Right Wing Alternative Halftime Was Dismal and Dystopian
We owe a profound debt of gratitude to Puerto Rican recording artist Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, known as Bad Bunny. His outstanding Super Bowl performance was exactly what America needed at this precarious moment in our history. It was punctuated by his pitch perfect message written on a football: “Together We Are America”.
It was a much-needed reminder of who we are. It stood in stark contrast to Donald Trump’s narrow, exclusionary “blood and soil” version of America. It diverged from MAGA’s dark vision that has our nation on the brink, staring with bloodlust into the abyss.
Ever since Trump was reelected, with his promise of retribution, Americans who love liberty and democracy have been deflated by cowardly sellouts who put personal gain before country. In 2025, it became depressingly normalized to see the rich and powerful slavishly pander to Trump.
Who knew so many “leaders” would choose to break the country for another tax break or submit because they feared being targeted by a mean Tweet? We have repeatedly been subjected to genuflecting CEO’s, surrendering universities, spineless law firms, kowtowing media giants, and stunning displays of craven, obsequious bootlicking by the Republican Party.
America has endured the ugly scapegoating of immigrants, who are falsely portrayed as dangerous criminals. We have witnessed a flood of hate targeting the LGBTQ community, an upsurge in antisemitism, an avalanche of misogyny and partisan divides that have taken our country to the brink of Civil War.
MAGA’s endemic racism has been perpetuated by the president himself. Such retrograde bigotry was underscored by Trump posting a vile video that portrayed former President Barack Obama, and ex-First Lady Michelle, as apes. It took the president 12 hours to remove the garbage and even then he petulantly said, “No, I didn’t make a mistake.”
Additionally, the President has funded ICE to a level where it has effectively become an unaccountable private militia. Ten years ago, the annual budget for Immigration and Customs Enforcement was less than $6 billion. During President Trump’s second term, funding has skyrocketed to $85 billion.
Our fears have been compounded by Trump threatening to send ICE goons to the polls to intimidate voters and the president egging on the federal government to seize control of elections from states. Concentration camps are being built across the country to disappear migrants, and perhaps American citizens.
Bad Bunny boldly stepped into this dystopian, deteriorating universe. On the world’s biggest stage, he went against the grain. The performer unapologetically used his platform to model the diversity, love, creativity, and patriotism that so many of our former heroes did not.
He celebrated Latin culture—which is also American culture. We were never the bland, monochrome country of stifling uniformity that MAGA falsely claims we are. Latino music is every bit as American as songs from Lee Greenwood, Ted Nugent, or Anita Bryant.
Tragically, our political climate is one of fear. As a remedy to this inversion of our values, America needed someone to be fearless. Bad Bunny heeded the call and bravely came to the rescue.
His act included openly gay singer Ricky Martin and gay icon Lady GaGa, as well as Latin sensations Karol G, Cardi B and Pedro Pascal. At a time when cowardly corporations are afraid to fund LGBTQ events and have turned their backs on diversity—Bad Bunny stood firm against the terrible tide sweeping our nation.
Incensed by having a Spanish speaking act headline the Super Bowl’s halftime show, Project 2025’s Turning Point USA created a rival online extravaganza. They billed the “All American Halftime Show” as a rebuttal, with their tagline, “faith, family, and freedom”.
This was an interesting branding choice. We are in the throes of the Epstein Files scandal, yet they selected Kid Rock as their concert headliner. Rock’s 2001 song, “Cool, Daddy Cool”, includes the lyrics: “Young ladies, young ladies, I like ’em underage, See, some say that’s statutory, But I say it’s mandatory.”
Kid Rock really is the embodiment of his song, “Lowlife” (Living the Highlife)”. That ditty’s lyrics include, “I take strippers out to breakfast, you can add that to my checklist”, “I owe everybody money, I think racist jokes are funny” and “I’ve got kids I’ve never seen and they mama’s 17”.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports:
The renewed scrutiny has also revived clips from earlier in Kid Rock’s career. Social media users have circulated footage from a 2001 appearance on “Saturday Night Live,” in which Rock made remarks about the Olsen twins, who were 14 at the time.
“Why is every guy in America waiting on these chicks to turn 18?” he said during the appearance. “If there’s grass on the field, play ball.”
Speaking of lowlifes, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivered a pre-recorded message to the online crowd of 6 million viewers. This is a good time to remind the Christian “family values” set of a letter Hegseth received in 2018from his mother, who was concerned about how he was treating his then-wife:
Son,
I have tried to keep quiet about your character and behavior, but after listening to the way you made Samantha feel today, I cannot stay silent. And as a woman and your mother I feel I must speak out.
You are an abuser of women — that is the ugly truth and I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around, and uses women for his own power and ego. You are that man (and have been for years) and as your mother, it pains me and embarrasses me to say that, but it is the sad, sad truth.
The spellbinding hypocrisy of the pseudo-religious frauds at Turning Point USA irrefutably proves the shallowness, cynicism and emptiness of MAGA. In truth, they are part of an undignified, pathological cult built on power instead of principles.
Indeed, the noxious effort to create an alternative halftime show was reminiscent of Deep South segregationists who created “separate but equal” facilities and institutions.
However, the results were the opposite of what MAGA had intended. Instead of “equal”, the “All American Halftime Show” was decidedly unequal to the show delivered at the Super Bowl.
In his performance, Bad Bunny was more like Bugs Bunny—suave, sophisticated and nimble. The alternative show was like Bugs Bunny’s gun-toting nemesis, Elmer Fudd, the old fashioned, tired, buffoon, who is fueled by anger and resentment of the “waskly wabbit”, who perpetually gets the best of him.
The Super Bowl halftime show offered a glimpse of what America could be if we sobered up and hopped off the crashing Trump Train. It is a glorious future of a forward-thinking America that embraces equality and welcomes the talents of people from all walks of life. Conversely, the rival performance was a tragic preview of a spiraling, revanchist America in steep decline–defined by division, grievance and ethnic and religious castes.
Bad Bunny closed his Super Bowl halftime show by shouting “God bless America,” while displaying the Puerto Rican and U.S. flags side-by-side. This is the country most of us want to live in. It is the path for those who truly want to put America First. MAGA is America Last and should crawl back under a rock in which it came, to wallow in bitterness and bigotry with Kid Rock.
