Campaign 2016 Brings Political Passions To New Heights With Vandalism, Outrageous Stunts
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Wednesday's drama took to new heights the passions seen during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Whether played out on live TV or captured by surveillance cameras, campaign 2016 has been marked by the odd, the unusual and the angry.
"Anger is all the way around in this cycle -- much more so than in the past," political psychologist Bart Rossi told CBS2's Tony Aiello.
Rossie said we've seen that anger manifest in the theft of Trump signs, and the recent arson attack on a pro-Trump 'T' on Staten Island.
"People sometimes feel a rage -- an anger against someone or something -- and they act impulsively. In this case, Trump really kind of 'gets' you. Really agitates some people to act out impulsively and that retained anger shows up," Rossi said.
The passions have run high in support of the candidate as well, like when a Pennsylvania woman painted her farmhouse to support Trump.
"Sometimes we'll get a lot of honks and waves. Sometimes I'll get a thumbs down, but we'll just wave anyway," she said.
Rossi said the passionate supporters view Trump as the man to "Make America great again," as his campaign slogan puts it.
"This is how they show it. This is how they are emotionally charged, and this is how they may demonstrate that," Rossi said.
There's been an ugly tone to some of what's happening.
A Trump supporter used a slur against Hillary Clinton on a sign at his gas station, while a bar in Dublin, Ireland plastered a picture of Donald Trump in a urinal.
Was Wednesday's tower climb the height of the campaign craziness? We'll know in 90 days.
