San Antonio, the town that I am pleased to say is my place of residence, made the national and international news this week and not in a good way. My particular quadrant of suburban San Antonio was the scene of the now-notorious MAGA-hat-stealing-and-drink-throwing-incident. (A good selection of the resulting headlines are here )
The Whattaburger outlet where this took place is about two and a half miles from my house, adjacent to a brand-new Walmart, and the bank branch I used to do business with, and around the corner from the bank branch that I now do business with. The arrested-and-released-on-bail Kino Jimenez lives in another outlaying suburb apparently with his mother. He also seems to have committed a series of prior offenses; not exactly an upright citizen, it appears, and one with extraordinarily poor impulse control. Looking at the video of this incident and keeping in mind that nothing good happens at 2 AM I see a rather thuggish Hispanic guy getting his jollies picking on a couple of weedy Anglo teenagers in an all-but-empty-restaurant in the wee hours. I’d venture a guess that if it hadn’t been the MAGA hat, it would likely have been something else. Bullies always find an easy target, and a ready justification for their thuggish impulses.
Ah, the MAGA hat, which apparently serves as a rage-trigger for leftists everywhere. The very curious thing is that I have never seen a person wearing one in real life, real time, in my town. Not around where I live, work, do business. I brought this up with the Daughter Unit and she couldn’t ever remember seeing any person wearing a MAGA hat either. Not any time in the last two years; The kid with a MAGA hat in the Whattaburger may have been the only person in the neighborhood choosing to wear one although I very much doubt he was the only Trump fan. In the last two and a half years, we’ve noted pro-Trump bumper stickers on only a handful of cars, too. There were no Trump yard signs in the election run-up, either and it’s not hard to figure out why. No one really wants to provoke a confrontation with a self-important, loose-cannon loudmouth like Kino Jimenez. No one really wants to have their drink thrown in their face at a restaurant, or make an unscheduled trip to the emergency room, or have their car keyed or worse. As my daughter says; we’ve been schooled in the fine art of not attracting bad attention to ourselves.
Out there in your world, are there many people that you have observed, wearing MAGA hats and clothing, to anything other than a political rally? Is a lot of Trump support still flying under the radar not attracting hostile attention in public? Discuss.
Son #4, who is originally from Romania, was in the USMC, and now lives in Tromso, Norway asked for a “Trump hat” for his birthday. He didn’t vote for him in the primaries, but is enjoying how this is playing out where he is. Oslo, and maybe Bergen are very liberal, but the rest of Norway is not very happy with too much immigration, not even from Swedes and Danes and Brits. They are too smart to be obvious about this, but they mutter to those they believe will understand. My son hears an earful.
BTW, Son #2 does not approve of me sending him the hat, and son #1 is a little queasy. Sons #3 and 5 are fine with it.
No MAGA hats here in Austin, although I suspect there are more Trump supporters here than the local media and the local government would have you to believe. Conservatives in Travis County don’t have much of a voice in government, and we mainly just hunker down, work and go about our business. I would not wear a MAGA cap in public in Austin, nor would I put a conservative bumper sticker on my car. No yard signs. Very careful with public Internet commenting, as i have no wish to be doxxed.
The kid with a MAGA hat in the Whattaburger may have been the only person in the neighborhood choosing to wear one – although I very much doubt he was the only Trump fan.
IIRC, while he was from San Antonio, he now lives in Orlando with his family. He was visiting San Antonio. As such, he may not have been up on MAGA cap protocol in San Antonio.
For those who claim that MAGA caps signify racism, Trump got a higher percentage of the Black and Hispanic votes than Romney did. IIRc. Trump got 29% of the Hispanic vote.
AVI, how does your Houston area son line up on the MAGA cap?
I think that my neighborhood is overwhelmingly conservative – I’ve talked to many of my neighbors about it, over the last few years. Not wild about Trump, initially – but went out for him in consideration of the frightful alternative. I am pretty certain that my own attitude about wearing identifiable clothing is a holdover from being stationed in Europe. A gut reaction; don’t stand out, be identifiable. Stay in the background, don’t attract the attention of political fanatics, or terrorists. Or jerks like Kino Jimenez.
The Whataburger in question is located at 12309 Nacogdoches Road, which is in Precinct #4174, which went 167 Trump (38%), 260 Hillary (59%) in 2016.
https://www.bexar.org/DocumentCenter/View/9441/November-8-2016-Election-Totals-Report
A Good few precincts over from the one where I live, Gringo.
I see them at political events. And there were a few at the 4th of July parade over in Westcliffe that our TEA Party participated in. Mind you, this is an armed parade led by County Sheriffs [and with enough AR-15’s in the crowd to equip a rifle company]. There were a few Democrat old ladies in the onlookers who were cussing us and flipping us off, be we counted that as an amusing feature and not a bug.
While I don’t think that it will be MAGA hats, I suspect that shortly there will be semi-standardized field expedient “uniform” items so that conservatives can identify each other in kinetic situations.
SB, a good few of my neighbors think we should have a secret handshake, or a small discreet pin or ring or something.
From April of 2015 until April of 2017 we were living in Greenville, SC. We were only there 2 years, but we got to know most of the people in the subdivision because: a) we have dogs that we take on 2 walks a day, every day, which is a great way to meet people and b) the people of SC are some of the friendliest I’ve met anywhere. In the run-up to the election many of our neighbors had Trump signs in their yards and Trump stickers on their cars, including a black family and the college-student son of a guy two doors down. This doesn’t count the “Hillary for Prison” or the “Lock Her Up” signs. Based on conversations with the neighbors, I’d say about half of them were Trump supporters before the SC Primary and about 80% were afterwards. I asked several with the signs and stickers if they were concerned about vandalism or retaliation. They just laughed. Of course, they were also mostly NRA members.
We now live in SW Florida, and here I’ve seen many Trump-supporting bumper stickers, shirts and even a few MAGA hats. This is a pretty conservative neighborhood…..on my street of about 2 dozen homes we have 4 retired military personel, 2 retired LEOs and a retired firefighter, that I know of.
Personally, I don’t wear much political stuff, but I do have an “Infidel” (in Arabic and English) hat that I bought a couple years ago at Ft. Benning, and a small vintage elephant head pin that says “Wilke” on it. Flag lapel pins too, of course, for dress-up occasions. Never had a negative comment on any of those.
“Willkie”…..sheesh. I’ve misspelled his name more times than I’ve gotten it right on the first try.
Being in Louisville I don’t expect to see many and haven’t, though I wonder how the guy at work with the ‘Drumpf’ hat on his desk counts. I did see plenty of pro-Trump signs in southern Indiana in the fall of 2016.
I want one! Its the perfect counter cultural statement. With my RCMP pants, MAGA hat and nice Black Leather Jacket, and way past shoulder length white hair, I’m a fashion icon!
No? ;(
PenGun, you must post a selfie MAGA-PenGun photo. We are eagerly awaiting!
Perhpaps you should pay a visit to Seattle with your MAGA cap!
@ Gringo – He is the son objecting. I blame the Methodists.
I have never seen one. An occasional bumper sticker, on a large pickup, but that is it. What astounded me about this last election is the invisible support Trump has – and you should see pictures of his rally in Montana a day/2 ago.
When I saw that during the campaign that’s when I hoped “against hope” – that he would win. Hillary had trouble filling seats at appearances. Trump has people outside, unable to get in.
I’ve never seen a MAGA hat in person.
The areas I normally move in, (Deer Park, Laporte, heavily OCAWU Union turf) and the South Side of Houston (Sheila Jackson Lee’s zone) aren’t the places you’d expect to find one. NRA caps are another story.
You get out into Pearland, I expect that they’re probably all over, just don’t see them.
The only Trump bumper sticker I saw in LA in 2016 was on a Tesla, a sort of sprig of garlic to ward off vampires.
We now live in Tucson, which is a mix of college kids and faculty, retirees and military.
We live in a district that voted for Trump in 2016.
The only MAGA hat I’ve seen in person was brought back from the inauguration by one of the officers at the PD I work at.
Now, I live in a bit of an odd environment – a rural county (Brazos) that’s home to a (huge) university (Texas A&M), but that university may well be the most conservative public university in the country. (Pretty sure BYU has the overall title wrapped up there.) I don’t live in town, and my neighborhood is pretty conservative. (Definitely pro-gun – we’ve been told by the FedEx guy not to worry about package thieves; they stay away because they don’t want to get shot.)
I’ve seen Trump bumper stickers, almost all on pickup trucks. If you want to see a higher concentration, check the parking lot outside a gun store. Even higher, outside a gun show.
But I probably see more signs/stickers (especially signs) for the guy tilting at the Ted Cruz windmill come November. Can’t recall his name off the top of my head – I keep mixing it up with t.u.’s mascot.
I’ve seen a few signs for the irish bento box around but not many
“a good few of my neighbors think we should have a secret handshake, or a small discreet pin or ring or something.”
I recall seeing an app a few years ago for this. It was for people carrying who found themselves in a situation with an active shooter or other similar crisis. The members would organize and coordinate a response with the app. Wish I could remember the name, but I think it flamed out after only the initial release.
In my CCW class yesterday, I learned that a policemen can order you to assist.
It was pretty interesting, in spite of a jerk at “old guys and guns” who pretends to be an expert.
I also learned that if you pack a gun in your checked luggage and go through a non-gun friendly state to change planes, the baggage is re-xrayed and the gun will be seen. You could be arrested. In spite of the jerk, there is a case in New Jersey, the worst state for guns in the US.
He is appealing it to the Supreme Court.
What happened to my comment ?
This is really screwed up.
Moderation queue, Mike. Sorry, I was actually away from my computer for a time.
Living in the great (and seriously under-populated) South West, I too do not recall ever seeing someone wandering around wearing a MAGA cap. On the other hand, nor do I recall ever seeing someone with an “I’m with her” tee-shirt or similar paraphernalia. And this in a county which voted for the Crook !
Still see some Obama stickers on limping Priuses (Piouses, as they are called in this area). But in the last Presidential election season, there were very few yard signs for any candidate. Perhaps there is a general unspoken understanding that Politics has now become Religion, especially for the Lefties; and well-mannered South Western people don’t insult someone else’s religion publicly, regardless of their private thoughts.
Gavin, I think that conservatives are generally going undercover – for the reason of not wanting to be hassled by random strangers, and also for not wanting to pick unnecessary fights with neighbors. A couple of our neighbors are the harmless and old-style libs. Nice people for all that, and also mostly over 70. Why kick them in the teeth for their long-time religious views? We just smile, shrug and change the subject to something that we both care about. Gardens. Our pets. General conditions in the neighborhood. Stuff like that.
But way more of our neighbors are conservative.
“Now, I live in a bit of an odd environment – a rural county (Brazos) that’s home to a (huge) university (Texas A&M), but that university may well be the most conservative public university in the country.”
Dave L., I live there as well. Graduated from A&M as have my two son’s and daughters-in-law. I worked and taught there for six years, my wife worked there for 16. I agree that A&M is conservative on the spectrum of public universities, but that really indicates just how progressive/socialist/social justice the rest are.
The faculty in the humanities and liberal arts colleges can hold their own with any leftists/statists/socialists anywhere. There are some older conservatives/libertarians/patriots still remaining, but the remnant is small.
The science (other than life science), engineering, agriculture and business colleges are more balanced, but have a good dose of SJW/progressive/statists, especially among their younger faculty. After all, from where can they recruit?
The administration is pretty much completely sold out. Nothing like national searches lead by politically active faculty and senior staff to find the cream of the progressive crop and turn a university into a money making machine complete with $197,000,000 athletic revenue last year, half a billion dollar football stadium and a $7 million a year football coach with a 10-year contract.
Since many Aggies are legacy connected for even generations and study things like engineering and agriculture, the student body is more balanced than the faculty and administration.
I’ve watched this trend accelerate over the past 25 years. I wouldn’t wear a MAGA hat or shirt on campus these days, but we have every special studies department you can name full funded and active. Who else takes the time to sit on all the search committees?
Not trying to highjack the thread, but don’t expect any part of the Academic-Industrial -Political Complex to make America great or welcome any efforts to do so.
Death6
Celia, it wasn’t moderation. Half the comment disappeared. Anyway, nothing major.
I’ve not seen any hats in Katy, but I confess, I’m not out much.
Gee, there’s a lot of folks from Texas on this thread.
Secret handshake? I thought we were all going to make comments about Bastiat or somebody.
Meanwhile, while you huddle in your closets like political perverts, the enemy is ratcheting up the levels of implicit and actual violence.
https://hotair.com/headlines/archives/2018/07/mcconnell-chased-kentucky-restaurant-protesters/
http://dailycaller.com/2018/07/09/man-harasses-kellyanne-conway-grocery/
http://dailycaller.com/2018/07/09/bartender-confronted-stephen-miller/
https://hotair.com/headlines/archives/2018/07/viciousness-trump-aides-endure-public-fury-toward-presidents-policies/
http://dailycaller.com/2018/07/08/reines-tweets-payback/
Remember, when they call us Nazis, they’re projecting.
Phil, I doubt any of us are hiding in closets. We’re just sussing out the lay of the land and picking our fights carefully. No good wasting ammunition, eh?
Tucson is pretty lefty but Martha McSally has been our Congress woman for a while and the lefties hate that.
However, I did take my CCW class last weekend and should have the permit soon.
It’s an interesting state. The city is a combination of college town and the politics thereof, military and retirees.
I saw a Trump Train Tshirt while on vacation in FL. Late teens, early 20s,male, with a group of friends.
Interesting, Faith – I wonder if being a Trump fan is now a way for youth to rebel, and stick it to the man in a way that will hurt?