Hillary and Michelle take on Winston-Salem

I, along with roughly 11,000 other people, attended the Hillary Clinton/Michelle Obama rally at our very own Wake Forest coliseum last week. Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama’s rally was centered around the importance of voting and was understandably attempting to sway voters to the left. I found it immensely interesting, however, that Hillary was the one to introduce Michelle (seeing as Hillary is the one running for President). Nevertheless, Hillary’s speech was packed full of pointed comments toward Trump and pleas to commit to voting on November 8th. During the talk, Hillary stressed the need to protect females in this election, directly feeding off the ‘girl power’ ideal by saying “indeed dignity and respect for women and girls is also on the ballot this election,” implicitly referring to the numerous sexual assault violations Trump has been accused of.

However strong and confident Hillary seemed while at the podium, nothing compared to the immense grace and elegance Michelle Obama alluded as soon as she stood up to speak. As soon as she opened her mouth, the entire coliseum began to anxiously await her powerful words to come. Within her speech, she stressed the potential dangers this election holds. (Although never mentioning Trump by name, it was clear he is who she was referring to). In reference to a country run by Trump, Michelle stated: “hopelessness… a vision of a country that is weak and divided, a country in chaos, where other citizens are a threat,” signaling similarities to a moral panic, as Goode and Ben-Yehuda study. The concern of both Hillary and Michelle, the hostility of Trump’s actions, and the volatile way in which he speaks all point toward the presence of a potential moral panic if Trump were to take office. Nevertheless, Hillary exuded confidence throughout the entirety of the rally, as if she were positive she had it in the bag already. I guess we’ll find out come this time next week if her confidence was justified.