The Witness Chronicles, 10/28/24

The open embrace of racism and hate

Photo by Chris Appano on Unsplash

Openly Racist Trump Rally is Not a Joke

A floating island of garbage and watermelon carving

I’m calling the election for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, but after yesterday I’m not sure I live in the same America as Trump supporters. The opening ‘act’ in his Madison Square Rally in New York City was a supposed comedian who called Puerto Rico, an American territory, a ‘floating island of garbage’, said Latinos can’t stop making babies, and that Blacks carve watermelons instead of pumpkins.

And then claimed, haha, I was joking. No, asshole, you were not. And the Trump campaign basically said the same thing, that Democrats can’t take a joke. Jokes are funny. Racism is not.

I’ve been to Puerto Rico and I loved it. Donald Trump went there after a devastating hurricane, tossed rolls of paper towels to a crowd, went back to DC and blocked $20 million of desperately needed federal aid. That was not a joke either.

The level of hatred is sickening. The level of escalating violence is sickening. The constant lying is sickening. They want us cowering and too scared to stand up for the truth and the rule of law so they can take over the country. Why? To support one man’s unending need for attention and adulation.

19,500 people attended that rally in a city that thinks Donald Trump is a massive joke. 19,500 racist stooges.

But 33,000 attended a Harris rally in Houston, Texas the same weekend, not exactly a Democratic stronghold. And there were no racist jokes and no calling for hatred and spreading of fear.

Kamala Harris can win this thing because the Trump campaign has lost its mind and any semblance of ability to govern. There are eight long days left, as I write this, and the attention of the country is intensely focused on both candidates. I believe, because I have no other choice, that reason and civility will win out over whatever venom the Trump campaign spews out in the next week.

They hit the low point awhile ago but open racism, disguised as jokes, went even lower. We are past the ‘how low can they go’ point, way past. I know my history of how fascists come into power and what cult followers are capable of. But it always ends in disaster for those followers. KoolAid anyone?

I’ve written hundreds of these daily observations during this election and, like a lot of us, I want this to be over. I am sick of the constant negativity streaming out of what used to be a legitimate political party and their leadership, a party I always disagreed with but who still elected people with integrity who could find ways to work with the other side.

They burned that bridge with their support of a man who openly embraces dictatorship, has treasonous relationships with our enemies, and promises to destroy a democracy that has worked for over 200 years.

Our freedoms are at stake. Your freedoms. Once they go, getting them back again will be nearly impossible. The women of this country know that because they have already lost control of their own rights to healthcare. But they are fighting back, even in states that we call red, like Kansas.

Men may think abortion rights are not the same as freedom of speech or the right to own guns, but they are exactly the same. When a right is taken, freedom begins to erode and we start to lose our way. This is happening right now. Those people who attended that rally yesterday in Madison Square Garden should be named and shamed.

In typical fashion, Trump was two hours late, with many leaving the rally. This happens every time because he simply does not care about his followers. This is so obvious yet they keep showing up and that is the most disturbing thing about this entire campaign. He treats those around him like garbage and they love him for it.

What happened to the American spirit, the independence that helped us become the nation that leads the world, for better or worse?

I do not believe it is gone or in the minority. I believe most of us are not those stooges and worshippers who have left decency behind. When that ‘comedian’ delivered his racist jokes, the room was silenced. Apparently even Trump supporters are not ready for the open hatred that dictators demand and encourage.

Trump’s need for adulation in the center of his hometown was not based on any political reality. He has no chance of winning New York. But he has been obsessed with having his own version of the infamous Nazi rally held there in 1939, just before we entered a war with Nazism and facism that took an estimated 50 million lives worldwide.

Yes, there was a huge rally for American Nazis in 1939, in our greatest city. If that is not a reality that you should know about and take seriously, I don’t know what is. But back then we rallied and did the right thing, fought for our freedoms and the freedoms of others, and won.

As comedian Stephen Colbert said this week, Hitler did do one good thing. He killed Hitler. But Donald Trump thinks Hitler did good things and he wishes he had generals like Hitler’s.

Those generals lost World War II and Hitler shot himself. But not until the entire world was nearly destroyed.

We’re in a strange place right now, stranger than I have seen. It’s beyond unsettling to see so many of our fellow citizens falling for this dangerous scam, giving this man and his minions a platform, and possibly giving him the ultimate power.

There is a very good alternative, a decent candidate who promises a bright future and respects basic human dignity. Kamala Harris will win, has to win. Get out and vote.

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