MAGAs Fascist Coming Out Party at Madison Square Garden

We Should First Address Immigration by Deporting Elon Musk

The Trump campaign is premised on a risky bet. It is wagering that Americans are secretly as vicious, vulgar and vile as Trump himself. It believes Trump is a truth teller who has unshackled the pent-up masses to shed political correctness in favor of their genuine ugly selves. On November 5, we will learn if this dark, dystopian hypothesis of the American psyche is correct.

To elevate this strategy, MAGA staged a campaign-closing circus at New York’s Madison Square, sprouting a grotesque garden of social stinkweed and political poison ivy. I’m sure there were performers on Coney Island upset because the GOP stole their freak show.

In an election where Trump has been accused of embracing fascism, it was a deliberate choice to have this key event at MSG. In 1939, the American Nazi party staged a similar rally at an arena of the same name in New York in support of Hitler. Like this week’s showcase, the previous hate-fest was wrapped in the American flag and supported the idea that America is only for Americans—a peculiar idea in a nation of immigrants.

Disgraced former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, wildly waving his arms in an uncanny Hitler impersonation, gave away the game at Trump’s Madison Square Garden hate fest.

“He’s liberated us in the deepest and truest sense,” Carlson said. “And the liberation he has brought to us is the liberation from the obligation to tell lies. Donald Trump has made it possible for the rest of us to tell the truth about the world around us.”

Of course, everything in Trump’s surreal universe is its opposite. It’s a warped world of projection and deflection, so what Carlson is really saying is that Trump has created a permission structure to bellow bigotry and spew an endless stream of lies. Republicans are promising supporters they can be decadent in their indecency and rip off their masks to reveal malevolence toward their neighbors.

The pep rally opened with jester Tony Hinchcliffe referring to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.” The next day, quisling VP candidate JD Vance tried to downplay the remarks.

“Maybe it’s a stupid, racist joke,” Vance dissembled to reporters. “Maybe it’s not. I haven’t seen it.” But, he added, “we have to stop getting so offended at every little thing in the United States of America.”

Vance is obviously lying because we know he saw the routine. Hinchcliffe was chosen precisely because his act is offensive, and the GOP knew the “humor” of its audience. If one spits out a litany of stereotypes, they knew the crass crowd would chuckle. A comedian at a political convention can’t be breezily excused, in the same way a political cartoonist at a newspaper can’t be compared to a normal artist drawing funny cartoon characters for children’s shows. This was more than comedy, it was political commentary designed to make a statement as the campaign comes to a close.

Hinchcliffe’s bigotry will likely backfire, especially as Kamala Harris received endorsements from Puerto Rican stars Bad Bunny, Jennifer Lopez and Ricky Martin. She also campaigned at a Puerto Rican restaurant and reminded voters of how Trump withheld hurricane aid after the island was devastated and he humiliated its residents by chucking paper towels at them.

Prior to this moment, there were naïve Latino Trump supporters, particularly men, who foolishly thought they were in on the GOP’s big joke. Now they know the truth—they are the butt of it. It would be poetic justice if a rebellion by insulted Latino voters cost Trump the key swing state of Pennsylvania and Ted Cruz his senate seat in Texas.   

Hinchcliffe’s set was so obnoxious, that his cheap shot “jokes” that African Americans carve watermelons for Halloween or Jews are stingy with money barely registered with the public. 

Additionally, suckered Palestinians in Michigan who decided to endorse Trump, woke up to reality when Trump’s former lawyer Rudy Giuliani spewed from the stage that “Palestinians are taught to kill us at two years old.” Biden and Harris have worked tirelessly for a ceasefire, while Trump’s campaign has trained rhetorical fire at Palestinians while doing nothing to advance peace.

This repugnant rally isn’t the only bastion of bigotry to expose the true nature of today’s Republican Party. Tim Sheehy, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Montana slimed Native Americans. He was recorded speaking at a private function describing his time at a Crow parade, which he said was “a great way to bond with all the Indians out there, while they’re drunk at 8 a.m.”  

Calvin Lime, who lives on the Blackfeet reservation in northern Montana, said the remarks were a “slap in the face,” and especially unfortunate because the Crow Tribe was one of the most outspokenly pro-Trump tribes.  

“For them to bring him there, work with him, they’re happy, they’re promoting him, but behind closed doors they’re the drunken Indian,” Mr. Lime said. “Behind closed doors, you’re actually getting looked at as a lesser-than.”

Meanwhile, too many delusional self-loathing gay Republicans are backing Trump. With their astonishing cognitive dissonance, they tricked themselves into believing they were accepted by the Republican Party, and the GOP was only into bashing transgender people. That fanciful illusion was shattered by Donald Trump, who in a fit of pique referred to gay CNN host Anderson Cooper as “Allison”.

MAGA is a white power, heterosexual-supremacist movement. If any LGBTQ person is gullible enough to think they will thrive under Trump, I urge them to show me one authoritarian, religiously based government in the past 100 years where LGBTQ people were treated as anything but pariahs. That MAGA worships Viktor Orban’s oppressive Hungary and Putin’s homophobic Russia is probably a clue of where this experiment in fascism ends.

The one area of agreement I have with Republicans is that immigrants are wrecking our country. Unfortunately, MAGA has targeted hardworking immigrants who are building America’s future instead of the ones who are destroying it.

For example, the Trump campaign is supported by Fox News, which was founded by Rupert Murdoch, an Australian immigrant who defiles our democracy daily. After destabilizing the United Kingdom with his terrible tabloids, he moved to the United States to decimate democracy. Cable companies that still carry Fox, as a free station, are choosing corporate greed over the common good at the expense of the former America.

Trump’s biggest cheerleader is Elon Musk, an immigrant who grew up in apartheid South Africa who has so far spent at least $118 million on Trump’s bigoted campaign. The Washington Post discovered that this fierce opponent of undocumented people was once himself an “illegal alien”:

Musk in recent months has amplified the Republican presidential candidate’s claims that “open borders” and undocumented immigrants are destroying America, broadcasting those views to more than 200 million followers on the site formerly known as Twitter, which Musk bought in 2022 and later renamed X.

What Musk has not publicly disclosed is that he did not have the legal right to work while building the company that became Zip2, which sold for about $300 million in 1999. 

Musk lied to government officials to receive his citizenship. He did so again to get his top-secret security clearance, which he has serially abused by having private telephone conversations with Vladimir Putin. Apparently, the Putin chats began while Musk was trying to purchase Twitter. Rachel Maddow revealed on Monday that Musk is also speaking with a Russian disinformation specialist who is currently in charge of interfering with our elections.

If one takes a step back and examines this potentially treasonous relationship, it is a direct threat to our democracy. Russia is now working diligently to interfere in our elections on behalf of electing Trump. It is creating fake videos smearing Harris and her running mate Tim Walz, which are laundered through Twitter to millions of potential American voters.   

Musk’s attack on and manipulation of his adopted country’s political system should not go unanswered. We should start with immediately revoking his top-secret clearance. Then, we must invoke eminent domain to have the United States seize his company Space X, given that Musk has aided Putin in Ukraine, at the expense of our national security. That’s too much power for one man, especially one who is unelected with tenuous ties to the United States.

Then, we must force Musk to repay our government the $300 million he profited as an undocumented immigrant, illegally working in our country without permission. Finally, we should strip Musk of his citizenship and deport him to South Africa. Had he disclosed his profiteering as an illegal immigrant on his application for citizenship, he certainly would have been denied and sent home.

The former “illegal alien”, and current Putin whisperer, is now attempting to use his billions to buy the election in Pennsylvania. On Monday, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner was forced to spend taxpayer’s money to sue Musk, demanding he stop his vote-buying scheme. According to Krasner:

“America PAC and Elon Musk are running an illegal lottery in Philadelphia (as well as throughout Pennsylvania),” the suit said.

“In other words, America PAC and Musk are lulling Philadelphia citizens – and others in the Commonwealth (and other swing states in the upcoming election) – to give up their personal identifying information and make a political pledge in exchange for the chance to win $1 million. That is a lottery.”

Musk fervently wants to expel up to 20 million undocumented immigrants—who will first be placed in wretched camps—simply because they are poor, dark-skinned and come from countries Trump considers shit holes. Isn’t it fair game to deport an arrogant, wealthy, entitled South African who lied to gain citizenship and is potentially compromised by Russia?

If there was remaining doubt about Trump’s desire to be a dictator, it should have been settled by his boring 78-minute Castro-like speech where he reiterated that his opponents are “the enemy from within”. The Harris campaign is smart to end its campaign with a chilling, hair-raising ad featuring 4-star General and Trump’s former chief of staff John Kelly calling him a fascist.

The calculated Madison Square Garden spectacle of belching anger and bloviating intolerance, at such a critical moment in the campaign, was an overt invitation to join the dark side. The Harris campaign, by contrast, is inspiring, inclusive and has done its job of presenting America with a clear, unambiguous choice. November 5 is our nation’s greatest test of character since the Civil War. If we fail, America will get the government it deserves and reckon with a myriad of cascading consequences that are certain to transpire.