American Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s Sunday rally in New York’s Madison Square Garden (MSG), in many ways, was almost a climax to the election campaign. Wife Melania Trump made a rare appearance. Elegant as always, she delivered her obviously prepared speech like a pro. The pronounced Slovenia accent to her English, which is quite annoying, got dissolved in the depth of her speech. She skirted the personal and focused on the election issues her husband has been raising.
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and a technical genius with “the other world” qualities, was characteristically casual on stage in his third appearance in a Trump rally. A business wizard, Musk does not get carried away with emotion—across the oo-s and ah-s he lets out, and emphatically reminds the participants “to vote and vote early to make it a sweeping victory for Trump.”
This election is so important to Musk, personally, that he has committed a million dollar lottery prize each day for 15 days up to election day from among those who sign his petition to protect the Constitution. That is his smart way of getting the voters enthused; nine winners have already got the prize money. That 45 million voters have already cast their vote shows that such campaigns do have an impact.
Politically, the day belonged more to rebel Democrat Robert F Kennedy Jr., and to the young and brilliant Republican, Vivek Ramaswamy, than to Trump. Ramaswamy’s speech and personality merit a separate piece, but here is how Kennedy exposed the Democratic Party in all its true colours during his eight-and-a-half-minute speech. His was a no-holds-barred attack on the Deep State that has been running (ruining is more like it) America, and wants to perpetuate its hold through a surrogate president, Kamala Harris being its obvious choice.
It is scandalous that the Democrats campaigning for Harris, including the Clintons and Obamas, can talk about democracy with a straight face and heap all the condemnation on Trump for being a “dictator”. The presidential nomination of vice-president Harris, who did not win a single vote in the Democratic Party, and for whom the process of primary election within the party was abolished, itself is enough to point out the rot that has set into the party. Kennedy, who challenged it, was ousted. So was Tulsi Gabbard, who had challenged Harris during the 2020 elections.
The two prized Democrat rebels are both with Trump today. More than their ability to garner votes for Trump, they are playing an effective role in exposing the pretentious, new Democratic Party. That they both focus on facts rather than emotion is what makes their viewpoint noteworthy.
Having watched at least 50 videos of Kennedy’s public appearances, including his speeches in political rallies, media interviews and his well-researched information capsules about the drug and food companies that have their tentacles deep into the government, I can say that the MSG speech was the most powerful.
“This is not the Party any more of Martin Luther King, of Robert Kennedy, of John Kennedy,” Kennedy said, as he recalled the original features of his former party. “That was the party of peace, the party of Constitutional rights, of civil rights, of freedom of speech. It was the party that wanted to protect and nurture the middle class.
“It was the party that stood up to censorship, to surveillance, and stood up to the CIA and the Military Industrial Complex, and it was the party that wanted to protect public health and women sports. My uncle, Ted Kennedy, wrote Title Nine which protects women’s sports in college. It was the party that believed in voting rights and fought for the right of every American to vote for the person of their choice.
“Today’s Democratic Party is the party of war. It is the party of the CIA. You had Kamala Harris giving a speech at the Democratic Convention that was written by neo cons, that was belligerent, that talked of domination of the world by the United States through weapons of war. It is a party that wants to divide Americans, it’s a party that is dismantling women’s supports by letting men play women’s sports, it is a party of Wall Street, it’s the party of Bill Gates who just gave 50 million dollars to Kamala Harris campaign, and is very proud that it received the endorsement of 50 former CIA agents and officers, of John Bolton (the National Security Adviser Trump fired when he was president) and of Dick Cheney.
“These are the people that gave us war in Iraq, the worst foreign policy catastrophe that’s ever happened to this country. These are the people that gave us the Patriot Act that launched the surveillance State. These are the people who are trying to undermine voting rights in the country by weaponizing the Federal agencies against political candidates, including me and Donald Trump and all other candidates they can’t win an election against.
“Instead of bringing in a candidate who wins the primaries, the party abolishes the primaries and then picks two candidates, anointed them. Without even receiving votes, we don’t even know how Kamala Harris received the nomination.”
The most sensational part of Kennedy’s speech was about the incidence of chronic diseases affecting America, and unless someone comes up with a factual rebuttal, one has to take it on its face value: The Democratic Party, Kennedy said, “is the party of big pharmacy, big egg food and big chemicals, the party that’s given us the sickest children in the history of the world. When my uncle ( John F Kennedy) was president, six percent of Americans had chronic disease in the country. Today, 60 percent of Americans have chronic diseases.”
“This is existential for our country. We are spending 4.3 trillion dollars a year (on health problems), five times our military budget. Seventy seven percent of American boys cannot qualify for military service because of chronic disease diagnosis. This is existential for our country.”
Kennedy believes that, together with Trump, he can help in making the American population healthy again. With Trump having promised both Kennedy and Musk a big role in their areas of expertise, namely, health and technology, the Trump campaign is looking substantial and policy-driven, in sharp contrast to the Harris campaign.
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