The Joke's On "Us and Them"

You can't laugh this one off

A lot has been said and written about Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden. It certainly filled-up today’s RUNDOWN. And a lot more may ultimately be said and written should Trump lose due to a surge of Puerto Rican voters in Pennsylvania, not mention a number of other states. That’s why the newscycle is understandably fixated on the barrage of racially-based “jokes” told by Tony Hinchcliffe, which went well-beyond calling Puerto Rico a “floating pile of garbage.”

Today, Hinchcliffe, JD Vance and a Trump spokesperson dismissed the backlash as humorless political correctness … despite the Trump campaign’s initial effort disavow the jokes. Obviously, they knew they’d effed-up and, if you can believe it, it could’ve been even worse.

The Bulwark’s Marc Caputo reported on the campaign’s decision nix a joke that referred to Kamala Harris as a c*nt. Apparently, they DID review Hinchcliffe’s material and they DID find one line they didn’t want to cross. That raises questions about the material that made it past them. Caputo’s sources claimed they didn’t catch those jokes because his routine was “ad-libbed.”

Now that’s funny.

The real punchline may come if we ultimately look back at those jokes as a tipping point. It definitely coincides with a couple new polls that indicate Trump’s three week-long run of momentum may have finally stalled … perhaps due to Gen. John Kelly’s warning about Trump’s affinity for fascism. And it couldn’t come at a better time for his opponent. As such, it could serve as a perfect set-up to Harris’s “close-the-deal” speech tomorrow at the Ellipse. If she translates it into a late momentum shift in her direction, the rally will enter the political Pantheon next to the Comey Letter.

But what if Trump wins?

If so, we could also look back at those jokes and the rally as a Rubicon moment for the American political system. I’d argue that the rally—which featured a long roster of speakers spouting vulgarities, insults and racism—removed the mask for everyone to see. In fact, Trump’s overlooked speech was the ultimate reveal. While the media pores over Jokegate, Trump’s far more ominous remarks could loom much larger come Inauguration Day.

Yes, I know … he’s been talking about eugenics forever and has employed Hitlerian language for months and for years … and for many Americans, the mask came off long ago. He started his political career with anti-Muslim and anti-Mexican rhetoric, for Pete’s Sake! Right?

Yes. But the rally in Madison Square Garden stands apart.

It was scheduled on a Sunday afternoon/evening for maximum impact and for maximum exposure. They wanted to reach everybody. And they wanted to make it crystal clear what Trump was offering. No punches were pulled. From Tucker Carlson to Dr. Phil to Elon Musk and on and on … the message was incendiary, the assertions were grandiose and enemies of “real Americans” were identified and threatened.

“They” were blamed for all of America’s ills.

The word “replace” popped up repeatedly.

But it was Trump who blazed the clearest path across the Rubicon. His prepared speech was, simply put, fascistic. And this passage erased plausible deniability for millions of voters:

"Over the last four years, Kamala Harris has orchestrated the most egregious betrayal that any leader in American history has ever inflicted upon our people. She has violated her oath, eradicated our sovereign border and unleashed an army of migrant gangs who are waging a campaign of violence and terror against our citizens. There has never been anything like it anywhere in the world for any country, Kamala has imported criminal migrants from prisons and jails, insane asylums and mental institutions from all around the world, from Venezuela to The Congo, a lot of people are coming from the Congo prisons. They're coming from all over the world. She has resettled them into your communities to prey upon innocent American citizens. But the day I take the oath of office, the migrant invasion of our country ends and the restoration of our country begins."

In the long, occasionally rambling remarks that followed he referred to November 5th as “liberation day" and he promised (threatened?) to “liberate towns that have been conquered" by migrants thanks to the evil Democrats who “imported” them. Trump then said he will "invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798" and seek the "death penalty for any migrant who kills an American citizen."

The crowd loved it. The “USA!” chant followed his promise to seek the death penalty and the cheers came exactly at the points in the speech where Trump and Stephen Miller expected them to come. They knew it because, after years of honing their message in hundreds or rallies, the leader and his people are of one mind and they share a singular purpose. They have become one, just like the party and the leader have become one.

One’s “one-ness” is demonstrated through displays of absolutely loyalty to the leader and, by extension, to the party. It could by wearing uniforms, insignia, and even hats … or by hanging special flags. It absolutely requires publicly parroting the leader’s lies. A refusal to participate in the leader’s lies is apostasy. And the GOP has long-since purged its apostates. Those who remain eagerly embrace and re-tell the leader’s lies, lest they too find themselves excommunicated.

Those who are not with the leader are by definition against the leader. These enemies are either traitors guilty of the worst form of betrayal or they are interloping vermin who poison the blood and the birthright of the in-group. Both of them conspire to threaten the in-group’s destined greatness.

Those enemies, in turn, become scapegoats. And those scapegoats are the only thing standing between the people and their date with destiny in a coming utopia defined by an infallible leader who has been chosen by History or Providence to guide the party and the nation.

The GOP has crossed that Rubicon.

We the People are about to decide if we are going to join them.