Very thorough inside look. Humanizes the attendees, but doesn’t whitewash their beliefs and behavior. Do they know that in addition to losing his apartment, law license in two states and more, Giuliani was also stuffed by Trump for $2 million? I wonder if a rundown of all Trump’s unpaid debts would undermine their faith in the “brilliant” orange businessman? Not to mention the bankruptcies, refusals to pay workers (.people just like them), etc.?
I believe that most already know about Trump's bankruptcies, cheating on taxes, and stiffing his vendors, and they believe it makes him a savvy businessman. What businessperson would actually pay more than they have to, after all? Lying and cheating is what they believe makes you rich, not hard work.
That was a long, hard read for 6:45 am. And after I learned last night that our local DEC offices has been swamped with vicious voice messages (including death threats), and a friend sent me a photo from San Marcos, TX of a note taped to a Harris sign threatening to hang the “offenders” and signed “Chapter #124 of the Trump Klan”.
OMG it seems that Hitler has been revived in the form of trump and the minions are in full support-------until they get what they want and have to live with it. Then they will deny that they supported this craziness but it will be too late and they will pose as innocents who have, just like the rest of us, been brought to the slaughter, so to speak.
My thoughts exactly! How can anyone not see this! These “supporters “ are desperate hate mongers going off the rails at every turn. Crowds of miserable losers clinging to an evil rhetoric thinking this will change their miserable lives! Playbook of the rise of Adolph Hitler
Nice. Good writing. Strong. Thank you! What a display and what a disgrace.
“The masses had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and that nothing was true.” — Hannah Arendt
If I hadn't already subscribed, I would have done so to honor Jack's courage and incredible patience at spending his Sunday this way. So discouraging.
And why would Trump make people wait so long to hear him speak? The point of anticipation rapidly dissipates. He doesn't care about anyone or anything but they want him anyway. God help us.
A Night at the Garden, Part II. Comparable to the great reporting of brave journalists as The Gathering Storm swept across Europe. You only left out the multiple allusions to the Democrats’ attempt to assassinate Trump, through the efforts of a registered Republican. And I don’t know if you noticed that Trump at one point, I think it was during his discussion of “the enemy within”, slipped and pronounced her name correctly.
I recently reread 1984. I realize that the analogy is overused, but MAGA really feels like the book come to life. I understand the racism and patriarchy that has always been a huge part of the US, but I am nevertheless surprised at how popular Hitler and Nazis are when I thought we had reached a societal consensus that they were the "bad guys" in this story.
When I used to be a reporter at our Montana mid-sized paper, I was deeply uncomfortable when I had to cover events for Republicans in our county, and this was long before Trump but well into talk of the New World Order and Democrats killing babies. A cashier at a grocery store was telling customers about a month ago "keep hope alive and vote for Trump," and I haven't been back to that store since because that happy-go-lucky, jovial man made me so angry and gave me the creeps. I don't know how any person with a good heart can bear to listen to the lies and the hate when it's not filtered through someone like Aaron. War zone pay is warranted for Jack Holmes.
Trump's "Sportpalast" rally is the last warning knell. The cognitive dissonance, blind fanaticism, and unquestioning readiness to "other" much of America is frightening. Expect a Reichstags-fire-type event within weeks, followed by a Kristallnacht against Hispanic businesses and neighbourhoods, should he take office again.... History has taught us exactly what this is and how it will play out - but also, alas, that "never again" means very little.
Thank you for the inside glimpse at what most of us saner folks can only stare at in horror and bemusement. Unlike most suppositions, the people so fervently addicted to MAGA are not really lunatics seeking their own asylum. They're our neighbors, our business partners, our customers, and the people sharing the highway and byways with the rest of us. Their inner, tribal fear and hatred of the "other" has been seen and applauded, and they'll be damned if they'll be inauthentic any longer just to fit in. The only problem arises when they discover that their worst impulses lead to crap that they don't like and won't tolerate - but it will be too late.
This is one of the best depictions of a journey deep into the Heart of Darkness that is the Trump movement that I have read over the last nine years (and far better than any of those now-stereotypical "discussions in a diner" anthropological excursions that outlets like the New York Times seem so fond of). Writers and scholars of totalitarianism like George Orwell, Hannah Arendt, and Masha Gessen have written thorough depictions of all the psychological characteristics, contradictions, hypocrisies, and overwhelming reliance on fear, helplessness, and rage above all else that so typify totalitarian, fascist, and dictatorial movements around the world, and those are all here. I only hope that others read this and see the looming darkness and terror swiftly creeping over the horizon of America.
If we as an American nation get through this and stave off that darkness one more time in a week, we have a lot of work to do to talk these MAGA people off the ledge of their emotions, to deprogram them from their cult, and bring them back to reality. They are so enraged, blinded by hatred, and stirred up by a master manipulator of their emotions that it's going to take a long time for any of them to see reason again. And if a President Harris and her administration and party don't actively take steps to fix the rot within our body politic, nothing will change. Simply talking about unity isn't enough. I think we need policy changes.
Thank you for being there so we don’t have to. As someone who fits a few of the categories of people regularly slandered by Olde Pumpkin Spice, his warmup acts, and his followers, I find all of this both absurd and terrifying. My mother made an arduous journey alone to escape an authoritarian regime at the age of 18, and she would be deeply horrified that the US has come to this. I really don’t know how we can come back from it.
This is a heroic expose of how mentally unhealthy so many Americans are and how desperate and vulnerable they are for a sense of community, sense of identity and sense of purpose, no matter how vile and inconsistent and delusional that identity, purpose and community is. Why did so many Americans succumb to Trump's spell so that they are no longer able to distinguish between their adoration of Trump and the reality and values and ethics of their own lives? How can they identify sexual misconduct in real life as horrible but sexual misconduct by Trump as 'fake news'? This part of American identity and history cannot ever be forgotten or erased because the world is watching and technology is recording. It got this bad because the likes of Liz Cheney voted for Trump twice. Because he had an R behind his name. Revealing that roughly 75 million Americans weren't paying very close attention to anything that happened in Trump's first term. It appears that it's possible that 75 million Americans still aren't paying attention to what Trump is actually saying he'll do. Because he still has an R behind his name. And therein lies the problem.
Are there really that many crazy people in NYC. I know it is a big city but still--that crowd defies all sane and rational thinking. Where are they getting that kool-aid?
Many people were from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Long Island, and Upstate. But there are Trump voters in NYC, including plenty of rich financiers in Manhattan. I think he will cut his margin of defeat here from where it was in the last two elections.
Very thorough inside look. Humanizes the attendees, but doesn’t whitewash their beliefs and behavior. Do they know that in addition to losing his apartment, law license in two states and more, Giuliani was also stuffed by Trump for $2 million? I wonder if a rundown of all Trump’s unpaid debts would undermine their faith in the “brilliant” orange businessman? Not to mention the bankruptcies, refusals to pay workers (.people just like them), etc.?
I believe that most already know about Trump's bankruptcies, cheating on taxes, and stiffing his vendors, and they believe it makes him a savvy businessman. What businessperson would actually pay more than they have to, after all? Lying and cheating is what they believe makes you rich, not hard work.
How are we going to come back from this?
That was a long, hard read for 6:45 am. And after I learned last night that our local DEC offices has been swamped with vicious voice messages (including death threats), and a friend sent me a photo from San Marcos, TX of a note taped to a Harris sign threatening to hang the “offenders” and signed “Chapter #124 of the Trump Klan”.
OMG it seems that Hitler has been revived in the form of trump and the minions are in full support-------until they get what they want and have to live with it. Then they will deny that they supported this craziness but it will be too late and they will pose as innocents who have, just like the rest of us, been brought to the slaughter, so to speak.
My thoughts exactly! How can anyone not see this! These “supporters “ are desperate hate mongers going off the rails at every turn. Crowds of miserable losers clinging to an evil rhetoric thinking this will change their miserable lives! Playbook of the rise of Adolph Hitler
Let’s turn the corner. I fear for Kamala Harris if we are so fortunate to win.
I have had the same rage seeing the occasional Trump/Vance sign here, suddenly wanting a bow and arrow or a rifle. Violence breed’s violence.
Nice. Good writing. Strong. Thank you! What a display and what a disgrace.
“The masses had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and that nothing was true.” — Hannah Arendt
Thanks! I thought about putting an Arendt quote in every section. She nailed every aspect of this thing 70 years ago.
Yes and I want to send that quote and post it everywhere. Arendt is really for this moment.
If I hadn't already subscribed, I would have done so to honor Jack's courage and incredible patience at spending his Sunday this way. So discouraging.
And why would Trump make people wait so long to hear him speak? The point of anticipation rapidly dissipates. He doesn't care about anyone or anything but they want him anyway. God help us.
Thank you, Ellen!
A Night at the Garden, Part II. Comparable to the great reporting of brave journalists as The Gathering Storm swept across Europe. You only left out the multiple allusions to the Democrats’ attempt to assassinate Trump, through the efforts of a registered Republican. And I don’t know if you noticed that Trump at one point, I think it was during his discussion of “the enemy within”, slipped and pronounced her name correctly.
That part about "they" shooting at Trump is in there toward the top! But thanks for the kind words.
Sorry. I must have missed it, I don’t know how you do what you do,
I recently reread 1984. I realize that the analogy is overused, but MAGA really feels like the book come to life. I understand the racism and patriarchy that has always been a huge part of the US, but I am nevertheless surprised at how popular Hitler and Nazis are when I thought we had reached a societal consensus that they were the "bad guys" in this story.
When I used to be a reporter at our Montana mid-sized paper, I was deeply uncomfortable when I had to cover events for Republicans in our county, and this was long before Trump but well into talk of the New World Order and Democrats killing babies. A cashier at a grocery store was telling customers about a month ago "keep hope alive and vote for Trump," and I haven't been back to that store since because that happy-go-lucky, jovial man made me so angry and gave me the creeps. I don't know how any person with a good heart can bear to listen to the lies and the hate when it's not filtered through someone like Aaron. War zone pay is warranted for Jack Holmes.
Trump's "Sportpalast" rally is the last warning knell. The cognitive dissonance, blind fanaticism, and unquestioning readiness to "other" much of America is frightening. Expect a Reichstags-fire-type event within weeks, followed by a Kristallnacht against Hispanic businesses and neighbourhoods, should he take office again.... History has taught us exactly what this is and how it will play out - but also, alas, that "never again" means very little.
Thank you for the inside glimpse at what most of us saner folks can only stare at in horror and bemusement. Unlike most suppositions, the people so fervently addicted to MAGA are not really lunatics seeking their own asylum. They're our neighbors, our business partners, our customers, and the people sharing the highway and byways with the rest of us. Their inner, tribal fear and hatred of the "other" has been seen and applauded, and they'll be damned if they'll be inauthentic any longer just to fit in. The only problem arises when they discover that their worst impulses lead to crap that they don't like and won't tolerate - but it will be too late.
This was an incredible view into a Maga crowd. Sadly…exhaustively unsettling 🥺
This is one of the best depictions of a journey deep into the Heart of Darkness that is the Trump movement that I have read over the last nine years (and far better than any of those now-stereotypical "discussions in a diner" anthropological excursions that outlets like the New York Times seem so fond of). Writers and scholars of totalitarianism like George Orwell, Hannah Arendt, and Masha Gessen have written thorough depictions of all the psychological characteristics, contradictions, hypocrisies, and overwhelming reliance on fear, helplessness, and rage above all else that so typify totalitarian, fascist, and dictatorial movements around the world, and those are all here. I only hope that others read this and see the looming darkness and terror swiftly creeping over the horizon of America.
If we as an American nation get through this and stave off that darkness one more time in a week, we have a lot of work to do to talk these MAGA people off the ledge of their emotions, to deprogram them from their cult, and bring them back to reality. They are so enraged, blinded by hatred, and stirred up by a master manipulator of their emotions that it's going to take a long time for any of them to see reason again. And if a President Harris and her administration and party don't actively take steps to fix the rot within our body politic, nothing will change. Simply talking about unity isn't enough. I think we need policy changes.
Amazing. Not a woman in the picture that I could see. All these poor widdle men who have such big important feewings…
Thank you for being there so we don’t have to. As someone who fits a few of the categories of people regularly slandered by Olde Pumpkin Spice, his warmup acts, and his followers, I find all of this both absurd and terrifying. My mother made an arduous journey alone to escape an authoritarian regime at the age of 18, and she would be deeply horrified that the US has come to this. I really don’t know how we can come back from it.
This is a heroic expose of how mentally unhealthy so many Americans are and how desperate and vulnerable they are for a sense of community, sense of identity and sense of purpose, no matter how vile and inconsistent and delusional that identity, purpose and community is. Why did so many Americans succumb to Trump's spell so that they are no longer able to distinguish between their adoration of Trump and the reality and values and ethics of their own lives? How can they identify sexual misconduct in real life as horrible but sexual misconduct by Trump as 'fake news'? This part of American identity and history cannot ever be forgotten or erased because the world is watching and technology is recording. It got this bad because the likes of Liz Cheney voted for Trump twice. Because he had an R behind his name. Revealing that roughly 75 million Americans weren't paying very close attention to anything that happened in Trump's first term. It appears that it's possible that 75 million Americans still aren't paying attention to what Trump is actually saying he'll do. Because he still has an R behind his name. And therein lies the problem.
Are there really that many crazy people in NYC. I know it is a big city but still--that crowd defies all sane and rational thinking. Where are they getting that kool-aid?
Many people were from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Long Island, and Upstate. But there are Trump voters in NYC, including plenty of rich financiers in Manhattan. I think he will cut his margin of defeat here from where it was in the last two elections.
I’ve read that many people (not supporters) were merely paid actors.
They travel…
Thanks for this. Compelling and eminently readable.