The Hoods Were Off At Madison Square Garden

Donald Trump's MAGA rally at Madison Square Garden was a lazy, but terrifying, reboot of 1939. However, it gave us a clear look at a modern authoritarian movement that the majority can still reject.

(Andrew Kelly/Reuters)

Perhaps one of the most offensive aspects of a bad carnival barker or a hack comedian is an utter lack of original material. You can’t just rely on rebooting outdated classics first introduced in the 20th century. You need something fresh. Let’s take “Make America Great Again” for example. It’s the slogan of Donald Trump’s MAGA brownshirts that reimagines a delusional, romanticized past in which white men ruled with benevolence, Christian grace, and masculine strength. He cribbed it from Ronald Reagan. 

True to form, Trump held a rally at Madison Square Garden just like the Nazis did in 1939. The swastikas have been replaced with red hats and the fascist now wears orange makeup instead of a mustache. The content, however, is pretty much the same.

The self-proclaimed “king of New York” returned home where he currently owes more than $400 million due to fraud. He was greeted by his loyal sycophants, radicalized in part by right-wing media and “economic anxiety” which always seems to come in the form of racism, misogyny, and anti-immigrant bigotry. He brought along a rogue’s gallery of friends and celebrities who shamelessly sacrificed whatever shred of dignity they had left to defend a twice-impeached criminal who has promised to unleash the military against U.S. citizens and terminate the Constitution. Trump’s meandering speech at the Garden offered no new insights, no “concept of a plan” for healthcare, and no meaningful policies to uplift middle-class families. It was Festivus in October. The same old shit. He mocked Kamala Harris as a “low IQ individual,” attacked journalists, and said the U.S. was an “occupied” country. Yadda yadda yadda. Nothing new.

Yawn.

The one exciting bit of news from this cheap Nazi knock-off rally is that it served as an unintentional gift to Kamala Harris and the Democrats ahead of the election.

There’s a reason why Republicans have deliberately used dog whistles instead of full-on racist bullhorns to advance their Southern Strategy and peel off disaffected white voters and people of color who think they’re white. You need to maintain some semblance of plausible deniability. You don’t quote Hitler, as Trump has done, and talk about “bloodlines” and accuse immigrants of “poisoning the blood.” No. You talk about “welfare queens” and “inner-city crime.” You don’t say out loud that you’re speaking “at a Nazi rally,” as radio host Sid Rosenberg did. If you must wear a MAGA hat, you don’t spell it using the Nazi’s Fraktur font, which is what Elon Musk posted. 

Thankfully, Trump’s list of mouth-breathing speakers didn’t get the memo. Because we live in the United States of Amnesia with a corporate media that is still committed to sanewashing the GOP’s embrace of fascism, Trump could potentially still win due to the electoral college and sway some voters of color. Well, hold that thought. Trump invited comedian Tony Hinchcliffe of the “Kill Tony” podcast who called Puerto Rico “a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean.” Tony said this on the day Vice President Kamala Harris released a detailed plan to help Puerto Rico. In the swing state of Pennsylvania which Trump needs to win, there are 500,00 Puerto Ricans. There are 100,000 Puerto Ricans in North Carolina and 50,000 in Michigan.

Whoopsie! 

Speaking of Michigan, some Muslim Americans decided to publicly support Trump at his rally and many Arab and Muslim voters are on the fence due to the Biden Administration’s complicity in Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. Tonight’s rally might make them reconsider their “both sides are bad” approach. “The first thing, we must elect Donald J. Trump president because we must crush Jihad,” said Howard Lutnick, CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald and co-chair of Trump’s transition team. Human punchline Rudy Giuliani was less subtle in his remarks. “The Palestinians are taught to kill us at two years old. They won’t let a Palestinian in Jordan…in Egypt. And Harris wants to bring them to you. They may have good people. I’m sorry, I don’t take a risk with people that are taught to kill Americans at two.” 

Hear that voters who are still “uncommitted” due to Palestine? At his rally tonight, Trump said the GOP is “the party of inclusion” - unless, of course, you are Palestinian, Muslim, Puerto Rican, women of color, immigrants of color, Haitian, Jews who vote Democrat, journalists, poll workers, and Mike Pence. To drive the point home, Trump had the brilliant idea of giving a platform to broke Goebbels Stephen Miller, who said, “America is for Americans and Americans only.” I’m assuming that doesn’t include people like my parents who come from “shithole countries” or people like me who have “bad genes.” Again, the Nazis performed these lines with more success and originality, but, nonetheless, MAGA persisted a week ahead of a razor-thin election in which Kamala Harris has momentum and energy.

For those on the fence, pay attention to the past to understand the present. This is a reboot of authoritarianism. Once fascists get power, it’s very hard to get them out. Along the way, many people suffer and die as the movement eventually burns out and betrays its followers. We have a chance to avoid that fate. Vote accordingly.