by Becky Noble
The Democrat Party has been adhering to that old adage “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” for a long time. Let’s be honest: The decades-long tactics of branding Republicans as racist, sexist, bigoted homophobes have won them a lot of elections. But for any Democrats who might have bothered to witness even a few minutes of Donald Trump’s rally in the Bronx on Thursday night or just watched the people who were there and the electric atmosphere that permeated the rally site, they have to know, all the things that have worked in the past for them are not going to work in 2024.
I have loved all of the Trump rallies but there’s something special about this New York Rally.
There’s a huge shift taking place.
Everyone is coming together.Do you feel it? pic.twitter.com/yDiJMorYA6
— Juanita Broaddrick (@atensnut) May 23, 2024
On the surface, the rally went off like any other Trump rally. Crowd size estimates vary, but it far exceeded the 3,500 that a permit allowed. Trump talked about Joe Biden and the Democrats’ policies that have destroyed the country and, if reelected, how fast he could turn the country around from those policies. One thing that is not talked about much is how a billionaire, someone who has the means to do anything he wants, bonds with ordinary, average, everyday working Americans. The answer to that question is not what he said or did at the rally but what he didn’t do.
So Donald Trump held a huge, wildly successful rally in the Bronx today. That itself is in many ways remarkable, but what I find quite noteworthy is not what happened, but what DID NOT happen. Let me explain.
The population in the Bronx is predominantly black and Hispanic.…
— Cynical Publius (@CynicalPublius) May 24, 2024
At this or any rally anywhere, Donald Trump is simply himself. At a rally in a place where the population is mostly black and Hispanic, Trump did not feel the need to morph into black preacher mode the way former Vice President Al Gore did, or Hillary Clinton, who felt compelled to tell a black audience, “I don’t feel no ways tired.” Hillary even put a cherry on top of the pandering by saying in an interview with an urban radio station in 2016 that she carried hot sauce everywhere. Donald Trump did not have to whip some hot sauce out of his pocket to “relate” to his audience.
Donald Trump did not pit Americans against each other. In yet another nod to Hillary Clinton, he did not call anyone “deplorable,” and he didn’t call anyone who disagrees with him “a threat to democracy.” Even New York Gov. Kathy Hochul called her own constituents attending the rally “clowns.” He called out the Democrats’ failures, but he was emphatic when he stated that, above all else, we are all Americans. No word on whether the media, which no doubt has been feverishly trying to edit that part out, has been successful.
As I watch the Trump rally in the Bronx, one thing that strikes me is how is it possible that Donald Trump can speak for two hours and not make mistakes and Joe Biden speaks for 15 minutes and can’t complete a sentence? pic.twitter.com/EwGAVXNJbY
— Carmine Sabia (@CarmineSabia) May 23, 2024
Donald Trump didn’t tell citizens of the Bronx that he would be giving them never-ending government handouts or redistributing wealth to them to tackle the borough’s problems. What he did say was that he knew how to repair an economy that Joe Biden and the Democrats have ravaged, so that Bronx residents could pick themselves up by creating jobs, businesses, and education. He didn’t offer them serfdom; he offered empowerment. It is that declaration — that the residents of the Bronx are not victims in any way, that they can tackle their borough’s issues, the same ones many other places in America have, like crime and poverty, by themselves in a way that helps them all succeed.
