| LOOK AWAY Documenting the Crude and Sexist Items from the Trump Campaign Trail Paul Sherman X Park Press, October 2017 |
Rating: 5.0 High |
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| ISBN-13 978-0-9992472-6-6 | ||||
| ISBN-10 0-9992472-6-3 | 175pp. | SC/FCI | $14.95 | |
"Fifteen minutes after Hillary Clinton placed her concession call to Donald Trump, the world watched and waited as the new president-elect slowly descended the stairs from the balcony overlooking his victory party. Trump, his family, and his closest advisors walked single file down a short runway toward the stage as music boomed through the hotel ballroom. Just before reaching the podium, he stopped and posed with his wife and children around an unusual prop: a glass display case with a red 'Make America Great Again' hat inside of it. "The elevation of the red hat by the Trump campaign is understandable. 'Make America Great Again' will likely go down in American history as one of the most influential political slogans, along with Lincoln's 'Don't Change Horses in Midstream,' Eisenhower's 'I Like Ike,' and Obama's 'Hope.' Historians have already speculated that the original red hat will end up at the Smithsonian Institution or a future Trump Presidential Library. However, sexist, crude, and racist messages also played an important role on the campaign trail. Vulgar slogans were pervasive on unofficial campaign materials distributed around Trump rallies. It wasn't uncommon to see a merchant selling 'Make America Great Again' hats next to a stack of 'Trump that bitch' bumper stickers. Before 2016, such items would have been unthinkable at a major presidential nominee's rally." – Page 6 |
Paul Sherman grew up in Austin, Texas, where he began collecting political memorabilia. He earned degrees in political science and Latin American studies from Brown University in 1992 and worked as a journalist, including a stint as news assistant for the Mexico City bureau of the New York Times. In 1999 he earned an M.B.A. from The Wharton School. He now works as a writer, newsletter publisher, and conference producer with Tech Wire Media. He lives in Washington, DC with his wife and two daughters.
To obtain the images displayed in this book, Sherman traveled to multiple rallies and campaign events. He describes his experiences in the Introduction. Here is one excerpt:
In late October, I attended a Trump rally in Virginia Beach on the campus of Regent University, the evangelical Christian university founded by Pat Robertson. As I walked across the campus and passed the Christian Broadcasting Network headquarters building, I saw one vendor selling buttons of the cartoon character Calvin, from Calvin and Hobbes, urinating on the word "Hillary." During a speech in front of the stately red-brick university library, a supporter held up a head of Hillary Clinton on a stake. Others held up shooting targets with Hillary Clinton's face in the middle of cross-hairs. One vendor sold a bumper sticker that declared the country needed a president "with a cock." At the end of the rally, I bought buttons that read, "Fuck Mainstream Media" and "Lock her Up and Throw Away the Key." The vendors were just feet from the Secret Service tent, legally set up on the campus of one of the most prominent Christian institutions in the country. Once the campaign was over, Trump seemed to applaud his supporters' tactics. With Christmas trees as his backdrop, he told supporters in Orlando during one of his Thank You Tour events in December that he was aware of what was going on in the crowds. "You people were violent, vicious, screaming 'Where's the wall? We want the wall,' he said. "You were nasty and mean and vicious and you wanted to win." – Page 17 |
At this point there's not a whole lot that needs saying about the Trump campaign, or Trump the man, that hasn't already been said before. Neither he nor anyone who supported his administration would reject any breach of law, custom, civility, or good taste. The same is true about the people who flock to his banner. They are crude, rude, and barely interested in thoughtful evaluation. The images collected in this book tell an eloquent story. For that reason, I consider it a must read — or a must see. However, "must read" applies because of that Introduction. Read it. View the images. Marvel at the coarseness of which our country is capable, and be forewarned. Then pass it on to alert someone else.
To contact Chris Winter, send email to this address.