At the Mid-State Fair in Paso, a cardboard Donald Trump attracts the MAGA faithful
.jpg "Dr. Bruce Jones, right, a candidate for San Luis Obispo County supervisor, greets visitors to the Mid-State Fair in Paso Robles under the gaze of a Donald Trump cutout in the background.")
Another horrific detail emerged from the latest Jan. 6 hearing in Washington, D.C.: Secret Service agents guarding Vice President Mike Pence were in such fear for their lives that they called their families to say goodbye.
Yet for a MAGA crowd on the other side of the country, it was almost as though Jan. 6 had never happened.
Inside one of the cavernous exhibit halls at the Mid-State Fair in Paso Robles — alongside vendors hawking jacuzzis, jewelry and high-heeled boots — a booth sponsored by the Republican Party of San Luis Obispo County was selling its brand of radical conservatism.
A life-size cutout of Trump was on full display — and made available to passers-by who posed next to the cardboard Donald, flashing “thumbs-up” and mugging for the camera.
They also checked out the MAGA paraphernalia: banners, buttons, ball caps, campaign brochures and stickers, including one that said “Guns don’t kill people, Alec Baldwin kills people.” (Fun fact: Donald Trump Jr. sells T-shirts with that same slogan on his apparel website.)
Granted, this is just one booth, yet it’s a sign of the support — even adulation — a disgraced former president still enjoys.
What the polls show
It is true that some minds are changing — a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll showed 40% of Republicans now believe Trump was at least partially to blame for the uprising, compared to 33% six weeks ago — but that still means a majority of Republicans believe he did nothing wrong.
Other polls show as many as 70% of Republicans still believe Joe Biden “stole” the election, despite hearing testimony that many of Trump’s advisers — including his own daughter — knew there was no evidence to prove that.
Given those statistics, it stands to reason that a MAGA booth would attract Trump loyalists, even as half the nation believes the former president should be prosecuted for his role in the insurrection.
Outsiders, though, might be surprised to see it at a county fair on California’s “left coast” — home to progressive bastions like Silicon Valley, Hollywood, and Berkeley.
San Luis County, though, is an outlier, a smaller version of Orange County, if you will.
Democrats are gaining strength here — they’ve taken the lead in voter registration — but there remains a strong contingent of conservatives promoting lies about stolen elections and attempting to undermine confidence even in our local elections office.
‘Family, faith, freedom’
The official SLO County GOP Party — which proclaims itself pro “family, faith, freedom, police, 2nd Amendment, science, women and 100% pro-American” — is vocal in its support of election denialism.
The party endorsed a candidate for county clerk-recorder who did not believe Biden legitimately won the election. (He lost by a landslide.)
It’s helping to raise funds for the $100,000 recount of ballots in the Jimmy Paulding-Lynn Compton race that Paulding won by 639 votes.
And Supervisor Debbie Arnold refused to certify the primary election results, citing a laundry list of “concerns” about voting machines that have been refuted time and time again.
County’s future hinges on the November election
The SLO County GOP is fighting hard to preserve its majority on the Board of Supervisors.
In November, liberal incumbent Bruce Gibson will face a challenge from retired physician Bruce Jones in a district that was gerrymandered to give Republicans the edge. The stakes are huge; the outcome of the election will determine whether SLO County can adopt policies aimed at supporting affordable housing, clean energy and an expansion of homeless services — policies the conservative majority has denied.
Jones, by the way, has been front-and-center at the GOP Mid-State Fair booth, shaking hands as the Donald cutout smiles in the background.
Most folks passing by are polite. Some are enthusiastic. And no one seems taken aback by the giant image of Trump.
It is a fun prop for a selfie, after all.
And who cares about those Jan. 6 hearings anyway?
