Democratic candidate Joe Biden speaks at a rally in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, accompanied by former President Barack Obama this Saturday. Drew Angerer / AFP
In the United States, dependence on the car is so pronounced - the very vastness of the country and its cities justifies it - that motorists can carry out a myriad of activities without having to dismount: watch movies, buy hamburgers, attend a mass or even do the covid-19 test.
What was not known until now was the modality of the car rallies, such as the ones that this campaign is starring the Democratic candidate Joe Biden: his exquisite care against the coronavirus has become a trademark of his third race for the White House.
This Saturday, Biden's caravan parked in various towns in the State of Michigan, one of those that can define the outcome of the elections, in the morning in Flint (100,000 inhabitants) and in the afternoon in Detroit, the sleepy -the favorite adjective of Trump to disqualify his rival— Auto Capital.
In the two acts Biden was accompanied by former President Barack Obama, and in the second, the presence of singer Stevie Wonder was also scheduled.
It is not a coincidence.
In the final stretch of the campaign, Biden has decided to use heavy artillery and has gone on to campaign with the nation's first black president, hoping to mobilize decisive African-American voters in the 2016 Democratic defeat. In 2016, Trump He took advantage of the low turnout among Michigan black voters to take over the state.
Since last week, Barack Obama has put his popularity and his rally experience at the service of Biden and has starred in several events in which he has repeatedly criticized Trump's response to the pandemic, in a tone he had never used in these four years Republican Administration.
Hours before the start of Biden's drive, in the parking lot of an institute outside of Flint, a long line of cars waited to enter.
"Will they let me pass if I don't have a ticket?" Loreen asked at the wheel, wearing a mask with the names on the Democratic ticket.
"I have already voted by mail, but I am very excited to see Obama ... and hopefully our next president as well."
Access, forbidden to pedestrians - a sad condition that turns the citizen on foot into an outcast - was protected by dozens of police officers and a dense line of school buses along the entire perimeter, hence the parking lot was only accessed by a few few dozen motorists, after checking their details in the guest list.
Across the campus, on the edge of a modest neighborhood that saw better times, a wide line of cars parked on the grass, behind a hundred people who had not obtained clearance to enter either.
They were mostly residents of the neighborhood and Flint, all African-American, and a dozen whites from neighboring towns.
“What if we live here?” Asks a very surprised Maureen, a translucent blonde, accompanied by her son Stephen at the wheel of a 4x4 so common in residential neighborhoods.
“Noooo, we live an hour away, but the trip is worth it to cheer on Biden in the last moments.
We don't want Trump anymore, enough of destroying the country. "
Maureen and Stephen, who had also voted by mail, tried to register to access the event, "but it was too complicated, it is seen that access is very limited to important people and close to the party."
The passage of Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer in an SUV with tinted windows raises more applause from those gathered in this parking lot than the caravan of speakers, powerful but discreet.
The one who is black and from Flint is Ruth Gilmore, an evangelical pastor in her early 70s, wrapped in a shawl and wearing thick wool socks to ease the cold.
“We are left out of the hand of God, as we are poor and we are black, we are not treated with the respect that every human being deserves, and that is precisely what I like about Biden, his humanity, his compassion, how he looks and addresses himself. to people, important or not;
how his eyes shine when he interacts with a child or an old man ”, he explains, although the fervor is not surprising in his case.
“I have voted Democrat all my life, how am I going to vote for Republicans, so that they crush us more?
We need investment, jobs, development and progress, and in return they only give us contaminated water, "says the shepherd, alluding to a case that shook Flint five years ago, due to the supply of lead-contaminated water to the population because it arose from a cheaper source.
Against division
Access to the institute's parking lot, from which only the perfect formation of vehicles and two huge cranes for television coverage and photographers can be seen, also leaves out a few journalists, but in the street there is plenty of entertainment: immediately a duel of honking horns and the occasional insult between the assembled Democratic sympathizers and a few Trumpian vans, who pass by making combs and somewhat uglier gestures at their opponents.
The box of the vehicles is bristling with masts with flags of the Trump campaign and others in which the president appears characterized as the Terminator, frankly very little favored, but the scuffle between one and the other does not happen to adults "because it is Saturday, sun and it's also Halloween, although because of the pandemic it seems like a normal day, ”jokes Rose, with a Biden banner in one hand and in the other the witch's cap, disguised in the perfect fashion of the popular party. in the morning.
“Flint, there are three days left.
In three days we can end the presidency of a man who has divided the country, who has failed to protect it, who has ignited the flames of hatred across America.
The message is going to be loud and clear: it is time for Trump to pack his bags and go home, we have had enough chaos, enough tweets, enough fear, hatred, failure, irresponsibility, ”Biden's voice echoes through the speakers , and the guests on the lawn break to applaud.
Excited, Diane Smith, a blonde pensioner crouching behind a wool hat, bursts into cheers and almost tears.
“Trump has taken this country to an unimaginable place.
Hatred, racism, misogyny, his attitude towards those who are weak are not acceptable in a country as big as this, built with the effort of all.
We no longer have imagination, or strength, for another four similar years ”, he says.
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