, in a county that's probably not going to vote for him, in a state that will definitely not vote for him.
No idea why he went to Houston either, or thinks he can take California or Oregon, but ...
LYNDEN.
If you're not familiar with the peculiarities of the PNW political scene: geographically, most of Oregon and Washington are conservative, particularly Oregon. They get their hardcore progressive reputation (and votes) from small regions west of the Cascades, mostly concentrated in ultra-liberal urban centers like Seattle and Portland and, uh, Eugene—home of the University of Oregon. However, the population is also concentrated in those areas, which produces its own problems. There are more or less local issues, like secessionist sympathies ranging from violent to wistful, and intense environmentalism that is particularly intense among Democrats but part of PNW culture in general. In the last midterm elections, disastrous for Democrats, Republicans had talked about increasing logging and it ... ended badly.
So giving a speech about how he's going to make Oregon great again by chopping down more trees in EUGENE is just "???????????"
But he didn't end his tour of Democratic Cascadia there!
I was just reading about a dumbass speech Trump gave in Washington (HILLARY’S GONNA TAKE YOUR GUUUUNS) and normally I’d be indignant and morbidly amused, but I can’t get past the fact that he was there at all.
I mean, for one, he’s wasting his time going to Washington at all. It’s a deep blue state—more than Oregon, and I was certainly o.O at his speechifying in Eugene. But he didn't go to Seattle or Tacoma or even Walla Walla, but
LYNDEN
like... why on earth did he go to Lynden
why would anyone go to Lynden
...Except for speculaas and Edaleen Dairy, obvs. I assume he wasn’t there for the delicious, delicious ice cream.
This is maybe more bizarre to me than most people, because my hometown (Blaine/Birch Bay) is in the same county as Lynden and actually adjacent to it. As a child, I lived on Birch Bay-Lynden Road. Lynden is this little quasi-Dutch town known primarily for record-setting numbers of churches per square mile. My high school team's archenemy was Lynden Christian (because God forbid anyone suspect that the schoolchildren weren't Christian). There are severe town ordinances about lawnmowing. And about everything. Also, it's shit.
Seriously, I'm not exaggerating. Lynden is so heavy on farms and dairy that they constantly spray, uh, brown fertilizer around like other towns do water. You know the instant you reach Lynden by the reek of it.
Well, and because the entrance to the town is through a cemetery.
Also: while Whatcom County isn't particularly liberal, the county still overall votes Democratic (probably because the tiny towns are swallowed up by Bellingham). So Trump went to a blue county in a deep blue state to give a speech blatantly lying about HRC to an archconservative religious village that is a horror movie waiting to happen and literally shit.
It's ... the GOP race in a nutshell, I guess. But I have no idea why he's wasting his time with a town that's already going to vote for him, in a county that's probably not going to vote for him, in a state that will definitely not vote for him.
No idea why he went to Houston either, or thinks he can take California or Oregon, but ...
LYNDEN.
no subject
on 2016-06-23 05:34 am (UTC)no subject
on 2016-06-23 06:26 am (UTC)Portland does rank a bit higher on environmentalism (or did in 2008), but only barely, and Eugene is certainly one of the most hardcore ecoliberal cities in the country, so it's like... lol, what? Trying to turn the West Coast states is a waste of time anyway, but "I'll go to Eugene and talk about cutting down trees!" is a very special way of wasting time.
no subject
on 2016-06-23 07:29 am (UTC)Seriously, I strongly suspect that he effectively lives in an echo chamber at this point in his life. Which does not a functional anything make, but especially not a functional head of state.
no subject
on 2016-06-23 06:31 pm (UTC)