This Saturday I will be at Madison Square Garden in New York for the climax of Donald Trump's election campaign. It will be one hell of a spectacle, designed to show Trump returning in triumph like a conquering emperor to the city that spurned him. The hall will be filled with 20,000 Maga supporters decked in red, white and blue, roaring "USA! USA! USA!" The message will be: Trump is unstoppable. Those who are against him should get out of the way.
I have been to scores of Trump rallies. This one feels significant because of the memories and fears it evokes. In 1939, on the eve of war in Europe, 20,000 American Nazis - members of the German American Bund-gathered at the same spot in serried ranks to hail Hitler in front of huge US flags and a gigantic portrait of George Washington. On MSNBC, James Carville, the veteran Democratic spinner, accused Trump of mimicking that rally. "See what happened there," he urged viewers. "They are telling you exactly what they're going to do: 'We're going to institute a fascist regime"" Is this dread warning over the top? Clearly "it could happen here", to paraphrase Sinclair Lewis's 1935 novel about American fascism.
According to historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat, the author of Strongmen: "It is beyond doubt that Trump has provided a new stage and a new context for fascist ideologies and practices, many of which have roots in American extremist traditions and histories as well." After the "brat" summer and "joy" of her earlier campaign, Kamala Harris has stopped calling Trump "weird" in favour of portraying him as a dangerous and unstable threat to democracy. Initially, she was praised for dropping Joe Biden's jaded rhetoric about saving the "soul of the nation" in favour of celebrating freedom. This was a defiant and confident message that worked. But after Trump threatened to turn the "National Guard, or... the military" on "sick people, radical Left lunatics", her rhetoric has darkened.
この記事は The London Standard の October 24, 2024 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は The London Standard の October 24, 2024 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
Kylie Minogue loves the bar at Louie, startling Beefeaters and snooping in The Conran Shop
Currently it’s largely suitcase-based as I’ve been doing so much travel for work, but Melbourne, Australia, is home.
Are Spurs willing to invest what it takes to win trophies?
Criticism of the manager for the club's struggles misses the point-whatever he says, he's not been given a squad ready to push for the biggest honours
Crowning glory awaits Britain's golden girl
Odds-on favourite to win BBC Sports Personality, Keely Hodgkinson never doubted she was ready to conquer the world
Residents at war over £10 billion 'Shanghai-style' Earl's Court plan
Controversial proposals are causing a huge furore in west London
The secrets of selling the capital's £40m homes
Armed security, NDAs, a gold temple...inside the world of ultra high-end property deals
Jenny Packham on Amsterdam why is truly magical at Christmas time
The designer gets lost in the cobbled streets and is entranced by the city’s twinkling lights and unique spirit
Alfies Antique Market
Here is a place to blindly lose oneself in a labyrinth of staircases and thresholds.
Decline and fall: what comes after peak wellness?
The social elite are obsessed with devices that track their health but the backlash is building
The newest AI can arrange your holiday- but will it be a strictly woke one?
A lightning-quick artificial megabrain with an appetite for social justice? WILLIAM HOSIE has a chat with Claude Al
'Fame just isn't healthy
Mercury Prize-winning band English Teacher on the pressure of success, trying not to burn out and the challenges black women face in indie music
