Posted on 12/10/2015 2:46:50 PM PST by presidio9
So, we agree that Donald Trump is a bad guy: a racist, fear-pushing confidence man.
Now, let’s talk about what Trump is not: an agent of ISIS. The second coming of Joe McCarthy. Or the next Republican presidential nominee, let alone the next American President.
His supporters are scared for a lot of reasons, many of them ugly. But to write them off as irredeemable haters and suckers would be a huge mistake, adding to the fears and frustrations his campaign is already feeding on.
Every time Trump offers some horrific new idea — most recently banning Muslims from coming to the U.S. — his foes dance to his tune, competing to deliver preening condemnations intended to edge them into the spotlight he’s dominating . All that jostling, of course, helps Trump hold center stage.
Locally, Mayor de Blasio, after nearly two years of trying unsuccessfully to insert himself into the national conversation, seems happy to be getting TV time playing the Donald’s foil and scold.
Without irony, the City Council Wednesday held an anti-Trump rally to call on the media not to cover Trump, whom speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito called a “disgusting racist.†Of course, the crowds and cameras were there because of Trump.
Nationally, Democrats are treating Trump as the naked face of Republican hate, the mask peeled off at last. As Sen. Harry Reid put it: “This sort of racism has been prevalent in Republican politics for decades. Trump is just saying out loud what other Republicans merely suggest.â€
But the terror fears Trump is now voicing have a basis in reality. Using his nasty words and wild ideas to condemn all those open to them as beyond the pale and unworthy of engagement just further alienates those who are already afraid and alienated.
Since October 2001, right-wing extremists are ahead of Islamic radicals in the domestic death race, 48 to 45. Move the start date back a month, though, and jihadis are up 3,022 to 48.
Here’s Trump explaining his pitch in “The Art of the Deal,†way back in 1987: “I play to people’s fantasies. People may not always think big themselves, but they can still get very excited by those who do. That’s why a little hyperbole never hurts. People want to believe that something is the biggest and the greatest and the most spectacular.
“I call it truthful hyperbole. It’s an innocent form of exaggeration — and a very effective form of promotion.â€
What he’s very effectively promoting now is a Muslim ban that 65% of Republican voters approve of, according to a Bloomberg Politics opt-in poll Wednesday. As do nearly one in five Democrats.
More: In the 2015 annual American Values Survey, titled “Anxiety, nostalgia and mistrust,†76% of Republicans said Islam is incompatible with the American way of life. So did 43% of Democrats.
And that was before San Bernardino. Before Paris.
When the terror conversation had been on the backburner. Before the photo of drowned 3-year-old Aylan Kurdi supercharged the debate about Syrian refugees here back in early September, the Obama administration had quietly closed the door on them — with just 1,500 having made it here in four years of a civil war that’s displaced millions.
Bluntly, few Americans had given those poor souls a thought until then, when they became a proxy for a broader discussion on whatever we’re calling the wars formerly known as the war on terror. The belated conversation let Republicans project strength to their base by saying “no†to orphans and Democrats project compassion by condemning those Republicans.
And then came President Obama’s Oval Office address Sunday, where he told Americans we’re on course to defeat ISIS, and that’s why there’s a very small chance you might get machine-gunned in your office.
Trump’s brutal Muslim ban plan came less than 24 hours later. Asked what prompted it, a spokesperson said: “Death.â€
The people scared to death, wondering what to do when the State Department issues a worldwide travel caution, just want that world to stay over there, please.
They don’t want to think about how Al Qaeda basically decided Spain’s 2004 election with train bombings three days before it that killed 191. About the difference between Sunni and Shiite Muslims. About our wars.
They just want to stop feeling pangs of dread on the train to work, or walking their kids to school.
Which is naive, simplistic, often cruel and, yes, prejudiced. But dismissing those fears will just lead to more such messengers, speaking the “truths†others dare not.
If it’s Team Trump vs. Team Trump Hater, I’m a Trump hater all the way. But this isn’t a war. It’s an election.
Seriously, the Daily News needs to stop being so racist; the most common victim of a Muslim attack be it terrorism, chopping off someone’s head, the killing of a family member, bombing, suicide-murder, etc is another Muslim. So forbidding more Muslim immigration for a time would protect the Muslim population from death, but I guess the Daily News doesn't care about Muslims...
“The Trouble with Muslim Asskissers”
Stopped reading right there. Another reality challenged Trump denier.
too many people are acting like abused wives when it comes to islam.
I am more angry and frustrated than afraid.
Who is ‘Harry Siegel’ and why should anyone give a damn?
Perhaps ? They see the truth from not drinking the Trump YUGGIE koolaid.
As few liberals bother to pay attention to conservative news. I am fascinated every time I see one try to analyze the conservative viewpoint. Give him credit he actually comes pretty close here.
I have been reading and hearing this crap since 1964.
This riter is a phag.
The guy doesn’t mince words. It’s so refreshing to hear a terrorist called a terrorist.
I am just glad this whole thing is revealing the traitors amongst our side.
The guy doesn’t mince words. It’s so refreshing to hear a terrorist called a terrorist and illegal aliens called illegal.
These people are turning themselves inside out to try to convince us that Trump is not a player. The truth is if he wins the GOP is kaput. If he fails, the GOP is kaput.
What drives the media nuts is that their opinions are worthless and worst of all everyone knows it. They have no moral authority or credibility so they just make things up that sounds like total delusion.
Didja catch the looking-down-the-nose of the NYT to Trump voters?
Screw you NYT!!
Excuse me. Substitute NYDN for NYT as read.
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