The Magnificent Seven

It takes a village.

In 1960, United Artists released a movie called “The Magnificent Seven,” a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s “Seven Samurai.” The film starred Yul Brynner, Eli Wallach, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson and James Coburn among others. In the movie, a small village in Mexico hires a group of gun fighters to protect itself against marauding bandits. In the finale, the bandits are gunned down in a shootout. Many of the hired guns lose their lives as well. The movie garnered both critical and commercial success and is hailed as one of the greatest films of the Western genre. Akira Kurosawa was reportedly so impressed by the film that he presented John Sturges, the director, with a sword, but said, "The American copy is a disappointment. Although entertaining, it is not a version of Seven Samurai."

In the movie, an old, wizened villager asks one of the hired guns (Steve McQueen), “Are you ready for him?” (referring to the chief bandit). What if he comes now, huh?”

McQueen lights up a cigarette and replies, “Reminds me of that fellow back home that fell off a ten-story building.”

The normally stoic old man becomes curious. “What about him?”

McQueen exhales smoke, and replies, “Well, as he was falling, people on each floor kept hearing him say, ‘So far, so good’."

So far, so good. Trump supporters believe that it’s going well for their man so far. The polls show him locked in a dead heat, even as he becomes more unhinged by the day. Last week, he ranted about how Kamala Harris plans to remove windows from buildings. Yesterday, he spent 45 minutes in a rally standing on the stage, swaying to music while people wondered if he was ever going to speak. He didn’t. Unhinged is a charitable description of his behavior. It is apparent there never was a hinge at any point.

Yet, the polls show a dead heat and no clear winner. Democrats believe that suburban Republican white women are going to break for Harris in a big way. Republicans are optimistic that Black men will vote for Trump in greater numbers than ever. Harris has been on a media blitz in the last two weeks. She was on “Call Her Daddy,” a podcast with an audience of 10 million young white women. She answered questions at a townhall today with rapper, Charlemagne Da God, who reaches 8 million black men every month. In the meanwhile, Trump hosted rallies in Colorado and California. He lost Colorado by 18 points and California by 24 points in 2020. He has no earthly chance of flipping these states. And yet, in the critical last weeks before Election Day, Trump chose to spend time in these states.

Trump did nearly 300 rallies in 2016, the year he won. In 2024, he has done about 60 so far. He has made no attempt to win over new voters. He is encouraging Republican voters to vote in person on Election Day, a risky approach when they have the option to mail in ballots or vote in person early. Georgia opened voting booths today, and a record 300,000 votes were cast. Most of them were likely Democrats.

What is going on?

Trump knows that he is going to lose. Never mind the polls. Trump himself is giving us the strongest clues as to which way this is going. He has stopped trying to win the election. Like in the Magnificent Seven, Harris has assembled a motley crew of gunfighters. Barack Obama, Liz Cheney, Taylor Swift, Howard Stern and Mark Cuban are on the team. It doesn’t get any more motley than this crew. They are out there, guns in holsters, waiting for Trump and his bandits to ride in.

Trump isn’t planning to be there for the shootout. Instead, he is preparing for a shootout on the day after the shootout. It is becoming more obvious by the day. He is out there riling people up in California and Colorado, instead of stumping in Georgia. He is activating them now so they will respond to whatever godawful summons he issues them when he does indeed lose.

Whatever he does, whether it is to get his people to stop the election results from being certified or inciting them to rise in revolt and burn the joint down, we’ll just have to stop him. It takes a village to put this nonsense down once and for all.

I don’t know if Kamala Harris plans to remove windows from buildings. But I’m pretty sure that Nancy Pelosi wants to put Trump in a building without windows. A place in upstate New York named Rikers.

So far, so good.

Have a good week, folks!