We’re Las Vegas magic show nerds. We’ve seen many big names like Lance Burton, Penn and Teller, Criss Angel, Shim Lim, and David Copperfield. But at the start of one of our Las Vegas vacations, we decided to see an afternoon magic show at the MGM.

Back then, the basement of the MGM was decorated like the Wizard of Oz. The tiny magic stage was nestled between dwarf puppets and the yellow brick street.

After a handful of tricks, it was time for the grand finale. His assistant scanned the audience for a volunteer. I looked away, held my hands in my lap and prayed silently.

I was selected anyway.

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

While the assistant was busy introducing me, the sorceress ripped the cover off a guillotine. She took my hand and pulled me towards it. They clamped my head in a kind of vice.

After a few spells, the assistant whispered in my ear: “Stay lying down.” That’s not exactly reassuring when there’s something that looks like a sharp blade hanging above me. With a hiss, the blade came down.

The audience gasped. OZ went black.

As we walked out, my head still firmly on my shoulders, a lady asked my wife, “What did you think when he was under the guillotine?”

Laughing, she said, “I thought this casino was mine.”

Even an afternoon magician knows how to fool an audience. But if he ever wants to perform on the big stage or become popular with a younger audience, he’ll have to spice up his show with new tricks and new music.

Donald Trump has not learned this.

Trump’s audience may love his “greatest hits,” but he’s not attracting new voters with them. Questioning Vice President Kamala Harris’s ethnic identity is an issue as old as Jim Crow.

Harris is biracial, which Trump claimed was a mystery.

He also played old material at a recent rally in Georgia, saying, “Kamala happens to be a person with a really low IQ.” That’s the same hackneyed insult he used in 2016 and 2020. He also claimed that if Harris is elected, brutal foreign gangs will invade the suburbs.

It’s an old show based on insults and fear.

His new young assistant, Senator JD Vance, also seems to be lost in the past, spending a lot of time explaining why women who have given birth are somehow better leaders than those who have not, and suggesting that loving your cat is a vice.

But the tragedy of Trump’s show is that he is undermining fundamental American institutions.

He has still not admitted defeat in the 2020 election, even though over 60 court cases found no electoral fraud and thus changed the outcome.

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

I didn’t lose my head in OZ because the wizard had the right skills and equipment. Let’s not let the old, hackneyed Trump stuff decapitate our democracy.

Bruce Lear of Sioux City taught for 11 years and represented educators as regional director of the Iowa State Education Association for 27 years until his retirement. [email protected]

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