The MSG Rally Told Us Everything We Need To Know About Trump. And It's Terrifying.
Racists, xenophobes, religious bigots and vicious traitors were all on prominent display at Trump's MSG rally. This is his "closing argument?"
Welcome to another installment of Life Its Ownself. I offer insight, analysis and context on Texas and national politics, as well as entertaining stories of life its ownself in the Lone Star State. If you like what you read, please 1) smash the Like button at the bottom of this installment, 2) subscribe to this newsletter, and 3) tell your 1,000 best friends to read and subscribe. Also, feel free to comment below. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Tuesday, October 29, 2024
Election Day is one week from today. I know, it’s hard to believe. It seems like only yesterday the Grand Old Party was “moving on from Trump” and Joe Biden could easily speak in complete sentences. Then we endured “the primaries,” which were supposed to bring forward the best and the brightest for our quadrennial exercise in selecting a leader. On the GOP side, Ron DeSantis was the new Golden Boy, “like Trump but without the baggage,” until he showed himself to be worse than Trump in some ways, briefly (?) turning the Sunshine State into a laughingstock. Nikki Haley’s comet then flared briefly, although she waited until it was all over to actually criticize the Orange Mad King – and then bent the knee anyways.
On the Democratic side, Dean Phillips, a former member of the Mamas and Papas, ran an insurgent campaign against incumbent Joe Biden, even suggesting – zoot alors! – that he was too old for the job. The derisive laughter could be heard from sea to shining sea, and Phillips faded back into nothingness.
We all know what happened next. Donald Trump pantsed Joe Biden in their first debate, and the pressure was on to get Joe to step aside. Eventually, he did (see how long you last against Nancy Pelosi!) and anointed Kamala Harris as his successor. After a brief interlude during which everyone tried to relearn how to pronounce her name, she was off and running and turning in a bravura performance. She united the Democrats (think about the implausibility of that sentence), stage-managed a terrific and positive convention, and returned the favor to Donald Trump, beating him like a borrowed mule in their debate and turning his campaign’s “we’ll debate Biden anytime” strategy into one of hiding from the former prosecutor like an embezzler on the run.
Which pretty much brings us to today. This is the period when, according to the Conventional Wisdom, the candidates and their surrogates are making their “closing arguments” to the American people. And so it was that on Friday, Trump was in Texas, condescending to meet with Blue Origin honchos after their boss Jeff Bezos killed the Washington Post’s endorsement of Harris. Meanwhile, Harris was in Houston with 30,000 people, listening to Beyonce celebrate “Freedom” and Texas Patron Saint Willie Nelson add his blessing.
Sunday, Trump held a rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City, and it was like a Rorschach test for his vision of America. The rally was five hours long (!!) and featured the world’s greatest combination of D-listers and outright unknowns spewing bigotry and hatred like their lives depended on it.
Ever heard of Tony Hinchcliffe? Neither has anyone else. But he contributed the following to our civic discourse: “"There's literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it's called Puerto Rico." That was just one of many offensive turds flung into the MSG punchbowl. Others, courtesy of the The Fucking News Substack site:
Democrats are the “enemy from within” and “A bunch of degenerates.”
Undocumented immigrants are “fucking illegals.”
A Black man in the audience had “carved watermelon” the previous night.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is a “sick son of a bitch.”
Harris is “The Antichrist.”
Harris is a “Samoan, Malaysian, low-IQ, former California prosecutor.”
"When I [Trump] left, New York was the place you wanted to be and now people just don't speak well of it."1
Harris “and her pimp handlers will destroy our country."
Harris has “imported criminal migrants from prisons and jails, insane asylums and mental institutions from all around the world, from Venezuela to the Congo. A lot of people are coming from the Congo prisons… Over the last month, 181 countries violated our laws.”
“The Palestinians are taught to kill us at two-years old,” according falsely to former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. He added, “They won’t let a Palestinian in Jordan. They won’t let a Palestinian in Egypt. And Harris wants to bring them to you. [Crowd: “Noooo.”] They may have good people. I’m sorry, but I don’t take a risk with people who are taught to kill Americans at two,” and then headed home to his luxury apartment one more time before he has to give it to the Georgia election workers he defamed.
“When it comes to Israel and Palestine, we're all thinking the same thing: Settle your stuff already. Best out of three: rock, paper, scissors. You know Palestinians will throw rock every time. And also we know Jews have a hard time throwing that paper.”
Latinos “love making babies. There’s no pulling out. They cum inside, just like they do to our country.”
Predictably, the hateful and bigoted tone of the event triggered a massive backlash, and the MAGA apologists stepped up gamely to defend the indefensible.
But why bother? The various walkbacks / clarifications / re-phrasings were unnecessary to anyone who’s remotely paid attention during the last year or, for that matter, the nine dreadful years since Trump clumped down his faux gold escalator to warn us about Mexican “rapists.”
This is Trump’s closing argument: America is a hellhole Third World country because it has allowed so many “others” to infect our national body. It needs a strongman to set it back on the right course. Of course, you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet, so there are no guarantees that when we use the power of the State to go after them, there won’t be collateral damage to your hopes and dreams.
One week out, the race seems neck and neck. Harris has a small but durable lead in national polling, which means she will probably become the eighth Democrat in the last nine elections to win the popular vote. But the prospects in the battleground states are a lot more dicey. This morning’s Real Clear Politics averages shows Trump with small leads in six of the seven battlegrounds.
Today’s situation reminds me of Jon Lovitz’s line during SNL’s mock debate in 1988 between George H.W. Bush and Michael Dukakis: “I can’t believe we’re losing to this guy.”
We’re at the point where the outcome is probably baked, just waiting to pull itself out of the oven. Unfortunately, that will not be the end of it: a whole component of the Trump strategy is to raise doubts about the integrity of the election and, if and where he loses, allege criminal malfeasance on the part of election officials.
But for today, the best thing is to VOTE! If you haven’t already, make a plan to vote. I am driving into Austin on Sunday just to make sure I can vote on Tuesday.
One of the perks of being elderly is that I can vote by mail. (I find it odd that I have to certify annually that I have not miraculously grown younger!) But I get my ballot in as early as possible. The vicissitudes of life deny any certainty of being able to vote on Election Day. Vote!
Yes - I CAN believe that Trump's trashy fear-mongering facist supporting creepy surrogates said all those hateful and profane things.
...What I CAN'T believe is that the race is tied - meaning that HALF of American voters support this Facist maniac. THAT's what's breaking my heart.