Last weekend I had the privilege of visiting Des Moines days before the Iowa Caucus and witnessing the campaigns of the leading Republican candidates before the first electoral contest of the year. What stood out most, after the four-day excursion, is how these candidates and their supporters responded to protests and backlash.

Their responses to pushback from the other side of the political spectrum reflects the state of the Republican party and American politics at large. A core aspect of democracy is being able to disagree while maintaining respect, but what I saw last weekend showed me that this aspect of democracy is dead. 

To be clear, I attended the campaign events of Donald Trump, Ron Desantis, Nikki Haley and even Asa Hutchinson, with every single one of them experiencing a protest of some kind. The reactions that took place tell us something about each campaign, with the more alarming of the four occurring at a Trump rally on the day before the Caucus.

After waiting for several hours for the man himself to appear, Trump entered the stage that was temporarily set up at a nearby college. After a minute or two of staring into the crowd, Trump began his typical off-the-cuff style of rambling while hitting every point and issue of importance to conservatives. A rhetorical emphasis on “fighting” to take back the country from pedophiles, perverts, illegal aliens and “radical left Democrats” was present throughout the discourse with an unhealthy dose of misinformation sprinkled in. 

All in all, Trump’s statement that “They’re trying to silence me”—referring to his numerous indictments—“but they are (really) silencing you” sums up the rally. His populist appeal to the crowd evoked inspiration, making them feel as if they have a lot at stake in the 2024 election. It is no surprise that his supporters acted the way they did when someone in the crowd interrupted him. 

While I could not gather what the woman said, it was clear that it wasn’t a friendly comment. Trump was quick to snap back saying: “Go back home and cry to mommy” while people in the crowd booed her and even physically pushed her out of the room. “She’s so young and immature” he continued before a series of USA chants broke out. Trump proceeded to thank the crowd, concluding that comments like the protestor’s “always adds excitement.” 

While the reaction may not be that surprising, it is symbolic of a new era of politics where opposing views are vehemently discouraged. Rather than addressing her statement in a way to prove her wrong, Trump outright delegitimized her ability to even conjure up a valid opinion. Emphasizing her age and attaching it to immaturity is an attack on her identity, not an attack on her political stance.

A similar experience occurred at a Ron DeSantis event later that day. His last round of Iowa campaigning took place in an energized and packed event space next to a bar. He primarily emphasized his resumé as governor of Florida, with his approach to avoiding COVID restrictions and his policy regarding “parental rights” being heavily repeated. 

After a comparatively short stump speech, he opened the event up to questions. After about two questions, DeSantis called on a young woman in the back who asked as a “staunch supporter of gun violence, how do you propose we fight gun (death) prevention?” DeSantis was quick to ask her where she was from for her to respond, “the West Coast.” He then aggressively asked, “What are you doing here?” She said she was there to learn. “Well why don’t you learn to stop spreading propaganda,” was his final response, with the crowd combatively booing her from every angle. 

While it is fair to say that how the question was asked could be observed as slightly quarrelsome, DeSantis’s response was still wildly escalatory. Most politicians, especially in the years before Trump, would use an aggressive question like that to create a rhetorical contrast so that the strength of their character would stand out. DeSantis’s response, on the other hand, was not out of the contemporary norm, especially in the context of his speech. 

Most of his attention was focused on attacking something and portraying himself as a strongman. Whether that is fighting against Disney for telling kids “they can change their gender” or even fighting against COVID restrictions and “radical teacher unions,” DeSantis wanted his supporters to know that he was a man ready to fight. He even used his experience in the Navy and his deployment to Iraq to prove this point as well, even though most of his military experience had to do with the legal sphere.

This approach was extremely effective in rousing his supporters that night, and his light emulation of Trump’s rhetorical strategies did indeed give him a second-place finish in the Iowa Caucus, even after polls showed Haley ahead. This also might be why Haley performed more poorly than expected. 

Early in the morning of the Iowa Caucus, the word was out that Haley would be making a stop at a nearby diner. After waiting next to the bar behind all of the cameras, she finally showed up to give a brief interview with a reporter followed by the shortest stump speech of the trip. She went on to emphasize the border crisis and fixing the lawlessness in America before telling everyone in the diner to stop focusing on the past. She went to several tables to talk to Iowans before rushing outside where several students were holding up signs.

“HALEY: CLIMATE CRIMINAL” the signs read. Unfortunately, I was unable to gather her response to the signs, but it was not difficult to gauge what a couple of supporters thought of them. One woman screamed repeatedly inches from one of the protestor’s faces. “Go away!” she continued, stating “I’ve lived here for 57 years! You know nothing!” Eventually, she moved on, but was one-upped by another man who screamed: “Climate change is a hoax!” 

The responses from these two conservatives show us that there is even a demand among Haley supporters for a candidate who is willing to shut down opposing ideas aggressively. Her stance as the more moderate and career politician out of the supply of Republican candidates might mean that she is incapable of playing such a role, with DeSantis and Trump effectively filling the vacuum. 

The takeaway from these observations is that attacking and delegitimizing opposing opinions and ideas is not only effective within the Republican party, but has become the norm. It is one thing to see this on a screen every day, but when these interactions take place in front of your face, it fills you with a type of pessimism that is hard to describe. 

These are only the Republican primaries, and with the high likelihood that the general election will be between Trump and Biden, there is little to be optimistic about. Trump and his supporters were by far the most aggressive, and whether or not Biden wins in November, it is hard to imagine a reality where opposing ideas aren’t met with nasty words and the occasional fist.