We all have our biases, but I like to think of myself as more objective than your average person or politico. My opinions aren’t based on what’s politically convenient, the President’s talking points or a blind allegiance to a particular party or movement. I’m not going to pretend that up is down, red is blue or that anything in politics is black and white just because people on “my side” have abandoned all integrity.
I don’t think the President is racist. I do think that throughout his campaign and presidency, he’s made it too easy for racists to present him as an ally.
Republicans will bring up prison reform, black unemployment, and the black leaders and public figures that supported him and were friends with him up until he started running for President. Of course, this all matters and it’s all relevant. But it doesn’t change that he pushed the birther narrative, questioning the only nonwhite president’s citizenship. It doesn’t change that most of the country thinks he called Mexicans rapists and drug dealers with a small minority as the exception in his announcement speech. It doesn’t change his initial statement on Charlottesville being widely interpreted as drawing a moral equivalence between white nationalists and the people protesting against them. Yes, there was violence on both sides, but perception is what matters. And as I said in my original blog post on the matter, expecting the President to condemn Nazis in clear, explicit terms is the bar on the literal floor.
Trump could make it a lot harder than he does to accuse him of being a racist. But as someone that pays close attention to the news cycle and the way both sides respond to it, I know that most people see what they want to see and hear what they want to hear no matter what was actually said. That goes both for his supporters and detractors. And I know that President Trump’s administration could pledge to pay reparations out of his own pocket, abolish ICE and repeal the 2nd Amendment and it STILL wouldn’t change what his most fervent opponents think of him.
Everything his administration does that positively affects people of color is dismissed, belittled, discredited, or reframed as actually not that great or even negative. Without fail. Even recently as he tried to get A$AP Rocky out of Swedish jail he was accused of pandering. And when he called Baltimore the shithole it is, it was turned into a race issue despite many of Baltimore’s BLACK, DEMOCRAT leaders having said the exact same thing.
What happened this weekend was tragic. Two extremists took dozens of innocent lives. And I think it’s also tragic that people are desperate enough to exploit tragedy for political points.
I remember the Vegas shooting vividly because I was up at like 3am watching live footage roll in. One of my roommates from college was in Vegas for a conference at the time. I was horrified. And I remember seeing prominent right of center personalities railing against Muslims and conjecturing about this being a racially motivated attack by Black Lives Matter. There were also people on the other side looking for ways to blame Trump, and literally publicly hoping the shooter was a white male. This was all happening as people were still being gunned down. It was stupefying.
And this situation really isn’t that different. Because not one, but two mass shootings happened over the weekend. Yet we’re focusing on one because the other one was a self declared Leftist that supported Elizabeth Warren, socialism and gun control. As far as we know, the El Paso shooter was the only one to leave behind a manifesto, but it doesn’t change a damn thing. Because just weeks ago a man tried to gun down an ICE facility in Portland. And two years ago, an armed, depraved Bernie supporter targeted Republican lawmakers, shooting Congressman Steve Scalise.
I began my slow political transformation almost 5 years ago, and I can confidently say the rhetoric issue didn’t start with Trump. For years, prominent Democrats have used alarmism and panic for political means. And I’m not saying it only goes one way. But Leftists throwing their hands in the air and pretending they have no idea how we got here after years of calling everyone that didn’t agree with them a puppy kicking Nazi sympathizer isn’t going to fly.
Either Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and President Trump are all to blame or none of them are.
In this Meet the Press panel, a literal Ivy League professor suggests that the use of the word “illegal immigrant” in and of itself is racist and gives a green light to extremists. You read that right. Illegal immigrant. And when former governor Pat McRory tried to respond with a level headed disagreement, the professor interjected that “no human being is illegal.” Right. Because a catchy protest chant should absolutely dictate law.
I believe illegal immigration is a serious issue, and I’m not going to apologize for that or accept an ounce of responsibility for something that had nothing to do with me. Evil, bigotry and hate are alive in well in this country, and aren’t confined to a single ideology. So if Bernie, Liz and their comrades aren’t expected to answer for every Left Wing lunatic that gets their hand on a weapon, don’t expect the rest of us to.
Every time a Muslim extremist shoots up or bombs or drives a truck over or stabs innocent people, social media trends for days with something along the lines of #NotAllMuslims. I’d like that same energy for Republicans, Trump supporters, and opponents of open borders.
bernie sandersdaytondonald trumpel pasoelizabeth warrenillegal immigrationimmigrationmass shootingpresident trumpshootingwhite nationalismwhite supremacy
what do you think?