Madison Square Garden

Three frightening events

On October 27th Donald J. Trump will hold a rally at the “Garden” in New York City. Why? He won’t win this election in New York. He will lose NY by millions. If he really thought he had a chance to win the presidency why wouldn’t he be spending every waking hour in swing states where the election is really decided?

Madison Square Garden leapt into my consciousness twice before. Both were terrifying. MSG is a national stage. Whatever happens there is considered “big”. The first time I heard of the place was as a high school teenager.

Our English teacher was more than an instructor of language. He asked us to really think about life. He had a keen sense of history. But he also had a political streak that represented what I would later recognize as almost pure “libertarianism”. My young self found it inspiring. All anyone had to do was work hard to be successful. Government “handouts” were counterproductive. In fact, the less government, the better. Made sense to my naive, inexperienced, uneducated teen aged self.

So off we go to Madison Square Garden. My teacher had selected me and my best friend to travel to NYC to watch a Barry Goldwater rally. Barry didn’t have much of a chance to win over NYC Democrats. But he knew how to draw attention to his cause.

That was obviously a long time ago. But I remember two things. The energy at the Garden that night was overwhelming. I was inspired by it. And I was terrified by it. All those people screaming for Barry. “AUH2O - ‘64” was emblazoned on the hat I wore. My fearful self asked what this mob would do as they left the venue. Nothing major happened. But I imagined them running down the streets of the city looking for “lazy others”.

The other big rally at Madison Square Garden that terrifies me happened in 1939. Here is an NPR article that describes how 20,000 American Nazis raised their arms in support of a White Christian America - a land of freedom…from Jews. PLEASE watch a seven minute Oscar nominated film called “A Night at the Garden” directed by Marshall Curry.

Again, I ask: why is Donald J. Trump holding a rally in a state where he has no chance of winning? Listen to what he says that night. The election will occur nine days later. Anyone who has a sense of history might ask: why hold an event at a venue that had hosted a Nazi rally? The symbolism seems starkly obvious. Is it code?

Neither Trump or his twat of a running mate will admit that he had lost the election four years ago. Call me crazy, but I think he will set the stage for another effort to undermine our election process and call his loss “a steal”. And worse. Is another coup being planned?

Or, let us be optimistic. Perhaps the Orange Menace will disassemble on stage again. Maybe he will babble his gibberish until he is tired. Then maybe he will silently bop and “weave” to the music of his “play list” again. Maybe the crowd will begin to thin due to boredom - again. Maybe his madness and dementia on full display will turn off a few - just enough - voters is those swing states to make this nightmare end. Maybe.

https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2019/02/20/695941323/when-nazis-took-manhattan

https://youtu.be/T9gFqNw2sk0