Donald Trump’s rally Sunday at Madison Square Garden should go down in history as a seminal event of the 2024 campaign, a valedictory of hate, racism and misogyny that has become the entirety of his campaign and of the MAGA movement, and a terrifying symbol of where our politics are headed.

It represented his closing statement and is the clearest symbol of the choice facing voters.

Trump didn’t return to New York City to ask for any remaining undecided votes. He wasn’t even there to lay out a vision for his second term, except for mass deportations.

Trump’s speech was a show of power — a message that the MAGA movement is strong and united, if not entirely coherent, in a vision of America that does not welcome diversity or equality in any sphere. This was a celebratory speech not for victory in the election, but for his complete and undeniable triumph over unity and truth — a harbinger of what will come whether he wins or loses the presidency.

Because this base will not be gracious with a win, and almost certainly less so with a defeat.

“For the past nine years we have been fighting against the most sinister and corrupt forces on Earth,” he told the cheering crowd, once again alluding to some shadowy cabal of Democrats, migrants, Jewish people, transgender people and pedophiles who have become a mashed-up boogeyman for all of his vitriol. “With your vote in this election you can show them once and for all that this nation does not belong to them. This nation belongs to you.”

That particular “them” and “you” hold all kinds of dog-whistle meaning and menace.

Trump Republicans do, as Trump and his running mate JD Vance love to say, welcome anyone. That’s anyone willing to fall in line, cheer for his hate and vote in his favor. So yes, there were Latinos, Black people, Jewish people and probably even a couple LGBTQ+ people in attendance.

But Trump and his entourage made clear Sunday night that inclusion is not the same as respect. Welcoming anyone to vote for him is a far cry from welcoming them to be equals.

For all those who still believe that if a first Trump term wasn’t catastrophic for democracy, a second one is survivable if not ideal, I remind you of the wise words of Maya Angelou: “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”

And maybe more importantly, listen to what those around Trump are saying.

Perhaps radio shock-jock Sid Rosenberg (who once called tennis great Venus Williams an “animal”) put it best, or at least most honestly, when he said Sunday night that it was, “Out of character for me to speak at a Nazi rally … but I took the gig.”

Unbelievably, that wasn’t the most shocking comment of the evening. That honor goes to comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, host of the “Kill Tony” podcast.

Hinchcliffe made headlines for his so-called joke about Puerto Rico.

“There is literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now,” he said. “I think it’s called Puerto Rico.”

That led to swift backlash from prominent Puerto Ricans, including U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Bad Bunny, Jennifer Lopez, Luis Fonsi and Ricky Martin. Even the Trump team later distanced itself from that comment — halfheartedly. (And please don’t tell me that his routine on a nationally televised rally was not vetted).

But it was not the only “joke” of note that Hinchcliffe made. Singling out a Black man in the audience that he said was a friend, he claimed the two had “carved watermelons together,” instead of pumpkins for Halloween. Hilarious.

Also troubling was his statement, not a joke, about the conflicts between Israel and the Palestinians and Russia and Ukraine: “Who even cares?” Hinchcliffe asked.

Then he suggested Israel and Gaza should use the children’s game of rock, paper, scissors to settle the war. That was a set-up for this gem: “You know the Palestinians are going to throw rock every time,” Hinchcliffe said. “You also know the Jews have a hard time throwing that paper.”

While Trump supporters are attempting to minimize Hinchcliffe’s wide-ranging racism as just comedy, he was far from an outlier.

Tucker Carlson, who managed to get himself booted from Fox not long ago, went after Kamala Harris for being mixed race, a concept seemingly as confusing as it is distasteful to MAGA.

In a rant about how a win for Harris would have to include voter fraud, Carlson mocked the idea that a “groundswell of popular support” could cause, “the first Samoan Malaysian, low-IQ former California prosecutor ever to be elected president.”

Then he went into the Great Replacement Theory, an ugly trope that America will be destroyed if it becomes a majority nonwhite country.

“People know in a country that has been taken over by a leadership class that actually despises them and their values and their history and their culture and their customs, really hates them to the point that it’s trying to replace them,” Carlson said.

Then there was Trump advisor Stephen Miller, a California native, who said, “America is for America and Americans only.”

And by that, he did not seem to mean immigrant Americans.

One speaker called Harris the “anti-Christ.” Another called Hillary Clinton a “sick son of a bitch.”

We have all heard Trump’s extremism for so long that we are largely immune. His own people often argue it’s just how he talks, and it should not be taken seriously.

But I beg to differ. In a strange turn of events, I’ve come to agree with far-right commentator Jack Posobiec.

Posobiec told the New York Times that selling out Madison Square Garden in the heart of blue New York City “means the MAGA movement has now arrived.”

He’s right. For reasons that have been dissected for years now, half of our country has become so angry and radicalized that this movement towards a repressive and exclusionary authoritarianism will not be defeated this November.

The crowd that cheered Trump’s un-American vision of America showed that this cruel turn toward a desire to crush civil rights is here to stay, whether as rule of law or lurking just beneath the surface. It is a new reality in U.S. politics that will be with us likely for our lifetimes.

But even if Trump does take the Oval Office, there will still be half of us willing to fight for a country not just of the people and by the people — but for the people.

All of them.

The must-read: The Misogynistic, Bigoted and Crude Rally Remarks Trump Hasn’t Disavowed
The get out the vote: Bad Bunny backs Harris after comedian’s ‘island of garbage’ remarks at Trump rally
The L.A. Times special: Even Trump backers are running away from Tony Hinchcliffe’s racist jokes. Will they help Harris?

Stay Golden,
Anita Chabria

P.S. This really has nothing to do with anything, but I’m stopping here to share what has become my favorite political ad of the election because it makes absolutely no sense. Ohio will be voting on Issue 1, a measure to change redistricting rules. Redistricting rules, folks — like how voting maps are drawn.

Somehow, this ad about dirtbag dudes is supposed to convince Ohioans to vote against it — because these guys might vote in favor of allowing abortions (if we don’t gerrymander voting districts?) so they don’t have to deal with unwanted kids?

So complicated.

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