In responding to my blog about Trump on Facebook, a friend made a very good point which I would very much like to address here. She challenged me about the very real danger Trump presents to the future of the United States. Also, I wrote the blog and posted it before the Chicago rally was postponed on Friday, March 11th (I was back in the UK by then and was in bed when this happened).
I do not want my previous blog post to be construed as minimizing the very real and present threat that Trump poses to the future of the United States. If he is elected, he will not be a source of unification as he claims. He is deliberately setting one group of Americans against another . His rhetoric will only further inflame racial tensions, they will not provide a place to heal and to constructively confront and resolve the issues of institutional racism that still exist in the United States. Black lives do matter, as to Latino/a, Muslims, etc. We all were immigrants at one point unless you’re a native American. Although I think Trump is a figure of ridicule, and as I wrote, a silly little man, it would not wise to underestimate him. A Trump presidency would be disastrous for the United States. It’s important to me, because of what is at stake here, to add my voice to the people who are issuing warnings against Trump, to go on the record before the crucial primaries on Tuesday, March 15, 2016 especially in Florida and Ohio which are winner take all states.
My friend pointed me to several videos and articles that elaborate on the ways in which Trump is fueling racial hatred and violence and is inciting violence at his rallies. I will post the links to these articles here as a reference.
Here are some of the links:
http://www.vox.com/2016/3/12/11211846/donald-trump-violence-rallies
Although Trump is not Hitler, he is currently employing similar tactics that Hitler and the National Socialist party did when campaigning, in his own campaign rallies. Trump is very deliberating appealing, as I said in the first blog, to our lesser angels. Similar to Hitler who stoked up animosity against the Jews, the disabled, the mentally handicapped and anyone who wasn’t pure Aryan, Trump is stoking up hatred and anger against Latinos, blacks and Muslims. He is actually encouraging his supporters to violently suppress protesters. Under a Trump presidency it is possible to imagine Syrian refugees and other Muslims sent to internment camps, much the way Japanese were during World War II. This was a shameful period in American history and I would hate to see this repeated. We don’t defeat terrorism by becoming like the terrorists–a blog post for another day! Back to Trump.
If you don’t have time to watch the videos yourself, here are a few quotes:
From the Vox.com link:
“Here are Trump’s previous comments in response to demonstrators at his events, taken from Maddow’s video (starting at 3:40):
- February 1 in Iowa: “If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you? Seriously. Okay? Just knock the hell. I promise you I will pay for the legal fees. I promise.”
- February 22 in Nevada: “I love the old days. You know what they used to do to guys like that when they were in a place like this? They’d be carried out on a stretcher, folks. It’s true. … I’d like to punch him in the face, I’ll tell you.”
- February 26 in Oklahoma: “In the good old days, they’d rip him out of that seat so fast. But today, everybody’s politically correct. Our country’s going to hell with being politically correct.”
- February 29 in Virginia: “Get him out of here please. Get him out. Get him out. … Are you from Mexico? Are you from Mexico? Huh? Are you from Mexico?”
- March 4 in Michigan: “Get out of here. Get out. Out! … This is amazing. So much fun. I love it. I love it. We having a good time? USA, USA, USA! … All right, get him out. Try not to hurt him. If you do, I’ll defend you in court. Don’t worry about it. … We had four guys, they jumped on him, they were swinging and swinging. The next day, we got killed in the press — that we were too rough. Give me a break. You know? Right? We don’t want to be too politically correct anymore. Right, folks?”
- March 4 in Michigan: “Remember when Bernie Sanders, they took the mic away from him? That’s not going to happen with us, folks. That’s not going to happen. Remember that? He walked away from the mic and he stood back and he watched these two young girls talking to the audience. And they said, ‘We came to listen to him!’ And he was standing in the back as two women took the mic away. No, that doesn’t happen to us. Get that guy out of here! Get him out! Get that guy out of here!”
- March 9 in North Carolina: “We had some people, some rough guys like we have right in here. And they started punching back. It was a beautiful thing. I mean, they started punching back. … In the good old days, this doesn’t happen because they used to treat them very, very rough. And when they protested once, you know, they would not do it again so easily. But today, they walk in and they put their hand up and put the wrong finger in the air at everybody, and they get away with murder, because we’ve become weak.”
- March 11 in Missouri, hours before the Chicago rally: “Part of the problem and part of the reason it takes so long is nobody wants to hurt each other anymore. Right? And they’re being politically correct the way they take them out. So it takes a little bit longer. And honestly, protesters, they realize it — they realize that there are no consequences to protesting anymore. There used to be consequences. There are none anymore.”
Trump’s message in all these incidents is clear: Supporters should rough up protesters. Friday night’s chaos seems like a natural reflection of that.”
From the New Civil Rights link:
“She [Rachel Maddox] also included Trump’s reminiscences of the good old days before political correctness when protesters were taken out on stretchers, and ended with this harangue Trump made yesterday in St. Louis, just hours before the UIC rally:
“You know, part of the problem and part of the reason it takes so long is that nobody wants to hurt each other anymore. Right? And they’re being politically correct when they take them out so it takes a little bit longer, and honestly protesters, they realize it, they realize that there are no consequences to protesting anymore. There used to be consequences. There are none anymore. So that’s it.
Our country has to toughen up folks. We have to toughen up. These people are bringing us down. Remember that. They are bringing us down. No reason for it. These people are so bad for our country… You have no idea folks, you have no idea. They contribute nothing. They can get up, and when they are being whisked out, they can raise their bad finger up in the air, and drive people…which is very unfair, and some people get very angry at that because you know what that represents. And then when they get a little bit overly-angry, they’re in trouble. The guy who raised his finger? No, that’s no problem.
With respect to Trump’s Chicago rally being shut down Friday evening, today’s, March 13, 2016, Sunday Times article here in the UK (see http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/world_news/Americas/uselections/article1677818.ece) quotes John Escalante, interim superintendent of the Chicago police as saying that his department “‘had no role, we were not consulted or provided an opinion’ as to cancel the event,’ fueling suspicions that Trump had orchestrated what happened. Frank Lunz, a Republican strategist said Trump ‘shut it down to make it a bigger event.'” The article goes on to say that the next day Trump referred to the protesters as ‘thugs’ a dog whistle, a term used commonly in the United States to refer to young black men.
Also see this article about the Chicago Police’s response to Friday’s cancellation. http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2016/03/11/chicago-police-we-never-talked-with-trump-about-shutting-down-rally/
Florida and Ohio Republicans it is up to you to stop the Trump train in its tracks before it gains any more momentum. It will severely diminish his chances to get the needed delegates to become the party’s nominee and would likely result in a brokered convention.
I know people are fed up with political correctness run amok. I am too! I don’t think political correctness on the right or the left serves anyone. It’s important to see that the issues of today are nuanced and complex. Elevating the rights of one group of people does not mean that another group of people have to lose. It is not a zero sum game. By respecting the rights of all our fellow citizens, regardless of their ethnicity, we all win and we all gain. Don’t buy in to Trump’s rhetoric; it is ugly and destructive. We need all of our fellow citizens of all backgrounds in order to continue to make the United States the land of the free and the home of the brave.