Here’s another example of our president abandoning any pretense that he’s the leader of a white nationalist movement.
President Trump on Sunday weighed in on the friction between a group of four freshman Democratic congresswomen and Speaker Nancy Pelosi: He suggested that the congresswomen — none of whom are white — should “go back and help fix” the countries they came from. His message was immediately seized upon by Democrats, who called it a racist trope.
“So interesting to see ‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all), now loudly and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run,” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter.
The “Democrat Congresswomen” Trump was referring to are Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14), Ilhan Omar (MN-05), Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) and Rashida Tlaib (MI-13). Now, it’s true that Rep. Omar was born in Mogadishu, Somalia on October 4, 1982, and it seems like Trump’s comments were directed at her. Except he didn’t single her out. He said all four of them should return to their countries of origin.
That won’t be easy for the others to do. Rep. Pressley was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on February 3, 1974. Rep. Tlaib was born in Detroit, Michigan on July 24, 1976. Rep. Ocasio-Cortez was born in The Bronx, New York City on October 13, 1989.
If we want to go a little deeper, Rep. Tlaib’s parents are Palestinian. Ocasio-Cortez’s mother was born in Puerto Rico but that was and still is part of the United States of America. Pressley’s parents were born in the continental United States. Her family has presumably been here for generations, possibly even many centuries, and certainly longer Trump’s family.
Of course, these distinctions don’t really matter. What the president said was despicable irrespective of the accuracy of his assumptions. I mention them just to provide the full context. He’s treating elected representatives as if they are not even American citizens. He’s saying that their perspectives are foreign and invalid because of their ethnicity. He’s arguing that they should go represent Palestine, Puerto Rico, and the African countries from which their families originate because their opinions and votes are not welcomed here.
Perhaps part of his intention here is to cause some problems for Speaker Pelosi who has been having a bit of a dispute with the four freshmen. But that’s not really the key political play here. Trump is playing hard to his white nationalist base, fully knowing that every decent person in the country is going to recoil and condemn his remarks. He still sees it as a winning move.
When I say that Trump is abandoning the center, this is a prime example. The Democrats should be able to just plant themselves on the ground that Trump is ceding and take the White House from him with ease. But, they can still blow it if they careen off so far to the left that the center becomes a battleground again.
I’ll have more to say about that when I write up my impressions of the Netroots Nation conference that just concluded in Philadelphia.
Link
I have spent a fair amount of time today pondering this thing which Trump said. Along with that I have been thinking of all the people I know; friends, family, and simply acquaintances, who have always seemed to fall back on this idea on Trump that “well, I don’t agree with everything he says, but I believe he loves this country and is doing the best that he can to make it better”. Mixed in those people are a significant number of evangelical Christians, many of whom have worked themselves up into hyperfrenzies over all manner of things like the recent flag controversy with the Women’s Soccer Team, not to mention whatever “offense” has been wrought recently on a Chik-Fil-A somewhere, and things like the non-controversy over the Pledge of Allegiance or standing for the national anthem. As I peruse my social media accounts it appears that this whole event with the Congresswomen has escaped their radar screen, yet they are all still finding time to continue airing their usual grievances.
The President of the United States pretty much said today, to four duly elected female Congresswomen of color, “GO BACK TO AFRICA, NIGGER BITCHES”!! And yet somehow it seems that his base, which is most of my family, is just fine with it. Their Christian god seems to be fine with it. These “people of faith”, Christians, are just fine with what their President said. Every day, I become more and more convinced that something has been breached between me and my family, and it will never be repaired. Ever. The heart of Donald Trump is nothing less than a cesspool of immorality and inhumanity. And if someone continues to support him, after all of this, then I really don’t know how I can continue to look on them with any less loathing than I feel for Donald Trump. They are an extension of him, and sanction his vileness and inhumanity with their continued support. I don’t want to hate them, but every day it gets just a little more difficult.
That’s the worst–one of the worst–things about all this. It feels like the divide is absolute, and the cracks that’ve always run through the US are now chasms. There maybe not be blue states and red states, but there are blue voters and red voters, and there’s no middle ground between us, there’s no common values or baseline shared political philosophy. Republican voters are at _best_ passively supporting virulent racism, sexism, xenophobia, authoritarianism and an assault on everything decent about my country. (Hell, they’re even assaulting the indecent stuff in an effort to make it worse.) I wouldn’t knowingly work with a Republican at the point. I’m a freelancer, but I’d walk away from the job. I’d be as likely to work for the John Birch Society. They’re the same.
I guess that’s the power of manichaeism, if I’m using the term right. You end up responding similarly, or you get wiped out. Either way, manichaeism win. But fuck it. We’d better not lose.
This kind of thing happened during the Civil War.
What is too left? How do we not try to change narrative we have been living under since Reagan? You keep coming back to (avoiding being too left) but hasn’t the Democratic Party’s timidity towards actually acting unequivocally on behalf of justice (healthcare for everybody or racial justice or economic justice), been kind of a long term ceding of power at all levels of government since Reagan? People aren’t motivated by half measures. They aren’t inspired by them. Fuck it, we don’t think big anymore on anything. Hasn’t the center moved so far to the right that a win for progressives ends up either putting off the right wing’s total ascendency or just holds off the worst of their awful policies?
I’m not attached to a particular candidate (but prefer Sanders and Warren over all others) and I know that even taking back the Senate won’t allow us to pass much legislation (not without a movement of people who get civically engaged enough that our numbers do indeed overpower their money). Yet I am left with the feeling that more of the same bullshit tactical, inside-the-beltway thinking in our politics, is not going to get us that necessary movement. And certainly it won’t change the narrative (trajectory of American society).
The climate crisis alone should be the case in point on how “more of the same” cannot be acceptable.
Can you please factor this into your next posting on the subject?
The saddest part of this is that there are only four “Democratic Congresswomen” who we all immediately think of when something like this pops up. It’s great the Pelosi gave them some political cover in the aftermath. It will be great too if anybody else does. But why only these four? Why all women? What does that say about all of the rest of the Democratic Caucus? Everybody wants to be seen as a leader, but nobody wants to lead. How come these four have to take all the risks, where are the rest of them?