WESTERVILLE
“The people aren’t there, so who’s deciding policy?” Bolzenius asked.
Earlier in the afternoon and only feet away, a man in battle fatigues with a rifle slung over his shoulder and a pistol strapped to his leg stood with a sign that had a picture of yet another gun that said, “We will not comply.” He refused to give his name, and he declined to say what he meant by “not comply.” Asked if that meant he intended violence in the event of a mandatory gun buyback — a proposal of one of the Democratic candidates — all he would say is that he intended to “defend” himself.
Nearby, Jim Flaningen of Westerville stood with his Ruger police carbine slung over his shoulder with a sign saying “My God-given rights might offend your ‘feelings.’” Asked how gun rights are God-given, Flaningen said his right to defend himself was.
He agreed that Westerville, a town that’s about as middle America as it gets, is not dangerous, but said, “I don’t feel like I’m going to get into a wreck, either, but I still wear a seat belt.”
Up the street from the free speech zone, supporters of former Vice President Joe Biden cheered and chanted on one corner, while those for businessman Andrew Yang did their thing on another. On the Biden corner, Kathy Ryan, a recent retiree from Westerville, said, “Four more years of Trump is suicide. He is just a rogue president.”
She said she didn’t have a strong preference between Biden and Warren; she just wants to oust Trump. “I have never done anything like this,” she said. “I just didn’t feel like I could stay home.”
Across the street, former Westerville resident Charlie Tuttle of Minot, North Dakota, was selling Trump caps for $20 to $30 and Trump hardhats for $100. He Crowds gathered around Main and State streets in Uptown Westerville as the Democratic candidates debated at Otterbein’s Rike Center. William Hammond talks gun control with Jennifer Schorr, center, and Peggy Young in the “free speech” zone in Westerville. had a trailer full of the stuff, but he said, “I wasn’t coming here intending to sell, I just came to support Trump.”
On the sidewalk nearby was Joni Fuller of Westerville, wearing a Trump cap and Trump sneakers. “I’m just waiting for the swamp to get drained,” she said,
predicting that a massive corruption scandal will sweep many congressional Democrats and Republicans from office.
If she’s concerned about corruption, is she concerned that Trump refuses to release his tax returns? “So?” Fuller responded. “We don’t care.” Charles Tuttle, right, originally from Westerville, hugs a man Tuesday on the sidewalk off North State Street in Westerville. Tuttle came back to his hometown from North Dakota for the debate and ended up selling Trump merchandise.
There were a few heated confrontations between people of differing opinions, but there seemed to be more discussions than arguments. Michelle Hensley, an 18-year Westerville resident, said Westerville is not a place to get very nasty.
“It’s not an in-your-face kind of community,” she
said. “There’s lots of mutual respect here.”
And that’s the kind of person she said she would support for president: one who promotes civility and puts the nation’s interests ahead of his or her own.