Nothing Is Ever The Same

Trump in Madison Square Garden shows the sea change

It was a curious choice. Why did Donald Trump have an event in Madison Square Garden in the very core of the blue world? Trump will not flip New York. It is impossible in this era’s political coalition configuration. Why? What does it mean? To do it right in the final month before an election is even more confusing. Trump used that opportunity to show the world of change from 2016 and that there is no going back.

People forget, because it shows the left as villains, that Trump could not have rallies in blue areas in 2016. His attempt in Chicago was cancelled due to safety issues with fights outside the venue as people escaped. Other rallies ended with Trump supporters shouted down, chased, attacked and, as shown in pictures blasted on social media, pelted with eggs. People hid their support whether on social media or in real life. People were excommunicated from social circles. Buy a MAGA red hat and put it in the closet. I worked and lived in a blue state and went silent for the election season. Silent reactions and smiles on Wednesday after Trump’s victory alerted me to the few allies I had in the office.

Fast forward eight years of demonization and pressure and yet, there are more visible Trump fans. Elon Musk’s public support was declared months after a media pressure campaign angry that he’d even consider it. Musk encouraged people to support Trump openly and others did react. This election season shows more people of all stripes visibly supporting Trump. This itself is huge since one can go back to another forgotten horrific political moment when a young, Chicago man was kidnapped and beaten for being a Trump supporter with plenty of racial invective hurled at him by his black attackers.

This attack was right after the election and while horrific, shuffled off the stage soon. Vox even published an explainer to put it into the context of elevated hate attacks after the election, which involved “chants” at left wing groups because they had to minimize it. Contrast this to the Jussie Smollett hate crime hoax that forced a national conversation, and we have another hierarchy not hypocrisy moment. Both were in Chicago. One was fake, yet promoted while the other was real and forgotten quickly. The message is clear that as a white Trump supporter, you have no right to free expression.

Is it the same now? Trump at MSG was sold out and had tens of thousands outside. No antifa waiting to beat attendees up. No counter-protestors throwing eggs at people. Trump previously hit up third tier arenas and venues. He always had large crowds, but they were in smaller cities. That was the criticism. They came out because there was nothing else to do. This was MSG in the greatest city in America. Right in the Democrats’ bubble was a MAGA rally. It had all of the normal MAGA rally highs and lows. For all of the talk about a comedian’s bad jokes, few noticed how awful Dr. Phil sounded. That’s all MAGA rallies though as there is always one speaker or moment where you question why they were invited.

This demonstrates to these social hall monitors that the problem isn’t 10% of the population. It’s not just rural rubes. It’s not just a kernel of rabid rural support and indifferent tag-alongs in the cities. It’s your neighbor, lawyer and favorite barista. If the left wants to liquidate the problem, it will take a whole lot more gulags than they thought, they do not have the stomach for it and will face an opponent who realizes it is an existential fight. It also makes the nazi/fascist smear even thinner to spread. New York is not a hotbed of fascism. Grow up.

There is no going back for anyone. The GOP will see the bottom fall out of it if MAGA loses, and all of the Senate candidates running behind Trump is proof. The left has demonized half the country for a decade with the worst smears all the while performing increasingly draconian acts at the helm of institutions. How are you going to reconcile? What happens when that rabid support base realizes the political realm is closed off forever? What is the other side going to do when the progressive utopian suicide drive fails again? What happens if Trump wins and is now a punished man in charge with the help of the next billionaire defector the left is drooling over punishing? That is all up for grabs, but what we do know is there is no going back.