The Rally At Madison Square Garden Wasn't Just About Racism - It Was A Call To Violence
The overt racism is designed to incite violence. It's no longer just about hate it's about destruction.
There was a time when even I was struggling to rationalize the Trump supporters who dismissed his racist dog whistles and subtle plays to ‘white anxiety’. In an interview for the Lincoln Project documentary that appeared on Showtime, I noted that “Not everyone who voted for Donald Trump was a racist, but they had to be comfortable with voting for a racist”. That was true. You had to be in conscious denial of the obvious fact that Donald Trump is a textbook racist - and many of my GOP friends found comfort in ignoring, rationalizing, or denying that reality. A lot of otherwise good Republicans I knew would dismiss it as “He’s just joking,” or “He doesn’t mean it,” or worse, “Don’t take it out of context”.
Not anymore.
You don’t get that pass anymore, and if you’re trying to get one - you’re the problem with the country and the world today. The vile vulgarity that oozed out of the mouths of the speakers at Madison Square Garden - not ironically the same venue the American Nazi Party held a white supremacist rally in 1939 - was clear unvarnished racism.
Jokes about the island of Puerto Rico being “garbage”, Latinos “having lots of kids because they don’t pull out, they come inside - just like they do our country” and Black people “carving watermelons” for Halloween aren’t debatable. If you dismiss this it’s because you’re not just ok with the racism, you’re not just supporting the racism - you’re advancing it.
Make no mistake. They chose Tony Hinchcliffe because they knew he would say these things not despite them. This ‘comedian’ has a history of making racist remarks at live shows for many months. This was deliberate. We all know it.
Puerto Rican superstars such as Bad Bunny, Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Martin, and music artist Residente, among others, have started to weigh in on social media decrying the dehumanizing language. And this was all before Trump took the stage.
When Trump finally did take the stage he unleashed the expected barrage of racism calling immigrants “savages” and his usual “weave” of word salad indicative of his cognitive decline.
The racism…the mental decline…reminders of why voters fired him in the first place.
Will this finally be the straw that breaks the camel’s back and breaks Latinos away from Trump?
Yes. At least I hope so.
Most importantly, it could have the greatest impact in Pennsylvania - the one swing state that has a large Puerto Rican community. In fact, it’s the only swing state with a Puerto Rican plurality. Pennsylvania was set to have the biggest share of GOP defections and is Harris’ best-performing Latino numbers of any swing state. I believe this will lock that down.
It’s long past the time to excuse this away - but for Trump, that time passed long ago. I’m talking about his supporters.
The only reason you have this kind of vitriol at a campaign rally at this stage, (if ever) is to incite violence. Either because you know you’re going to lose the race, or because you need violence as a build-up to the election, including on election day. It’s time we started openly talking about what we all know. Violence and destruction is the objective, it always has been. That’s what lying about stolen elections, having the Proud Boys “Stand Back and stand by”, and the insurrection on January 6th was all about. It’s what it has always been about.
Racism is a centuries-old tool that has worked time and time again. As our country barrels down its most transformative moment - becoming a non-white majority country - the kindling has been stoked. It is the binding glue of Trumpism, and they’re saying it out loud.
The country is headed for a time of extreme duress in the coming weeks. We need to prepare for it. The fight against fascism requires we be worthy of the moment and for this generation of Americans, this is that moment.
Violence is likely to come in many small places not one big event. Polling places disrupted are prime justification for contesting the entire election of key states and throwing numerous states into chaos and contention. That’s the strategy.
thank you, Mike. we voted on 1st day of early voting here in Asheville. was a great scene, crowded and joyous, they had cases of water and a food truck and people were thrilled to be together after the first few weeks post-Helene. but I'm preparing to hunker down at home for last days of voting and some weeks after. we best be prepared for the next few months. I hope people understand where we are now. not only is Trump teeing up violence, the Bezos capitulation is, as JVL points out, not a journalism story, its the story of obeying in advance, and if one of the richest men in the world thinks he'd best kiss the hem to avoid retribution (the announcement of no endorsement came the same day Bezos' space company and Bezos himself met with Trump).
we thought we were on the precipice of falling. looks like we're partway down the hill.
not giving up, of course. but def scared. that's never stopped me before.
Excellent piece, Mike.