This weekend, Donald Trump tweeted he hoped Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley, “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came…These places need your help badly, you can’t leave fast enough. I’m sure that Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to quickly work out free travel arrangements!”
He wasn’t talking about going back to their congressional districts.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is Puerto Rican; Ilhan Omar, Somalian; Rashida Tlaib, Palestinian; and Ayanna S. Pressley is African American.
All are American citizens.
Trump’s tweet is naked racism against four outspoken Democratic women of color.
And now, facing a possible House of Representatives vote on a resolution formally condemning the president’s rhetoric, Trump is demanding an apology.
Yes, he demands an apology for his overt racism.
In the wee hours Monday morning, Trump tweeted the fallacious response:
When will the Radical Left Congresswomen apologize to our Country, the people of Israel and even to the Office of the President, for the foul language they have used, and the terrible things they have said. So many people are angry at them & their horrible & disgusting actions!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 15, 2019
If Democrats want to unite around the foul language & racist hatred spewed from the mouths and actions of these very unpopular & unrepresentative Congresswomen, it will be interesting to see how it plays out. I can tell you that they have made Israel feel abandoned by the U.S.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 15, 2019
He doubled-down later in person, saying:
“If you’re not happy here, then you can leave.”
Donald Trump is scared.
He is scared of losing the election lest he wind up behind bars.
Reps. Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, Tlaib, and Pressley intimidate him.
Trump’s attacks are not benign, and they are not merely further evidence of his racism and sexism.
They are messages to the racists in his base who need little provocation to incite violence.
Being the president of the United States, his words matter more than the rest of ours.
Even if deplorable, his rhetoric is effective in conveying all the implicit permission those already inclined to take matters into their own proverbial hands might need to follow in the footsteps of neo-Nazi U.S. Coast Guard lieutenant, Christopher Paul Hasson, who earlier this year compiled a spreadsheet of targeted current and former lawmakers, including Reps. Omar and Ocasio-Cortez.
Those already inclined to take matters into their own hands might follow in the footsteps of Cesar Sayoc, who mailed pipe bombs to Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Rep. Maxine Waters, Senators Cory Booker and Kamala Harris, CNN, comedian Bill Maher, and six other prominent Trump critics.
Recently, Fox News commentator Jeanine Pirro claimed Rep. Omar, one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress, wears a hijab because of her “adherence to Sharia law.”
Omar has been cited as “proof” the Democratic party is anti-Semitic.
Donald Trump built his campaign, and now his presidency, on those “rapists,” “murderers,” and “animals” “invading” our country from the Southern border.
He accused Haitian immigrants residing here under temporary protected status as having AIDS.
He claimed 40,000 Nigerians would never “go back to their huts” after coming here.
He accused Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador–the countries he called “shitholes“–of “arranging” the migrant caravans of “illegals” coming to get us.
It’s also no secret what he thinks of the media, which he smears with the label “fake news” and “enemy of the people” should it deign to report anything negative about what his administration is up to.
Trump refers to his political opponents as “globalists” who “want the globe to do well, frankly, not caring about our country.”
Those “globalists,” according to Trump, support “caravans” of “unknown Middle Easterners” en route from Central America to wreak havoc on American sovereignty.
When it comes to elections, says Trump, the “globalists” depend on millions of non-American “illegals” showing up in droves to vote.
Trump suggested Barack Obama “founded” Isis.
He has ramped up his attacks on Socialism.
He told “second amendment people” they might be able to take care of Hillary Clinton.
Brenton Tarrant, the white supremacist who live-streamed his slaughter of Muslims in a Christchurch, New Zealand mosque earlier this year, described himself as a “regular white man from a regular family” who “decided to take a stand to ensure a future for my people,” adding he used to be “a communist, then an anarchist and finally a libertarian before coming to be an eco-fascist.”
He used his classification to justify the extermination of those belonging to another classification and felt his was superior.
There are more out there, and Trump’s stochastic terrorism just gave them more ammunition.
As Genocide Watch explains:
“One group denies the humanity of the other group. Members of it are equated with animals, vermin, insects or diseases. Dehumanization overcomes the normal human revulsion against murder. At this stage, hate propaganda in print and on hate radios is used to vilify the victim group. The majority group is taught to regard the other group as less than human, and even alien to their society. They are indoctrinated to believe that ‘We are better off without them.’ The powerless group can become so depersonalized that they are actually given numbers rather than names, as Jews were in the death camps. They are equated with filth, impurity, and immorality. Hate speech fills the propaganda of official radio, newspapers, and speeches.”
Remember what happened to abortion doctor George Tiller back in 2009 after former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly repeatedly (29 times) on his show branded him “Tiller the Baby Killer,” equated him to Mao, Hitler, Stalin, al-Qaida, and NAMBLA; accused him of “operating a death mill;” and claimed he was “executing babies about to be born.”
An avid O’Reilly fan named Scott Roeder waited in the pews of Tiller’s church one Sunday morning until Tiller finished his duty as an usher, then walked into the church foyer, pressed a gun against Tiller’s forehead, and assassinated him.
Language has consequences.
Racism does not get a pass.
Image credit: www.tasnimnews.com
