"This moonshine is so strong that Hillary Clinton soaks her sorrows and her emails in it.”

Knoxville, Tennessee - Sevierville, Tennessee

Playlist: Tyler Childers

Despite my better intentions, I turned in to the first place I saw confederate flags. These people probably have a lot to say, I supposed. It was a flea market in Sevier County, Tennessee, a small mountain town in the heart of the Great Smokey Mountains; a county that supported Trump 78% to Clinton’s 17%. An older gentleman in the flea market had a booth lauded by Trump and blue lives matter flags, filled with knock-off trump souvenirs. Buttons, Hats, old metal decorations, tea sets, a rebel flag pot holders, a hoarders paradise. Dale was his name, a lifelong resident who wore a hat that read “Protected by the 2nd amendment.” The state of democracy is “decent” he tells me but warns that gas is starting to go up and that the locals are concerned about the possibility of a new war and the threat of nuclear attack. He couldn’t actually vote for Donald Trump due to a felony conviction from his youth, but he supports him thoroughly.

”If they leave the president alone, he might be able to get a lot more done,” he tells me. He credits Trump for the increase in jobs and focusing on helping “Americans.” Despite his support, he doesn’t consider himself a Republican “I just look and see who’s gonna do the best, Republican and Democrat ain't got nothing to do with it,” he declared in his full east Tennessee draw. “I got a couple of people against Trump around here, but as long as they don’t shoot at me, I’m safe,” he jests, with an uproarious laugh that I can’t help but join in on. “My family is Catholic, but I prefer Christian,” he says the values that lead him to support Trump (I’m not sure to do with that one.) And on the infamous scandals that seem to engulf the current administration, he is tired of hearing about them, “everybody’s human.” “Even while they’re picking on him now, he’s still getting a lot more done.” An older woman joins and inquires about the price of the red Make America Great Again caps, at $10, they are quite a deal.

I say my good bye’s and start up a similar conversation with another purveyor in a blue Hawaiian shirt working out of a decked out University of Tennessee Van. Bill is a veteran, of what I can’t be sure, I inquire, and he responds, “No, no, not Army. I’m a cold war veteran, 32 years.” His table of wears is strikingly different, mostly rings and large knives. One wooden wine bottle holder shaped like a football player that both Bill and I agree is quite cool. What catches my eye is the portraits of JFK and FDR that sit beneath two Confederate flag hats. Bill was a democrat he tells me “till that woman started lying about Benghazi,” although I am not sure I believe him. On the recent school shootings plaguing the country he notes, “ain’t guns that are killing people, it’s the bills they are passing,” referring to what he sees as a Democratic effort to degrade the foundation of the American family. “They’re all corrupt up there,” Bill digs in. He begins to ask about my views, “this isn’t about me,” I insist. “But you do have views,” he presses. I cave. “I supported the lady you called a liar,” I tell him, to his dismay. “Even after all those lies?” he wonders aloud, almost angerly. He is small but fierce, animated but not malicious. I ask if he can have these sort of conversations with his friends, “You know, the truth shall set you free, I ain’t saying nothing that ain’t true.” The Democrats aren’t what they used to be, he lectures me, “ain’t what my daddy thought it was….FDR gave us social security,” he says gesturing to the portrait on the table, “but everyone else is trying to take it away. Everyone in the world has got their hands in it.” The conversation takes a decidedly anti-immigrant turn at this point, “Where I’m from, you take care of your family first. We are turning our back on our own people. It ain’t the immigrants sleeping under bridges, have you seen that?” Then listing a litany of services immigrants receive upon arrival, none of which are based in reality, but I don’t dare rebuke. “Don’t believe nothing anybody tells you, go out there and see it for yourself,” he closes. We share niceties, (I may or may not have invited him to Christmas with me in Austin.)

I peak around a bit in the rest of the flea market. It is starkly white. Skewing towards retirees who have settled in the mountains. I purchase a white and gold belt buckle from an older man from Wisconsin, before bidding farewell to the little town. Naturally, I head to a moonshine distillery as the conversation with Bill has turned me to the bottle. I participate in a tasting with an incredible bartender, a single mom with a thick Tennessee accent and quick wit. “I am registered to vote, but honestly I haven’t voted in the past two elections. I am republican, but I’m not just going to vote for somebody. They have to earn it.” We drink to that. “I used to tell political jokes while I was serving, but people are so damn sensitive I almost got fired.” I press her to tell me at least one, she smirks. “This moonshine is so strong that Hillary Clinton soaks her sorrows and her emails in it.” We drink to that. “If Donald Trump really wants to make America great again, he would be drinking seven bottles of Apple Pie Moonshine a day.”

I sobered up and headed back to Knoxville to chat with a friend from Virginia, who after 33 years living in the states, finally became a citizen this month. Penny is a licensing inspector for the state and lives in the small mountain town of Lindon, Virginia where she lives with her wife and two small children.“Anybody who says the American Dream is dead, their ancestors have been here too long,” she says as we sit with our feet in a hotel pool.“My two youngest sons are black, and they’ve never known a President who didn’t look like them. They don’t even think it’s a big deal. How cool is that?” Two weeks after the marriage equality ruling, she was married to her longtime partner in the middle of Sunday services at their local church. “Pictures from that day are the background on my computer,” she tells me, and when people tell her they don’t believe in gay marriage she pull that picture up, “This is my family, what about that do you find so threatening?” She is intent on engaging with people that she doesn’t agree with, “maybe something I say will stick with them one day,"even in her small mountain town. “It’s much better than living in the suburbs, here you know who the bigots are, they were hats. In the suburbs of Northern Virginia, you have no idea, they’re all hiding.” Penny applied for citizenship on inauguration day 2017, afraid of the anti-immigrant rhetoric of the new administration and a new law in Denmark that would allow her to retain her citizenship. “I didn't become a citizen because this country is perfect. I became a citizen to make this country better, I know I’m only one vote, but you can’t bitch if you don’t vote. I couldn’t stomach not being able to vote anymore.” She concedes that she did bitch a little bit without voting. But she was afraid to criticize the government to loudly while her citizenship was being processed, especially as multiple delays kept pushing her swearing-in back. “I told that judge if you had asked me 30 years ago if I would still be here, I would have told you no. I thought Americans were all self-centered,” referencing character from Dallas and Dynasty as her touch points to American culture. “I was wrong.” The swearing-in judge had two pieces of advice that stuck with her that day, 1) take in diverse opinion, talk to people you don’t agree with and come up with your own opinions 2) don’t forget where you came from, tell people your story, this is a country built by immigrants.

A large, intimidating man at her swearing-in ceremony from El Salvador appeared to be alone, his wife had work until after the ceremony had concluded. Penny approached him, started up conversation, and then forced him to take a picture to send to her as well as his mom.“Smile!” she demanded to his snarls, “You only become a citizen once!”