brushfire"This, yes, this, it was always like this." -Stanley Koehler
REFLECTIONS OF AN EMPTY NESTER
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There is so much appalling about Trump’s alleged statement — “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” — it’s hard to know where to begin. But let’s break it down point by point.
And where to begin with the apologists, the deflectors, the defenders and the cheerleaders? Maybe with the biggest cheerleader of them all, the former Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan and infamous white supremacist, David Duke. His wavering faith was clearly restored by Trump’s remarks. Duke tweets: “Just as the most ardent Trump supporters were about to give up on him in despair — he restores a lot of love in us by saying blunt but truthful things that no other President in our lifetime would dare say! NO DACA! NO COMPROMISE - NO Sh**thole America! Hail Trump!” You have to give him a little credit for his delicacy in replacing a vulgarity with “**”. God forbid his tweet should offend anyone. Does Trump's association with racists make him one? Or is he, in fact, just saying what everyone is thinking, as many of his defenders assert? It may be what they are thinking, but since when is sinking to the lowest common denominator considered a good thing? “I think people have the misconception that you can take the policies without the poison,” New York Times columnist Charles Blow said in a TV segment. “There is no difference between what I believe, what I say and what I do. There is no way to separate what Trump believes on a basic level from what he wants to do. That meeting in which he said this was a meeting about policy. There is no way to separate the racism that is coming out of his mouth from his intention with the policy.” CNN anchor Don Lemon was more blunt and focused on his supporters. “What does it say about you that no matter what, you continue to make excuses for this man, for his vile behavior? Doesn’t that make you just as bad, if not worse, than him?” A racist is in the eye of the beholder. Each of us must decide for ourselves, not based on what lies in Trump’s heart, but what lies within our own.
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Mary Anne BrushJournalist, fiction writer, wife and mother |