I was out walking along Salisbury Beach in Massachusetts and Hampton Beach in New Hampshire this weekend. Although many businesses have closed for the winter, a lot of restaurants, arcades, and stores are open, including the ubiquitous T-shirt/sweatshirt stores. I like looking through these to see what the year’s latest trends are. The sayings on the shirts are occasionally funny*, and usually off-color, politically incorrect, and offensive. This adds to the charm. I noticed a common thread among the shirt stores this weekend, and the ones (Like DILLIGAF) that I saw earlier this summer along Lake George in New York.
All the shirts referencing Trump are very pro-Trump.
No shirts even mention any Democrats anymore, or any other Republicans. Nor are there any anti-Trump shirts. They’re all “Trump 2020” , or showing a muscular Trump Biker, or commenting on how he’s pwning the libs.
This isn’t an inevitable result. Yes, Trump is in the news. To a large degree, he IS the news. But only a couple of years ago I saw shirts at the beach that weren’t pro-Trump. They showed him in clown makeup, or as The Joker. Shirts on sale at Newbury Comics in Boston still say, for instance “I apologize about our President” in multiple languages. A quick look on the internet shows plenty of T-shirts critical of the President.
But there aren’t any at the Beach. Why is this? Are the beaches hotbeds of Deep Republicanism? Are only the pro-Trump people buying these shirts at resorts, so the anti-viewpoint isn’t worth displaying? Do fundamentally different types of people go to the beach than go to Newbury Comics?
All I can vouch for are the t-shirts commonly sold in stores on the southern Maine coast. I’ve never seen a Trump or GOP-oriented shirt, nor any promoting opposing political philosophies.
Most are locally flavored i.e. “York Beach”, feature Labrador retrievers or promote the joys of eating seafood and/or getting drunk.
I was in Lake George, NY, last month, and I was astounded at those t-shirts in the Dilligaf store (example here). Not only are they in the store, but they pretty much cover all of the windows of the shops. The only thing that I could think of is a common popularity with biker types.
I’ve never seen anything like that anywhere else. Maybe I’m sheltered, or just lucky.
I haven’t seen many Trump T-shirts locally (coastal North Carolina), but just last week I was at public health getting my flu shot and I saw a woman with three preschool aged children in tow going into the WIC (Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children) office wearing a “Trump 2020” sweatshirt.She may have been going in to berate the layabouts for being on the public dole, so I can’t make any assumptions.
As I say, they’re in New Hampshire as well. And no anti-trump or pro-Democrat shirts in either place.
DILLIGAF, by the way, stands for Do I Look Like I Give A Fck*. The chain started in North Miami Beach, and the Lake George stores (there are two of them) are branches. There was apparently some protest when it first opened there, because of the “obscene” connotations of the quasi-acronym.
That’s an enormous margin in ultra-liberal Massachusetts. And New Hampshire just barely went for Clinton, IIRC. No mistake, plenty of Trump supporters in those parts.
My guess is that the shirts are being stocked because they sell well among the tourists that shop at those stores.
It’s also possible that the stores are stocking the pro-Trump shirts because the owners are Trump fans, but it’s also entirely possible that the owners are indifferent about Trump (or even dislike him), but know a hot seller when they see one.
Oh, I’ve no doubt that they stock them because they sell well. Why would a business have them otherwise.
My question is WHY? The stores in NH and Lake George are exclusively very pro-Trump.
The above explanation about appeal to bikers might hold in Hampton Beach – New Hampshire resorts teem with bikers. But , as I pointed out, a couple of years ago Hampton was selling anti-Trump shirts, too. They’re gone now.
And Lake George isn’t exactly Biker Heaven – it appeals to the middle and upper middle class.
I don’t know the area, but my suggested answer still holds – the tourists who frequent those shops in those areas, as well, apparently like to buy pro-Trump shirts. There are a lot of fervent Trump supporters among the “middle and upper middle classes”, as well.
