In the days since Donald Trump's hate-filled rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, what's striking is the pettiness of the stakes MAGA defenders have laid out. In the final days of a dead-heat contest for the most powerful office in the world, Republicans argued we must elect a textbook fascist to protect the sacrosanct right of a white man to be rude without being criticized for it.
Most of the racist diatribes at Trump's New York City rally were not jokes. But the comments getting the most media attention — especially calling Puerto Ricans "garbage" — were offered up in a joke-like cadence by podcast host Tony Hinchcliffe. This has allowed MAGA to pretend we're having a national debate about tastefulness, rather than fascism. Hinchcliffe said liberals have "no sense of humor." Trump's running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, said others should "stop getting so offended."
Trump, however, dispensed with the fiction that we are debating the subjective quality of humor. At a Tuesday press conference, he simply reified the true MAGA belief at stake: that Trump and his allies get to say what they want, and everyone else must shut up about it. This mostly came in the form of griping that Michelle Obama was allowed to criticize him: "Obama, his wife was very nasty to me. That was not nice."
Trump: Obama, his wife was very nasty to me. That was not nice. She was very nasty. She said nasty things. I was always very respectful of her but she got up there.. She got up and said some bad things she shouldn’t have said pic.twitter.com/KZqQqmRhuU
— Acyn (@Acyn) October 29, 2024
Vance did not ask Trump to "stop getting so offended."
Even during the rally, Tucker Carlson's 9-minute speech centered around the outrage of experiencing criticism. "You're not going to bully me into silence anymore," Carlson whined, adding that being able to speak without blowback is what makes him a "free man and not a slave." As a pitch for fascism, "make the liberals fake-smile at me" is exquisitely childish. But it's not even a promise that Trump can fulfill. Even if he's re-elected, Trump can strip abortion rights and he can deport millions, but he can't make others giggle at stupid, bigoted "jokes."
One would hope that it's self-evident that "revenge on liberals for not liking me" is both a pathetic and short-sighted justification for voting for a wannabe dictator with a criminal rap sheet the size of a Russian novel. But with the polls so tight, that's apparently not the case. So Harris made her closing argument Tuesday night from an evocative location that underscored the actual stakes of the election: The Ellipse in Washington D.C. where Trump incited the January 6 insurrection.
MAGA spite might right now manifest mainly as racist trolling or bottomless bellyaching, she warned, but there's real danger in putting a man "consumed with grievance" into the White House. "He is the person who stood at this very spot nearly four years ago and sent an armed mob to the United States Capitol to overturn the will of the people in a free and fair election," she began. She noted that Trump has threatened "to use the United States military against American citizens who simply disagree with him" and "put them in jail." For those who might scoff that Trump actually means these things, the location spoke for itself. It was less than four years ago that Trump stood at that same spot and sent a murderous mob after members of Congress and his vice president as punishment for not stealing an election for him.
In contrast, Harris offered a vision of peace and comity, saying, "I pledge to seek common ground and common sense solutions to make your lives better. I am not looking to score political points. I am looking to make progress."
One of the perverse effects of MAGA's endless self-pity over being criticized for "jokes" is that it ends up making the stakes of the election seem smaller. It's easy to be lulled into this notion that all the fascists want is some hair-stroking assurances, however false, that the rest of us do think they're manly and funny and great in bed. Why can't we just soothe their fragile egos with sweet little lies, if that's what it takes to calm them down?
But, as Harris's speech should remind us, the crybaby antics and self-victimization are just a cover for what Trump and his acolytes want, which is far more serious than insincere flattery. As investigative journalists like Kathryn Joyce for Salon have documented, the Capitol riot was rooted in Christian nationalism and other far-right ideologies that explicitly preach a belief in strict social hierarchies that put white men in authority over everyone else. Even being the crybabies they are, MAGA doesn't break windows and attack cops because some people mocked them on Twitter. Their real goal — the one they hide under all the bad faith complaints about "wokeness" and "cancel culture" — is a level of dominance over others that is incompatible with basic American values like human rights, democracy, and equality.
Prior to the speech, Harris drew rebukes from some Democratic allies who worry that all this democracy talk is a distraction from what voters tell pollsters is their top issue: the economy. Democratic researcher Stanley Greenberg tweeted last week, "Harris needs to finish positive on how she will battle for the middle class and help with the cost of living." The fear is that talk of democracy and freedom is too esoteric and that the last-minute voters will only be moved by pocketbook issues. Others point out that previous elections reveal that voters do care about these loftier issues. Abortion rights have shifted the playing field dramatically. It's also true that election deniers underperform compared to Republicans who admit Trump lost in 2020. Taken together, it suggests voters can be moved more than the polls suggest by concerns about rising fascism.
The Harris campaign has been trying to split the difference. The campaign released an ad this week that argued that Trump's fixation on fascistic power would result in ordinary people paying the price, "with lower income and higher prices."
She struck this note again in her speech Tuesday, arguing that Trump is too "obsessed with revenge" to care about ordinary working people. In contrast, she presented herself as a public servant who will "listen to experts" and "people who disagree with me."
"Unlike Donald Trump, I don’t believe people who disagree with me are the enemy," she said. It's hard to argue, and not just because she was standing on a spot where Trump tried to use violence to suppress the vote of the majority in 2020. Anyone who saw clips from Sunday night's rally could see one white man after another railing against having to live in a world where others are allowed to disagree with them. It culminated in Trump declaring anyone who rejects him an "enemy within."
Similarly, the events of January 6 — when people are reminded of them — are a visceral reminder that fascism isn't just a vague political term. It's a system where social hierarchies are enforced through violence, often deadly violence. The MAGA whining about not being able to be crass without criticism is ridiculous on its face. It becomes more so when reminded that their response is to inflict real pain and even death on those they believe are beneath them, whether it's Capitol police officers protecting the right to vote or women experiencing a failed pregnancy.
"Donald Trump has spent a decade trying to keep the American people divided and afraid of each other. That’s who he is," Harris said Tuesday night. "But America, I am here tonight to say: that’s not who we are."
In a week, Americans will turn out to the polls to see which vision prevails: Trump's dystopian nightmare or Harris's optimism. Harris's ideal is a society where people who disagree can come together to discuss their differences, rather than stomp out those who might challenge your opinions. Most people probably like that idea, but for MAGA, it's apparently the apocalypse.
