The redneck Christmas parade

 

Crowds at a ‘redneck Christmas parade’ come up with one solution for their troubles: Trump

https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/08/politics/louisiana-red-neck-christmas-parade-trump/index.html

West Monroe, Louisiana

CNN

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Bryan Baker stuck a roll of toilet paper on a paint roller that he’d attached to a leaf blower, and switched the leaf blower on. A stream of white paper shot into the air and fluttered delicately to the ground. It was Baker’s twist on a tradition of the Bawcomville Redneck Christmas Parade, where marchers throw toilet paper – as well as toothbrushes, ramen noodles, beads, and candy – at spectators along the road in West Monroe, Louisiana.

The parade route went past people living in an RV and a tent, abandoned stores, a pawn shop, and a couple Dollar Generals. More than 30% of Bawcomville residents live below the poverty line, and the surrounding Ouachita Parish was deemed a persistent poverty county in a 2022 report by the Congressional Research Service. A 2015 documentary called “The Other Side,” which follows a man addicted to meth, was filmed in Bawcomville. The area is well-known locally as a poor community in need of better housing, and there’s a derogatory definition of a resident on Urban Dictionary (“characterized by having at least two broke-down vehicles on their front lawn…”).

West Monroe residents told CNN the economic strife they see every day affects how they plan to vote next year.

Jane Temple said she couldn’t wait for the general election for Trump to get back in and fix the economy. “We’re counting on him,” she said. “I think he cares. I may be wrong, but I think he does.” She said Trump wasn’t perfect but added, “For the most part, when he was in office, even with everything going on, he accomplished a lot.” As for Biden, Temple said: “I don’t think that he has a clue.”

William Thompson owns a convenience store in the area. Working there, he’d seen a lot of people struggle with meth and fentanyl. “I blame Biden for that, too,” he said. Given the chance, he will be voting for Trump in 2024, he said, “because he’s the only president in my knowledge who’s given back to the people and helps the people.”

“If he’s in jail, I’d vote for him,” Thompson said.