Race is the theory of the campaign
The MSG rally makes it all plain as day
It is said that once is happenstance, twice is a coincidence, and three times is a pattern. The Trump campaign has now provided many, many more data points than that demonstrating their theory of the campaign, and today’s rally in Madison Square Garden makes it abundantly clear: they want to make sure the racists turn out to vote.
The rally included such highlights as:
Warm-up comedian Tony Hinchcliffe calling Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” and saying Latinos “love making babies.”
Donald Trump Jr. saying that Democrats are trying to replace Americans with immigrants who will vote with their party.
Tucker Carlson mocking Kamala Harris’ racial background, while another speaker described her as a prostitute, and another called her the Antichrist.
Stephen Miller declaring that “America is for Americans and Americans only.”
Trump again vowing the “largest deportation program in American history” and warning about “the enemy within.”
There was more. And in fairness, some Republicans have at least distanced themselves from Hinchcliffe’s comments, particular those from states with large numbers of Puerto Rican voters. But the backpedaling rings a bit hollow considering the comedian’s known past of being fired and dropped by his talent agency for previous racist comments.
This is all echoing a framework that Jonah Goldberg nicely articulated in my podcast discussion with him last week. Until fairly recently, it was standard practice for presidential candidates to spend the final weeks of a campaign trying to woo centrist voters in swing states while downplaying the most extreme supporters in their base, whom they knew would show up anyway.
Trump has flipped that strategy on its head. Based on his experiences from 2016 and 2020, he knows that a lot of mainstream Republicans and Republican leaners will complain quite a bit about his rhetoric and behavior, and maybe threaten to vote for someone else, but when it comes down to a choice between him and a Democrat, they’ll still show up for him. And anyone who really has a problem with him probably left the Republican Party years ago. Instead, he treats the moderate Republicans as his reliable base, and wants to make sure that the extremists are exercised enough to show up on Election Day. The racist comments at Madison Square Garden are designed to do exactly that.
Considering that one of the major themes of the Republican National Convention was the deportation of immigrants and the articulation of a “blood and soil” vision of America, and that the campaign’s core message the month after that was promoting false stories that Haitian immigrants were devouring Americans’ pets, and the ongoing false campaign claim that immigrants are responsible for the bulk of crime in the United States, it’s clear that this is not an accidental slip. Trump isn’t trying to run a conventional campaign and accidentally letting some racist content in. Racism is the theory of the campaign. It’s designed to boost the turnout where needed with the assumption that it won’t alienate people in the middle.
We’ll see whether this theory holds.
This wasn’t an accident. It was the point. It’s what MAGA was built on—a message to the white, the bitter, and the fearful that their ginned up anger is a rallying cry, a political stance, and a weapon. It's a promise that America belongs to them and no one else. It’s why Trump’s rallies don’t even try to reach beyond his hardcore base. The sad part is that, for as many reasonably-minded people as he'll lose because of this abomination, he'll gain just as many who want nothing more than a fourth Reich.
An Open Letter to Your Friend or Relative Planning to Vote for Trump: Your Vote for Trump Is an Endorsement of Bigotry, Cruelty, and the Erosion of Rights—No Matter the Reason You Give.
https://substack.com/home/post/p-150725410?r=4d7sow&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
I guess we can safely say this is not "reaching out to the middle", expanding your base, etc? I sure hope this shout-out to Nuremberg becomes a classic example in your classes, Professor, of "exciting the base can really blow up in your face"!
I also came from that world, Carol. Like you say, you can't accuse him of hiding what he's about.