Ted Cruz is a persist
A Conversation with Mr. Cruz at the MAGA Lollapalooza: How the First Critical Step toward the Dream of Turning Texas Blue, Not Blue, Is Puerto Rico
With his buoyant delivery and smug smile, Mr. Cruz wants to remind you of something: He is never happier than seeing a liberal fantasy and crushing it. The aim of ousting Mr. Cruz as long as he is in office is not going to die, even though the Democratic dream of turning Texas blue is approaching middle age. Recent polling shows he is in a close race with Mr. Allred, as he was in the last election, but within the margin of error. He’s being outraised again by the Democrats, this time by millions of dollars that national Democratic groups are pouring into the contest. The Democrats believe that Mr. Cruz is their best shot at holding onto their majority in the Senate. They also see him as the most promising opportunity to break the Republican Party’s multidecade lock on statewide offices here — giving them that first crucial step toward their dream of turning Texas, if not blue, then at least purple.
Donald Trump’s MAGA Lollapalooza at Madison Square Garden on Sunday began with an iconic scene from the 1970 biopic “Patton” on the jumbotron. George C. Scott, playing the legendary World War II general, grew up and said, “We’re not just going to shoot the bastards.” We’re going to cut out their living guts and use them to grease the treads of our tanks.” While it was nice, I suppose, to hear anti-Hitler rhetoric at a Trump rally, the belligerent talk of total war was unnerving in the context of a campaign focused on crushing internal enemies.
The event, which featured almost the entire MAGA firmament on a bill that stretched for more than six hours, opened with a set by a Texas comedian and podcaster, Tony Hinchcliffe. His unadulterated racism somewhat surprised me, given that the Trump campaign usually tries to serve its bigotry with a filmy veneer of plausible deniability. “These Latinos, they love making babies too,” he said. They came inside like they did our country, and there was no pulling out. I am not sure if you know this. but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I believe it is called Puerto Rico. He made a joke about Black people carving watermelons.
It was one of the uglier Trump rallies I can recall, which is saying something. Grant Cardone, a high-profile Scientologist and businessman, was the speaker who said of the electoral opponents of Trump that we need to slaughter them. David Rem, who was billed as a childhood friend of Trump’s, held up a crucifix and called Harris “the Antichrist.” (Then he announced he was running for mayor.) Sid said that Democrats were a bunch of dregs, preceded by an expletive. Trump once again described Democrats as “the enemy from within.” The stadium felt like pro wrestling in hell because of its saturated red lights and frequent use of heavy metal music.
I don’t think the event helped Trump win a lot of votes. New York is not the swing state that was portrayed by Vivek Ramaswamy. Hinchcliffe’s slurs against a key voting bloc proved an in-kind contribution to the Harris campaign, leading Puerto Rican artists including the megastar Bad Bunny to throw their support behind her.
