MAGA Garbage Costumes Makes Me More Confident About My Election Prediction
Trigger Warning
(Photo by Possessed Photography on Unsplash)
Okay, I guess I am pivoting to politics blogging until this is Joever. I will eventually go back to writing about the trials and tribulations of finding a decent, reasonably priced Caesar salad. But for now, I’m fully in John King-explaining-why-a-random-district-in-Wisconsin-matters mode.
Today’s blog is about garbage.
Two and a half weeks ago, I declared that Kamala Harris is going to win this election. Now, not only do I stand by that prediction, I have literally told a friend that I would buy him dinner if I am wrong. Everything that I’ve seen during the past week has made me even more confident that though this is likely to be close, Harris has the advantage.
What’s interesting to me is not the data, which is murky at best, but how this moment speaks to the nature of being “hyper-online.” To me, this is more prescient and important than analyzing early voter metrics like a manic astrologist.
Garbage time!
On October 27th, Team Trump threw a MAGA rally at Madison Square Garden that will be remembered as his Comey Letter: a late season scandal that reinforces an unpopular candidate’s vulnerabilities.
Not to make this all about me, but I was in New York City and actually encountered a MAGA bro on the Q (wow, I talk like Fran Lebowitz now) who told me that he couldn’t get into MSG because it was at capacity (ominous!).
Despite the compelling imagery of legions of red hats descending upon Midtown Manhattan, that rally was actually quite the fiasco for the Trump campaign. Instead of presenting a positive, unifying message that might appeal to normal people, they double-downed on straight up racism. A ton of ink has been spilled about it. Likely to the dismay of Mr. Orange Man, the most memorable moment in the evening wasn’t his rambling speech, but a comedian’s horrible joke about how Puerto Rico is a “floating island of garbage.” After a cascade of outrage, President Biden somewhat neutralized the news cycle by referring to Trump supporters as “garbage.” Although his underlings are insisting it was a slip-up and that he was actually referring to the aforementioned bro comedian, I don’t really buy it. This is a man who shouldn’t be in charge of the nuclear codes. We all know this and yet he is still in power. Let’s pray we don’t enter World War III before Hanukkah. Okay, moving on!
In reaction to Biden’s reaction to Puerto Rico-gate, Trump stopped by Party City, dressed as a garbage man, and staged a photoshoot for those journalists that he feverishly needs but pretends to hate. Following their Dear Leader, MAGA diehards are now gleefully donning trash bags and proclaiming themselves “garbage people.”
A common critique of a flailing campaign is that it’s way too online. For instance, when Governor Ron DeSantis launched his presidential bid with a glitchy Twitter Space co-hosted by Elon Musk, it seemed to me that he wasn’t going to pose a serious challenge to Trump. New York Post may have called him the “future of the GOP” but he seemed like a joke. Why was the dude who was so obsessed with rebelling against COVID restrictions hosting the Zoom conference from hell? Why wasn’t he holding a rally with supporters in his rival’s home state? Why wasn’t he celebrating how in the glorious city of Orlando, people like to be outside or whatever?
Lo and behold, DeSantis flopped very hard.
Amongst the political chattering class, there are common refrains like “Twitter isn’t real life.” Arguably, the Bernie 2020 campaign leaned more heavily into memes, and was overly invested in what a few bloggers in D.C. and New York City thought. Of course, the digital space is a crucial aspect to a campaign, but it’s a fine line between reaching the youth and accidentally locking yourself in a Reddit dweeb’s basement. The Trump campaign has crossed that line, and shall now greatly suffer the consequences.
I get the instinct to repurpose Biden’s insult as a point of pride. It’s an obvious reference to Hillary Clinton referring to MAGA fans as “deplorables” in 2016 and on a broader level, steers the conversation away from the vile racism displayed at the MSG rally. However, this insistence on focusing on garbage is indicative of a laughably insular organization.
Okay, I will give credit where credit is due.
Earlier in October, Trump cosplayed as a McDonald’s cashier to troll Harris. Perhaps, in some postmortem, his French fries stunt and garbage costume will be lumped together as signs of a campaign off the rails.
But that’s not the case.
Trump’s fast food shift was much more savvy because not only did it expose Harris’ inauthenticity, it underscored his love for Americana, or what New York Magazine’s Sam Adler-Bell referred to as “kitschy nostalgia.”
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Hate to use the word “inclusive” when referring to Trump, but when he told a random McDonald’s customer that he isn’t “ordinary,” I saw how in fun-sized snippets — let’s say a Happy Meal — MAGA can be digestible and appealing to a large swath of people.
Garbage, on the other hand, is garbage.
Picture this: you’re a suburban mom taking your five year old daughter, who is adorably dressed as a pumpkin, trick-or-treating. Halloween is one of the last apolitical vestiges in your 55 D/ 45 R suburban neighborhood. Thanksgiving is anxiety-inducing because of MAGA uncle spewing conspiracies about voter fraud and “the woke mind virus” and you don’t really feel like arguing over this hypothetical “war on Christmas.” So, now you just have Halloween. Yes, some people dress like Trump. Some may dress like Obama. But it’s all fine. Long live spooky season! Suddenly, in the midst of collecting Snickers and Skittles from friendly neighbors, you turn a corner and see a sunset-lit avenue peppered with red hat garbage people marching like zombies. Your husband, who isn’t so tuned into politics, asks: WHAT the hell is happening?
You then proceed to summarize the shit show: a bad comedian told an extremely racist joke at a major political party’s rally, a president suffering from cognitive decline uttered yet another gaffe, and now a reality TV star narcissist is encouraging his followers to personify garbage. As the somewhat apolitical partner, what is your reaction?
Are you going to sympathize with the garbage people, or are you going to look at your daughter, and ask whether she should grow up with a president who proudly disparages minorities and women? Are you going to say ‘let’s move on from this and vote Harris because she seems fine I guess’?
That will likely be the story of this election.
According to internal data from the Harris campaign, they are winning by “double digits among battleground state voters who made up their mind in the last week.” Despite an economy that isn’t great, multiple foreign policy disasters, and Harris’ myriad of flaws, she will probably win because she hasn’t done anything to scare off normies.
Though her campaign was launched with BRAT aesthetics, as far as I know, Harris has never said the words “Charli XCX.” And that’s a good thing, because I don’t feel like revealing to my parents everything I know about a British pop star who sings about coke-fueled warehouse parties. For all its faults, the Harris team have a barrier between the online realm, which is needed for Gen Z and millennials, and her In Real Life activities like rallies and town halls.
Mr. Orange Man’s third run is obsessed with online clout. Musk and Trump have recently donned “Dark MAGA” hats that essentially function as collectibles for hardcore believers, but to the everyday person, may seem a tad scary or just obnoxious.
Yes, it’s remarkable that this awful man still has a firm grasp on millions. But when the dust settles and a coconut tree is planted in the White House’s backyard, these garbage costumes may be remembered as MAGA’s version of 2016’s “Nasty Woman” shirts: a glaring sign that a campaign is more focused on reacting to petty insults, than actually offering a coherent vision for the future.
According to Gallup, the country is largely dissatisfied. A smarter, more disciplined campaign would have been able to weaponize this to their advantage and win against the incumbent party. And yet, Team Trump has managed to make themselves seem worse than the politicians currently occupying the White House. In fact, they know they are horrible and proud!
I’m not clairvoyant but I have a hunch that in a few days, we shall see that enough Americans simply don’t want more “garbage.”
