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I was in Orlando all day yesterday attending a business conference called “Get Motivated.”  The purpose of the conference was what the name stated.  I was one of 13,000 people attending at the Amway Arena, the home of the Orlando Magic.  The conference was an organized function, ultimately designed to offer services for which the attendees would sign up for… for a fee, of course.

I’m not writing about this to let you know I was at the conference.  Instead, I want to let you know what I observed about the other 13,000 people who were there.  Throughout the day, there emerged a “personality” of the crowd, characterized by what they applauded for, what they laughed at, and what they thought was outrageous.

Before I tell you what the crowd was like, let me first identify some factors that might explain what I saw.  First, the crowd was from Central Florida.  I am a relative newcomer here, but as I understand the people who live here, they are by and large fairly conservative in their political views.  I’m sure the spectrum of viewpoints was represented, but still, I would say that at least many folks in this part of the country are down home country folk.   Second, the lineup of speakers were for the most part from the conservative side.  The speakers included Lou Holtz, Colin Powell, Rudy Giuliani, Laura Bush, Terry Bradshaw, Zig Ziglar, and others.

Here are some characteristics of the crowd that I noticed.  There were many references, by almost every speaker, to the military, and the crowd erupted in long and loud cheering every single time.  The conference gave away door prizes during the day, and one prize was a cruise.  To win the door prize, attendees had to stand up and dance to music being played.  Judges were spread out over the arena, and those who danced with the most conviction were selected to come up on stage to compete for the prize.  Among the 10 people picked to go up on stage was a Marine in dress uniform.  As the 10 finalists danced on stage, the emcee would hold her hand over each dancer, and the loudest applause would allow the contestant to continue.  The dancers were going wild trying to win… all except the Marine.  This guy just wobbled around bashfully while the others were laying it all out there.  But who do you think the crowd picked?  Yep.  The Marine.  The others didn’t have a chance.

Another interesting characteristic of the crowd was their vocal distaste for the concept of political correctness.  Over half of the speakers, in one context or another, expressed the view that political correctness is going to be the death of this country.  Each time this was mentioned, the crowd erupted  A similar response was evoked when the topics of the traditional family and the country’s deficit was mentioned.

So why should I be surprised?  After all, I am in an area that, while maybe not terribly conservative, is certainly not strongly liberal either.  And the lineup of speakers certainly seem to lean to the right.  I came away surprised because it was strikingly clear to me that this kind of public mindset is really different than the mindset the media describe.  This realization was stunning in its clarity.  It was so striking that I sensed it immediately.  And it was weird.

So tonight, I’m wondering about some other parts of the country.  I wonder how the people in Atlanta, or Nashville, or Kansas City, or Denver really think.  All things being equal, it wouldn’t be hard to think that there are more conservative people across America than we are being led to believe.

Whether that’s true or not, it was still cool to see how much support our troops received from the crowd.  And yes, I voted for the Marine, too.

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