GOP throws their own Spirit of America event on Flag Day
Fast forward eight months, and the momentum appears to be shifting.
This Saturday, the "No Kings" anti-Trump rally drew over 2,000 attendees.
A GOP Spirit of America fundraiser on the same day was less than a quarter of that size, a crowd that was dwarfed by the vast venue of the Maggie Valley Festival Grounds.
Most of the 500 attendees at the GOP event showed up for the 11 a.m. Wrestling for Christ event. By early afternoon the crowd was down to about 50. There was a $5 entrance fee for the event, and an array of food vendors offered plenty of choices for the crowd.
Some stayed for the mid-afternoon results of the car/truck show, then moved on. There were just a handful of supporters who stayed to the end of the live music performances held during the day.
Michael Loomis, newly elected chairman of the Haywood Republican Party, had a ready explanation for the changed numbers. Those who pulled out all stops to help elect President Trump are no longer frustrated, he said.
"I think Trump is more popular than ever," Loomis said. "He's doing exactly what he said he was going to do."
When asked about the issues being protested on the other side of the county, the Spirt of America crowd easily dismissed them.
There should be no concern about martial law as long as protests are peaceful, said Joshua Mashburn, who was staffing the emergency medical station at the event.
"If it was a peaceful protest, no, there shouldn't be troops, but with what was happening in Los Angeles, it was pretty clear Trump was just doing what Eisenhower did in the 1950s," Loomis added.
As for tardiness in following judicial rulings, Loomis expressed support of the Trump Administration viewpoint, arguing federal judicial rulings should have no power beyond the district to which they were appointed.
Loomis and Mashburn thought it was ironic that Democrats were now speaking out about first amendment rights after federal efforts under the Democratic administrations pressured social media companies to crack down on what one side considered misinformation.
"Now they're wanting to protect freedom of the press?" Mashburn asked skeptically.
Terry Ramey, one of five Republican Haywood County Commissioners, said he was curious about how Democrats were late to the game when it came to defending the U.S. Constitution.
As for protests in general and calling in federal troops, none were concerned.
"They were blocking traffic and causing civil unrest," Mashburn said.
Betty Pumphrey, who lives along Jonathan Creek, made no secret about her feelings on the downtown Waynesville protest rally. With extended family in town, she said there was no way her relatives would be visiting the place where they spent a lot of money on each visit.
She also objected to holding the rally on the courthouse steps, saying they should have gone to a ballpark or somewhere.
"We don't want to see it," she said.
"This is a family event," she said of the Republican gathering. "We used to be in the Democratic Party, but the party left us."
Pumphrey and her husband, Sonny, are charter members of the Defenders of Law Enforcement North Carolina club and were the 13th charter members of the Wheels Through Time Museum in Maggie Valley.
"I'm 100% Trump because he's a businessman. If he could run the country like he did his businesses, we will do fine," she said.
She also objected to the doors of the country being thrown open to all, including criminals, she said.
When several Spirit of America goers heard about the number of people protesting, their response was to wonder how many of the protesters were paid or bussed in.
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