I intercepted the procession of vehicles with flashing lights and blaring horns as it crawled eastward along Route 28, which is a main avenue that runs through the leafy New Jersey commuter towns of Scotch Plains, Fanwood, Westfield, Garwood, and Cranford. I’d heard about this event just an hour before and decided to check it out. I didn’t know what to expect. This is Union County after all, a place that gave Hillary Clinton 132,000 votes versus only 62,000 for Donald Trump in 2016. It’s solidly blue. In fact, my drive over to the event took me through residential streets lined with “Biden/Harris” signs, as if running a Democrat gauntlet.
And yet, when I arrived at the lively scene, a Trump 2020 Parade made up of all models of cars, trucks, and motorcycles, most adorned in Trump flags, American flags, Blue Line police support flags, etc. I was quite impressed by what I saw. I parked my car and for the good part of an hour I stood on the sidewalk and watched vehicle after vehicle pass by with horns roaring, passengers leaning out of their windows cheering and waving, with thumbs-up all around. I also noticed people who were not a part of the parade itself, many driving west in the opposite direction, beeping their horns and flashing their lights in support. One woman was driving an un-adorned SUV and clearly had been caught in the parade. She looked very serious and so those of us on the side of the road naturally assumed, given the political demographics of this area, she was none too happy to be caught in a cavalcade of Trump supporters. Then she looked over to us, rolled down her window, and with a big smile said: “I’m caught in this! But I’m happy I am! I love Trump!”
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