Photos: YouTube
Last evening I watched the October 1, “Save America,” Trump/Republican campaign rally, 108 minutes of it, in Warren, Michigan. I did so hoping to see the effect of the internal divisions within the Republican Party, some sign that Trump has been weakened by all that has been exposed about him since he was forced to leave the White House in disgrace.
If anything, Trump is worse than before. He’s not just a neo-fascist; he’s like a raving, rabid mad dog out for revenge on anyone who doesn’t fall in line to kiss his ring.
For the first 50 minutes of his Hitlerian performance, it was striking that he literally had only one good thing to say about his four years in the White House. About minute 41, after claiming that his was “the most successful administration in the history of the country,” he used as his only example that he took over an old post office building in DC and “made it into a work of art,” which he then sold for a nice profit.
I’m not exaggerating. This was the only example for the first 50 minutes, something that had nothing to do with the running of the country but that he had made a “nice profit” on.
Instead, he attacked and attacked and attacked, with zero regard for being truthful:
– “The radical left Democrats lie and steal.”
-“They have flooded the country with tens of millions more criminal, illegal aliens, giving them more than what people in the military get.”
-If the Republicans don’t win back power, “we will never have fair elections again.”
-“Dozens and dozens of political prisoners are locked up in horrible, dirty conditions” because of their participation in “peaceful protest” on January 6.
-There were “one million people on January 6.”
“The cities have become killing fields.”
“Each drug dealer kills an average of 500 American citizens.” His solution: “execute drug dealers.”
Throughout he equated the many and various investigations and indictments against him as attacks not just on him but on those who supported him, that he was suffering for them, fighting back against the radical left Democrats, the FBI, the drug dealers, all for them.
A hatefest, that’s what it was. Hatred, fear, constant lying and division on full display, with Mafioso Trump as the only person in the country who could make things right.
His conclusion, with music to accompany it, was: “We will never give in, never back down, the tyrants we’re fighting don’t stand a chance. The silent majority is back. There will be greatness for our country again. We are one people, one family, one glorious nation. We will make American powerful, make America wealthy, make America strong, make America safe, make America proud, make America great again.”
Were there any silver lining signs of hope at this disturbingly dystopian rally? Perhaps. A Newsweek story quoted Detroit Free Press reporter Paul Egan who suggested that “the event did not draw a capacity crowd, and that Trump’s speech at the rally may have driven some attendees away. . . There’s been a steady stream of attendees heading for the exits since about the 15-minute mark of this now hour-long and ongoing speech.”
It is also possible, or likely, that the constant negativism and fear and hate that radiates from this nut case is turning off some of those who are with him on many of the issues.
Trump wasn’t like this the last time I watched him speak in June of 2020 for an hour and a half. Back then, I wrote about how he spent a quarter or more of his speech adlibbing about a speech he had made at West Point a week before “which he claimed went over spectacularly with the troops, of course, but instead, amazingly, astoundingly, a presentation about all that he had to endure up there with the West Point generals: the sun in his eyes, the heat, having to salute ‘600 times,’ but most of all, the way in which the ‘fake news media’ fixated on how weak he looked walking down a short ramp from the stage to the ground. Trump went on and on about how, because he had ‘leather shoes,’ and because the ramp was like ‘an ice skating rink,’ he had to be very careful, with little steps, telling the general next to him who had the right kind of shoes that he should be ready in case Trump slipped.
“If Trump was a stand-up comic instead of a President, this trivial, self-pitying story might become known as one of the best, long, stand-up comic routines of the year.”
There was no sign of this side of Trump last night. None, zero.
Right now, polling indicates that there is a good possibility that the Trump-dominated Republican Party is going to take over control of the House. That looks less likely for the Senate, but it is not out of the question that they could win there too.
The thought of Trump enablers and fanatics like Kevin McCarthy and Margaret Taylor Greene leading the House for the next two years is not a happy one.
There is one month left until election day, November 8. There is no more important work over that month than work to mobilize all of the radical and progressive and liberal and decent-minded people of our country to come out and vote, send the strongest possible message that the USA, for all its faults, will not become a fascist nation, not now, not ever.
Ted Glick works with Beyond Extreme Energy and is president of 350NJ-Rockland. Past writings and other information, including about Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution, two books published by him in 2020 and 2021, can be found at https://tedglick.com. He can be followed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/jtglick
