The Numbing Effect

I listened to Donald Trump's Dayton rally speech so you don't have to. We can't allow ourselves to normalize his dark words and deeds.

“I’m being indicted for you,” Trump said on Saturday at his rally in Dayton, Ohio. (Photo by Scott Olson via Getty Images)

Back when Twitter was a thing, back when it approximated a public square for dialogue and even understanding, and before Elon Musk turned it into his personal playpen and drove people away, we could expect the malignant intrusions from Donald Trump. These daily, sometimes hourly, acts of abuse—of our language, fellow humans, decency and democracy—were unavoidable, requiring a reaction from many of us who could not let these attacks go unanswered.

Eventually, after the insurrection and his banning from Twitter, his daily diatribes on Truth Social were less visible and made it more possible to pick and choose when to respond. The questions of when, how or how much to amplify his rantings depended both on how concerned we were about amplifying his degradations and desecrations—and how necessary it seemed to ring the alarm bell and warn our fellow citizens of the continuing danger in our midst.

While I’ve focused on him and his words in my dispatches now and then, I admit that I have been reluctant to listen to his recent rally spewings in their entirety.

Until now.

Clips over the weekend from his Saturday rally in Dayton, Ohio, reveal a particularly disgusting level of hate and incitement as he called some migrants “not people” and anticipated a “bloodbath” if he’s not elected in November. That alone might have been bad enough to provide a less masochistic person than me plenty of reason to pick another Sunday activity. But I can tell you, dear readers and fellow advocates of democracy and basic human decency, those few excerpts barely scratch the surface of this man’s—this presumptive GOP presidential nominee’s—continuing capacity for delusion and degradation.

But before I share what I’ve learned after watching and listening to the whole Ohio speech, I want to remind you (and me) not to let his horrible lies benumb you, even after all these years. Because the more we treat what he has to say as normal or tolerable in our public discourse, the more we adapt to and accept its existence, the more he succeeds in moving our society toward cruelty and violence. That would be an insufferable victory by the carnage-loving faction and its leader.

I almost stopped listening in the first few minutes. That’s because Trump played a recording of convicted and jailed insurrectionists from the Jan. 6 Capitol attack singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” interspersed with Trump mouthing the words of the Pledge of Allegiance. Then he referred to them as “hostages” and “unbelievable patriots” who’ve “been treated terribly and unfairly.”

Soon he began his diatribe about how Biden is “incompetent” and “crooked” and “the worst president we’ve ever had.” With his usual pattern of projection, he insisted that Biden is “a great threat to our democracy.” And “to reverse every single Biden disaster, just put me back in office and it will get done very quickly.”

He also credited Biden for every indictment against him, by weaponizing the Justice Department and the FBI, to “go after his political opponent.” The result, he said, “driving my numbers through the roof. How about a couple more indictments, Joe, you dumb son of a—” His voice trailed off, one of the few times he didn’t swear to excite his audience.

This speech was building and expanding his world of lies and delusions. One early example: “You fight a crooked election and they indict you. They don’t indict the guys who made the election crooked…These people are sick in Washington—and we’re going to change it around fast.”

But surpassing his hostility and resentment toward Biden was his hateful demagoguery toward migrants. Among his first actions, he told the crowd: “Stop the invasion of our country and send Joe Biden’s illegal aliens back home.” Big cheer. Then, “these are the roughest people you’ve ever seen.” Then, he falsely claimed that crime is “way down all over the world” because other countries “send us their criminals. It’s true.” Then, taking it farther, he said some are “not people…they’re animals….hardened criminals, hundreds of thousands of them.”

And the final kicker, to explain it all: Biden is a “stupid president.” He is “the worst and most incompetent and most crooked president we’ve ever had. How did this happen? What a fake election we had.” He followed this by reading an allegory about a poisonous snake who is welcomed into the home of a kind woman who wants to save him, but eventually bites and kills her as he grows stronger. Trump mocked this woman’s innocence.

The list of delusional declarations was long, often followed by hearty applause. Among them:

• “We had the most successful economy in the history of our country by far. We really had the most successful economy probably in the history of the world.”

• “If the voting were real, I think we won most of the country.”

• “All the persecution is only happening because I’m running and leading in the polls. If I wasn’t running, I wouldn’t be indicted.”

• “The radical Democrats rigged the presidential election in 2020 and we’re not going to allow them to rig the election in 2024.”

• “I’m being indicted for you. They want to silence me because I will never let them silence you.”

• “In the end, they’re not after me, they’re after you. I just happen to be standing in the way.”

• “If this election isn’t won, I’m not sure you’re ever going to have another election.”

Tying for the most ridiculous claim: “The only reason the stock market is good is because people think Trump is going to be elected president.” And, while Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln had their troubles, “Nobody comes close to Trump in political persecution.”

Taking the cake for the most despicable claim: “We did a great job with some unknown disease.” As if his suppression of scientific data, minimizing of COVID-19’s dangers, support of mass gatherings, ridicule of mask-wearing and failed vaccine rollout should be forgotten, along with the deaths of 450,000 Americans (many of them avoidable) in the last year of his presidency alone.

Trump dished out his usual flurry of slurs, attacking each of the prosecutors who’ve indicted him, as well as strong Biden advocates like California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker. As much as he relished his childish attacks, his cheering crowd appeared to love them more.

I listened to that hour-plus speech so that you don’t have to. Ostensibly, it was intended to stump for Bernie Moreno, a Cleveland businessman who is running to unseat Democratic U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown. Moreno was only lightly mentioned by the narcissistic Trump, although he was brought up on stage to say a few words—and essentially to praise Trump.

Interestingly, when Trump was running in 2016, Moreno called him a “lunatic” and a “maniac” and tweeted that Trump was “like watching a car accident that makes you sick, but you can’t stop looking.” But on this day, needing Trump’s endorsement, Moreno called Trump “a great American” and complained while standing next to him, “I am so sick and tired of Republicans that say, ‘I support President Trump’s policies but I don’t like the man.’” Like so many self-serving others, Moreno had changed his tune.

We should not underestimate Trump’s ability to convince voters to believe his delusions and lies. We can only hope there will be a rising chorus of high-profile Republicans still capable of rational thought to assert the depth of his unfitness, just as former Vice President Dick Cheney did this weekend in a short video and former Vice President Mike Pence did in refusing to endorse the man who used to attract his total adoring gaze.

But over and over, Trump proves his ability to destroy the reputation of any Republican who threatens his quest to untether voters from reality and serve himself. And he is clearly intensifying his hateful rhetoric in order to whip up the base as we head toward November.

Yet Trump cannot win in 2024 if he fails to attract a wider circle of voters and turnout is strong. That’s why I hope you will take the time to pay attention to what he says and remind any fence-sitters you know who may have forgotten or ignored who and what this dangerous man is.

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