Posted on 12/07/2015 8:16:38 PM PST by VinL
Donald Trump just trumped all the Republican candidates for President.
The day after the mom jeans wearing squat to pee President came out to assure us that tolerance, gun control, and climate change would save us from ISIS, Donald Trump demanded we bar any muslims from entering this country and bar any American citizen who is muslim from re-entering the United States.
Set aside the merits of what amounts to at least, in part, an unconstitutional position.
This is actually brilliant politics for the here and now. Immediately, every other Republican candidate except Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) 100% rushed out to attack Donald Trump. He’s unhinged, hateful, etc. And the responses all amounted to "we must let muslims enter our country," which sounds a whole lot like "we must allow all Mexicans in our country," which everyone knows is blatantly untrue on both counts.
We do not have to do it, but the other candidates, unable to nuance their spittle, went all in with "no religious tests" and "yes we must do this because it is who we are."
So, to put it another way, the day after the President failed to reassure a scared public following the second worst terrorist attack since 9/11 on domestic soil, Donald Trump not only got himself to the right of all the other candidates, but also got every single one of them save for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) 100% to align themselves with Barack Obama.
Hate Donald Trump all you want, be offended by his proposal all you want, but it is really brilliant politics for Trump right now in the Republican primary and the reactions from the other candidates prove it. All the people attacking Trump on his immigration proposals now attacking him on this have done themselves no favors within the primary process.
Have none of these people read Art of the Deal? This is an opening, bombastic salvo to set the terms of negotiations and the other candidates except Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) 100% just decided to negotiation in Barack Obama’s position. And it comes at a time some polls are suggesting Trump is starting to fade in places like Iowa.
I would remind everybody that this is a discussion about what a President Trump might do in January 2017. If anyone hears about his policy and thinks, “well, would that not strand honest or non-violent Muslims outside the country, without legal justification?” then that’s a question that cannot be answered either way until January 2017. Any smart law-abiding Muslim will be careful not to travel outside the U.S.A. if they know that Trump is winning (and remember, there are eleven weeks between election day and the inauguration).
So on that basis, I am less concerned about the constitutionality of this concept than if an already existing President Trump just sprang it on travelling, law-abiding citizens. It is code for “we are going to start checking very carefully why you are travelling to certain countries” and that is long overdue as shown by the events in San Bernadino.
I agree that Trump needs to filter a bit and match up his policies with real problems, at some point measures overly draconian will not help the situation, they will hurt the security environment. There is no point in alienating large numbers of people who had no agenda of harm, if it can be avoided with a more targeted approach. I would have advised him to announce a policy of perhaps up to two-day interrogation where necessary, for all returning travellers to a list of countries, that would send the same signal but without the negatives.
On the other hand, there is no telling what sort of a mess national security may be in by the general election period or the inauguration. So to some extent, a lot of this sort of discussion is pointless. There could be changes for the worse or (hard to see how) for the better in the meantime.
Today, common sense was redefined as “brilliant”.
Hmmm.
“I don’t think he said that. The ONLY thing remotely like that was Trump saying Muslim Americans who go overseas & enlist in ISIS to do jihad should not be welcomed back into the country. I believe there may be precedence for this bar to reentry.”
There are also lots of legal non-citizen Muslims, and their right to return is at the pleasure of our government. The precedence that affects even citizens is if you join a military the US is at war with, then you will lose your citizenship, even if born here.
Other than that, a citizen visiting Pakistan to see the 200 or so members of his immediate family does have the right to return here, unless we have evidence they were involved in the above military activities. In other words, those people are assumed innocent unless evidence points to something specific to bar them.
Interviewed on Fox News last night (about 7:15) he distinctly said Muslims who are American citizens would NOT be banned.
Look at the context. Well more than half of America functions at around the mentally retarded level. And that includes the Right. In the kingdom of the blind, the one eyed man IS king.
The very straight forward way to box Cruz on this is to ask him “Are there Muslim countries whose Islamic adherents do not wish us harm? Would you please name which ones they are?”
Cruz would be in trouble, and his “weaselly lawyer language” would not extract his posterior from the hook he has just hung it on - because every single Muslim Country has some percentage of its population that desires to wage jihad against the West in general, and the United States in particular. There is no parsing that fact.
Trump has Cruz boxed on this, and he knows it. The problem with Senator Cruz and most politicos is that they always attempt to “ride two horses with one ass.” Trump understands their dishonest game, and he knows how to rip the rug out from under those who play it.
IMO, Senator Cruz just made a fatal mistake, in giving his parsed statement about restricting immigration only from those specific Muslim countries where ISIS prevails ... Whether he knows it or not, he just lost. Most Americans are wise to the fact, or at least suspect, that every Islamic country is full of these barbarians ... And the published percentages prove them correct. Every single Islamic country is corrupt, to a greater or lesser degree, with jihad-worshiping terror-inflicting “scum.” If Ted Cruz thinks he can convince the American electorate otherwise, he is in for a very rude awakening.
I had a Muslim “coworker,” back in 1982, at Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Co. I forget what country he was originally from - but he was a naturalized U.S. citizen ...
He was friendly enough - until ...
One night, we were having a discussion on the situation in Iran (Reagan was President; and so I asked him, since he was an American citizen: “What would you do if Reagan declared war on Iran?” He very calmly replied that he would kill me, and any other non-Muslim American without a second thought! That is the exact moment when my Hollywood-induced illusions about Islam being peaceful were forever banished from my thinking.
For me, every Muslim is a potential jihadist, without exception - even those who are American citizens.
“... if you people can’t recognize a negotiation tactic he will back off from when the timing is right, and to his advantage, there really is no hope for you. Two steps forward, one step back. Net gain +1. I swear some people can’t see the obvious when it hits them in the face.”
So, in other words: if we “people” do not see the issues YOUR way, then we “people” are all just too stupid to comprehend your impenetrable insight. Right. Thanks for clarifying your position. We “people” shall take it under advisement. (sigh)
No - but if you take a hike, then the rest of us will throw one helluva party!
OK, wiseguy - I WAS having a rather enjoyable cup of coffee ... you owe me a new keyboard!
I’ll wager a C-note that your prediction is wrong. Trump has his finger on the pulse of the people ... He is absolutely dead on target here. Oh, sure - the media will spin it every which way but truthful ... the way to get to the truth is to ask your neighbors ... Ask the real people, whom the media looks down their noses upon. I guarantee you will see a large proportion of agreement with what Mr. trump stated on the issue.
Unless you can point out where I’m incorrect, perhaps you should take it under advisement.
Trump is very much like Reagan...
One year before the election, Iran takes are men and women as hostages. Keep in mind that another pussy in the white house let that happen by letting in Khomeini and the others and ousting the Shah. Before then Iran was like the second or third richest nation in the world. It was a bastion of freedom, commerce, the arts etc. Truly the best of the Persian Empire people..
Okay, our hostages... and Reagan basically said if they’re not out, he would start bombing day one. And the same thing happened he was branded as unstable.
HERE’S THE SIMILIARITY. It is only going to get worse here, now that they know, our pussy in chief is not is not going to engage them. Once we get more attacks here, and I mean that are clearly like San Bernadino, you had best believe, it’s going to hit the fan...and people will turn to Trump and again...
He’ll say, “the first day I’m in office, I’m suspending Muslims comings in or going out.” FDR did the same thing with the Japanese.
Exactly. And so does his statement to go after the families of jihadists. Suddenly Muslims are not going to be so eager to cheer their relatives on who go off and commit jihad. Their own necks might be on the line.
Anybody ever see the film called “The Siege”? I think it came out in 1997. It shows the incarceration of Muslims. That was before 9/11 as well...
That's what a dog thinks every time it hears obama's high pitched whistling sound.
Agree and I believe that is why Cruz has not attacked Trump on this matter. Cruz support freezing ALL immigration for 5 years or until we have our house in order. Then opening it back up
I do not agree with Trump's statement on just up and not allowing the Muslim Citizen back in. I think they should be quarantined on an island if they want to come back in. When that island fills up, the first one that arrived get their head chopped off and their body thrown into the cooking pot to feed the other mooslims on the island. So on and so forth
On second thought, why wait for them to leave and come back........crank up the cooking pot
Good sheeeet
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