The disgusting one-liners by Trump’s warm-up act, Tony Hinchcliffe, who called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage,” could sink Trump’s campaign all by itself.
The comment pulled out every major Puerto Rican entertainer to endorse Harris, including Bad Bunny and Jennifer Lopez. There are 500,000 Puerto Rican voters in Pennsylvania, and Philly has America’s second largest Puerto Rican population after New York.
The Trump campaign ineptly tried to distance itself from Hinchcliffe’s routine. Maybe the island of garbage is Trump.
In his shift to full-on fascism, Trump keeps escalating his threats to use the full power of the state to punish political enemies. In the 2016 election, some voters could kid themselves that Trump didn’t literally mean what he said. But he did. And Trump spent much of his term exasperated that many of his appointees
refused to carry out his more outlandish commands.
His generals reminded him that their oath was to the Constitution. His first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, refused to direct the Justice Department to prosecute Hillary Clinton. Sessions’ successor, Bill Barr, who served as Trump’s enabler time after time, finally drew the line at Trump’s claims of a stolen election, and Trump fired him.
The deep state, otherwise known as the American constitutional system, had just enough life in it to contain Trump’s worst dictatorial impulses and demands. Very conservative Republicans in his administration, from his former generals to his Wall Street appointees and his own vice president, salvaged American democracy, just barely.
Trump will not make the same mistake twice. He will find appointees who are far more extremist and who are pure toadies. Trump’s recent rallies have offered a taste of fascism. If he is elected, he will deliver fascism
full-on.
Will voters finally take notice?
I think they will—if Harris does what she needs to do in the final week.
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