Trump campaign becomes uglier
- By Mitchell Blatt
0 Comment(s)
Print
E-mail China.org.cn, November 30, 2015
Already running one of the most dumb-down presidential campaigns in modern history, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's campaign turned fascistic after the Paris terrorist attacks.
He has lied about seeing American Muslims celebrating the collapse of the Twin Towers in 2001, and supports keeping a database on all Muslims.
More than a few people have felt alarm bells go off when they heard Trump's incendiary attacks on ethnicities. John Kasich's campaign released an ad that featured a Vietnam veteran paraphrasing German Pastor Martin Niemoller's poetic warning about the Nazis. (Trump has attacked Vietnam veteran John McCain for having been captured and taken POW)
In the ad, U.S. Air Force veteran Col. Tom Moe declares: "You might not care if Donald Trump says Muslims must register with the government, because you're not one, and you might not care if Trump says he's going to round up all the Hispanic immigrants, because you're not one… but if he keeps going, and he actually becomes president, he might just get around to you".
It can be provocative to call a politician a fascist. The Tea Party, for example, was criticized when protesters portrayed President Obama in Nazi attire. But in the case of Trump, it's pretty close to being true.
He has scapegoated minority ethnic groups for America's problems. Just like the Nazis blamed Jews for Germany's economic stagnation in the 1920s, so has Trump blamed Hispanics and immigrants for Americans seeing low wage growth and now is blaming all Muslims broadly for terrorism.
If an American is out of work, it is because a foreigner "took their job." He attacked the snack food company Nabisco by name just for opening a factory in Mexico.
Few expect Trump's campaign to culminate in a genocide, but a lot of bad things can be done that aren't genocide. First, Trump has been very clear about wanting to round up the 11.3 million illegal immigrants currently living in the U.S. and deport them. While illegal immigrants have no right to live in America, the process of mass deportation would still be very callous. It could tear families apart from their American citizen children and cause people to go into hiding.
Worse still for those who are unconcerned about the plight of non-citizens is Trump's support for putting Muslim Americans in government databases and tracking them. His attacks on American citizens also included comments to the effect that an African-American protester who interrupted one of his events deserved to get punched.
At an earlier event, a Hispanic protester was pushed hard onto the floor while Trump supporters shouted "USA!", and other Hispanics have been spat on at Trump events.
Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)