Adding to the pile on against neo-fascist narcissist Donald "Rump" Trump, a number of major daily newspapers have labeled his remarks about stopping entry of all Muslims un-American and bigoted. His proposed ban would include U.S. citizens visiting relatives abroad and Muslim citizens working in our counterintelligence and law enforcement agencies. Here's an excerpt from the front page editorial in the Detroit Free Press, which points out, as was pointed out in the post below and here, that there' a long history of this toxic nonsense in the Republican/ New Confederate/ Stupid/ Shooters Party:
"Trump's soaring support reveals harsh truths about the party base that so-called establishment Republicans have built, with fear and bigotry and xenophobia, with the notion that a fictitious, former America should be our ideal — ignoring the reality of life for women and minorities during that golden age — and most harmfully, by perpetuating the idea that success for others, particularly non-white, non-Christian, non-heterosexual, non-male others, means they will lose. It's a false equation, but one that has given Republican candidates significant traction among some demographies."
This is the subtext for the last 50 years of Republican politics: fear. And hatred.The New York Daily News captured the sum of the policies advanced by Rump in their front page today, borrowing from the famous statement regarding the Nazis by German pastor Martin Niemöller:
Feeding the prejudices and fear of a significant number of Americans for decades for political advantage ("wedge issues" anyone?) has been the business model of the Rethuglican party and their right wing media outlets. The "both siders" and "tire swingers" in the corporate media have not stepped up and told the truth that Rump and his followers are the harvest of that decades-long project, a harvest that now threatens to engulf them. Not holding our breath on that one.
BONUS: Let's not pretend that the majority of all Rethug voters don't approve of Rump's punitive "policies" against Muslims. They do, big time.
