Trump is using his same old tricks

We’re Las Vegas magic show nerds. We’ve seen a lot of big names like Lance Burton, Penn and Teller, Criss Angel, Shim Lim, and David Copperfield. But early in one of our Las Vegas vacations, we settled for an afternoon magic show at the MGM.

At that time, the basement of the MGM was decorated like the Wizard of Oz. So, the tiny magic stage was nestled between munchkin mannequins and the yellow brick road.

After a handful of tricks, it was time for the big finish. His assistant scanned the audience looking for a volunteer. I averted my eyes, kept my hands in my lap, and silently prayed.

I was chosen anyway.

Maybe it was the cheesy mustache or maybe the Andy Griffith shirt. It didn’t matter. All eyes were on me as I shuffled forward.

While the assistant kept me busy introducing myself, the magician whipped a cover off a guillotine. She took my hand and pulled me toward it. They put my head in a vice like thing.

After some magician patter, the assistant whispered in my ear, “Don’t move.” That’s not comforting when what looks like a sharp blade hangs overhead. With a whoosh, the blade came down.

The audience gasped. OZ went black.

While we were walking out my head still firmly on my shoulders, a lady asked my wife, “What were you thinking when he was in the guillotine?”

With a laugh, she said, “I was thinking, I was going to own this casino.”

Even an afternoon magician knew how to fool an audience. But if they ever want to play on the big stage or become popular with a younger audience, they must freshen up their show by doing new tricks and performing new music.

Donald Trump hasn’t learned that.

Trump’s audience may love his “greatest hits,” but it doesn’t attract new voters. Questioning the racial identity of Vice President Kamala Harris is a show as old as Jim Crow.

Harris is biracial which Trump pretended was puzzling to him.

At a recent rally in Georgia, he also performed old material. He said, “Kamala happens to be a really low IQ individual.” That’s the same tired insult he used in 2016 and 2020. He also claimed if Harris is elected, savage foreign gangs will invade the suburbs.

It’s an old show relying on insult and fear.

His new young assistant, Senator J.D. Vance also seems bogged down in the past. He spends a lot of time explaining why women who’ve given birth are somehow better leaders than those who haven’t, and implied loving your cat is a vice.

But the tragic part of the Trump show is his undermining of basic American institutions.

He still hasn’t conceded the election of 2020 despite more than 60 court cases finding no fraud changing the outcome.

He thinks the American jury system, and elections are only fair if he wins, and he plans to pardon insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol Jan. 6, calling them hostages.

I didn’t lose my head in OZ because the magician had the right skills and right equipment. Let’s not let the old, worn-out Trump schtick behead our democracy.

Bruce Lear of Sioux City taught for 11 years and represented educators as an Iowa State Education Association Regional Director for 27 years until retiring. BruceLear2419@gmail.com