Trump’s “racist” tweets and anti-Semitism
Quite a few people have observed that the Democratic House was quick to condemn Trump for a “racism” not actually contained in his tweets, and yet have not condemned Ilhan Omar for her anti-Semitic remarks.
It’s unsurprising; double standards are the name of the game.
But that’s not the only way in which anti-Semitism enters into this. In all the furor over Trump’s tweets, I haven’t seen too much about the thrust of many of them (and of his other recent remarks on the so-called “squad”), which had to do with the squad’s anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. Clearly, Trump is calling attention to that particular aspect of the “squad’s” political stance.
“When I hear the way they talk about our country, when I hear the anti-Semitic language they use, when I hear the hatred they have for Israel, and the love they have for enemies like al-Qaeda, then you know what, I will tell you I do not believe this is good for the Democrat party,” Trump said.
The left says this move of Trump’s is an error (like everything else he does):
The claim that Jews are not loyal to the countries in which they reside is one of the hoariest, most pernicious of anti-Semitic slurs. Malleably affixed to a diasporic people, the accusation oozes from the left and right fringes of the political spectrum. Omar recently attributed her colleagues’ support for Israel to campaign donations and implied that American Jews “push for allegiance to a foreign country.”
In other words, author James Kirchick feels that people will hear what Trump has to say on this and see it as just as spurious and falsely defamatory as the old “Jews have dual loyalties” accusation. It’s an interesting theory of Kirchick’s, but I think it’s just a way to reassure himself and his readers, because there’s one large difference between Trump’s accusations and the “Jews all have dual loyalty” accusations: Trump is basing his statements on the actual words of Ilhan Omar and crew. There’s a whole lot of evidence.
Nor is Trump suggesting, when he says they should go back and help their countries of origin and then come back here and show us how it’s done, that they have a dual loyalty. He’s actually closer to suggesting the opposite—that he wished they had more of a dual loyalty, but they don’t.
What they do have a loyalty to is the destructive leftism and hatred of the places they came from, characteristics that have kept those places mired in violence and economic failure, and yet they continually criticize their adopted country the US as being tremendously racist and oppressive.
The left is counting on slogans and the MSM to get them through this. Maybe they’re correct; maybe the cries of “Trump is a racist” will win the day with the public. Probably most people don’t go back to see or hear what Trump actually said rather than what the Democrats and the MSM say he said. But if they did—and if they checked out what the squad members say—they’d see how truly awful the actual views of these four women are.
It has nothing whatsover to do with race; it has everything to do with what they think. The left has been labeling all criticism of a so-called “person of color” (defined as suits the left’s needs of the moment) as racism for a long time, and perhaps the Overton Window on “racism” has shifted enough to make their message of victimhood palatable. Or perhaps people have finally wearied of it.
Trump may also be appealing to Jews to leave the Democratic Party and vote for him in 2020. I don’t know if this sort of thing will accomplish it, but I doubt it, because it usually takes more than that to change a lifelong political position. He’s also appealing to a group that already does support him, in the main: those Christians who are staunch defenders of Israel. But they were already pretty firmly in his camp.
[NOTE: Please see this for a talk by Professor William Jacobson of Legal Insurrection, on the subject of the connection between intersectionality and anti-Semitism.]
AOC has worn out her welcome. She was amusing for 15 minutes.
Nothing funny about Ilhan the Vile.
When I read another outlandish statement by Ilhan Omar, I remind myself that average IQ in Somalia is 68. At this level of intellectual potential, people do not develop intellectually beyond stage of early European teens. This does not mean, of course, that they all are so stupid, but strongly indicate what kind of views and attitudes can be popular there. Their “culture” stinks, and can not be improved without some adults take on themselves this “White Man Burden”. All black Africa is doomed save for recolonization by Europeans or, may be, Chinese or Indians.
From Rich Lowry at NRO: “Ilhan Omar Is Completely Assimilated … on the terms set out by Beto O’Rourke”:
It is exactly because the great majority of people will not go back to see what Trump actually said and how the media twisted it and what the ‘squad’ too actually said that hard hitting PAC ads supporting Trump will be of such importance. They can act as a reminder and clarifier. They can reexpose the lies and bring the truth to those watching. Especially with the low info voters.
What Trump actually said was stupid and immature and shouldnt have been said. For all you Trump = 3D chess playing genius minded people out there: When Trump says stupid, immature things it alienates people we need to win an election.
Racist or not, the tweet was needlessly idiotic.
Y’know, Trump would have tweeted the exact same thing if “The Squad” were a quartet consisting of a recent refugee from Ukraine, a 2nd-Generation Canadian immigrant, a third-generation Japanese guy, and a snooty Brit. (Provided all those countries were third-world hellholes, which of course they aren’t.)
Come to think of it, Trump recently told a snooty British ambassador to go back where he came from, didn’t he? Last I checked, said Brit wasn’t a “brown” person from a “brown” country.
So, yeah: Trump would have said the same thing no matter what the racial makeup of the “Squad.” There’s no racism (in the modern sense, which loosely means racial bigotry) there.
There’s also no xenophobia, in the conventional sense. But there is, I think, a kind of reflexive anti-oikophobia. Trump’s tweet was ill-phrased, but it represents a naturally angry reaction of someone who loves America to the nastiness of people who have every reason to love it, but somehow don’t. It doesn’t much matter whether it’s a guest, or your adult kid: After hours of patiently listening while they tell you everything they hate about your decorating style, you’re likely to answer, “You don’t like my house? Well, there’s the door.”
Now AOC is from the Bronx, theoretically, but she’s “from” Venezuela: That is to say, the Chavista system is the one she prefers and wishes were implemented here. She didn’t grow up under it, but she acts as if she’s homesick for it.
Ilhan Omar is from Somalia, theoretically, but she’s “from” the Shariaist ummah. She has no patriotism towards America as America, but only towards some future America in which her shariaist dreams have been imposed.
The thoughts of the other two (Tlaib and, uh, Ringo) are less well-described in public, so I’m not quite sure where they’re “from”; i.e., which non-American homeland they habitually pine for. Some imaginary version of Castro’s Cuba, perhaps?
The point is that every time these ladies open their mouths, it’s to proclaim how there’s nothing good about America, and how there won’t be anything good about it until it’s been radically changed beyond recognition.
That’s not love. It’s not even the love of a loyal opposition or a patriotic crusader-for-justice. It’s just contempt for the country.
And I think everyone knows that that’s what it is. Nobody loves a thing, who wishes to change it entirely. It’s one thing for a husband to say, “I love my wife: Her sense of humor, her eyes, her curves, her kindness towards the kids. But she’s drinking too much recently and it has got to stop!” It’s quite another for him to say, “She should stop drinking. And I wish she didn’t make such lame jokes. And that she’d lose weight. And that she related to the kids differently. And neither her eye-color nor her hair-color is really suited to my tastes. For that matter, her nose could use some work too. And why are her knees so pointy? And less said about her handwriting, the better….”
I think “the Squad” strikes most Americans as an instance of the latter.
So, I think I feel about them much what Trump was feeling, when he did that damned tweet.
But…!
I also think most Americans could have thought of a way to express this in a Tweet without stepping into the usual “racism!” “xenophobia!” beartrap that the left likes to set. I think Trump screwed up.
I mean, I get that he might have been attempting to glue Pelosi to AOC & Omar by forcing Pelosi to defend them, which is strategically smart. But well-conceived strategy isn’t worth much if you execute it ineptly.
To be sure, we’re talking about the same leftists who try to peg Ben Shapiro as a Nazi and Candace Owens as a white supremacist. (And meanwhile refusing to acknowledge Ilhan Omar’s actual antisemitic commentary and support for terror organizations.) So all this leftist crowing isn’t honest by any stretch.
But they’re “crowing” all the same, because Trump phrased the tweet so artlessly that even people who’re dying to support him are forced to stretch credibility to the breaking point just to justify it. And it’s the kind of thing that’ll alienate white suburban women (which is to say: precisely the demographic he needs to keep in order to preserve his electoral college advantage).
And they’re “crowing” because, short-term, it takes the focus off the wild extremism of the Democrats (which is the biggest threat to them winning in 2020) and bolsters the evidence for Trump being a bigot. What’s the point of debunking the “fine people” hoax if Trump keeps providing the casual observer with reasons for thinking it wasn’t a hoax?
So, yeah: I wish that AOC, and Omar would go “back” to wherever is their natural homeland, even if they’ve never been there before. I wish Maureen Dowd and Bernie Sanders would, too (except the U.S.S.R. no longer exists). I’d love for half of the tenured U.S. professoriate to pack their bags and head for Utopia, where all the houses are on solar and the minimum wage is $50 per hour. And the SJW crowd can all go to hell, where they’ll fit right in.
But, at the same time, I sure wish Trump had an agreement with a trio of advisors (let’s say, Mike Pence, Stephanie Grisham, and maybe a tag-team of Ivanka and Melania, whichever’s available), any of whom were allowed to throw a red-flag on up to one tweet per week. If one of them red-flagged a tweet, the rest of the trio would convene, with Trump explaining what he was trying to achieve and why that was a good idea. If two out of three thought it was a bad idea or needed rephrasing, the tweet would be squelched or rewritten.
Had that been in place, perhaps a tweet would have gone out, but it wouldn’t have been this one. And we’d have all been better off.
Tlaib has been described more or less on point as the Congresswoman (D-Hamas).
Now Omar says the BDS movement (anti-Israel boycott, divest, and sanction) is just like the Boston Tea Party. She is delusional and very ignorant about the history of her adopted country.
This article over at American Thinker, suggests that although Trump refers to congresswomen plural, he is really addressing Ilhan Omar. But he prefers not to single her out specifically.
Tlaib has an interesting video up on U Tube
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=u+tube+Rashida+Tlaib+Muslim+takeover&view=detail&mid=F5AFD6CB51B33FA60329F5AFD6CB51B33FA60329&FORM=VIRE
She isn’t wearing the head scarf in Congress like Omar is, but she has the Islamic tents and is talking about a Muslim takeover. Pressley and AOC may not share her views, but they all hate the U.S. as constituted. After they get rid of “the Man” they will sort out their differences. It would be funny if it wasn’t so serious.
Islamic tenets, not tents. Sigh.
That’s not Tlaib in that video, but a woman named Sharifa Alkhateeb:
“The video of Alkhateeb — a writer, scholar and founder of the North American Council for Muslim Women — is from the August 1989 Muslim Americans Political Awareness Conference. The full video of the conference is available on C-SPAN. Tlaib, who was born in 1976, was 13 at the time of Alkhateeb’s speech.”
Here’s an example of a hard hitting ad; “Absolutely Brutal RNC Ad Links “The Squad’s” Rhetoric, Including Promise That They’ll “Bring the Fire,” to Domestic Terrorist Antifa Attack on ICE Facility”
Harry @ ,
I imagine that’s been your default position about everything Trump has said from the day he announced his running for the 2016 nomination to today.
R.C.,
“Trump’s tweet was ill-phrased”
No it wasn’t but clearly it’s far too direct for many on the right.
“I also think most Americans could have thought of a way to express this in a Tweet without stepping into the usual “racism!” “xenophobia!” beartrap that the left likes to set. I think Trump screwed up.”
It’s true that most people do not like confrontation, which would restrain them from speaking their minds forthrightly. And in doing so, they yield the field to the dems. Trump only screwed up if your highest priority is not offending. Those who place civility above all else, including liberty.
“But, at the same time, I sure wish Trump had an agreement with a trio of advisors (let’s say, Mike Pence, Stephanie Grisham, and maybe a tag-team of Ivanka and Melania, whichever’s available), any of whom were allowed to throw a red-flag on up to one tweet per week.”
That’s effectively stating you wish Romney, Kasich, etc. had been elected. Following the advice of the aformentioned crew guarantees that the Left wins the entire ‘pot’. Our situation is such that only a man who says, “damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead” and “let the chips fall where they may” has any hope of prevailing against the forces that ARE destroying this country.
Prediction (hope) President Trump will tweet in the morning
I was not attacking these congresswomen because of their color, I was attacking the content of their character
Ann, thanks for the correction. Your research and fact checking are appreciated. My old eyes are not up to it anymore. I thought the woman did not sound like Talaib, but she has a facial resemblance. I looked Sharifa Alkhateeb up as you posted and found the same video. Which, interestingly, also came up after a search with “Rashida Talaib Muslim takeover” as search words. Sigh.
Geoffrey Britain,
When I see you’ve commented on this blog, I’m generally predisposed to assume I’ll be nodding along with what you say. So when I see that you have critical observations about my observations, that gives me pause. I read what you wrote, and sat back to think about it seriously.
But on this occasion, I think I’m going to (respectfully) stick with my original take. Here’s how it shakes out, for me:
When, in response to me calling Trump’s tweet “ill-phrased,” you say, “No it wasn’t but clearly it’s far too direct for many on the right,” I find myself agreeing with the observation that the weak-kneed right doesn’t like directness. But that has nothing to do with what I found lacking in the tweet. I had no problem with its directness; I had problem with it leaving the president’s fly unzipped unnecessarily.
The problematic portions of the text could so easily have been fixed prior to tweeting. Consider, for example, the first part of the tweet: “So interesting to see ‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe….”
Now only Omar “came from” anywhere else. The other three were born in the U.S.A.
Granted, Tlaib seems more loyal to Palestine than to the U.S. Granted, she seems to honor Hamas over the Founding Fathers. Granted, she seems to wish she were from there, but she isn’t. In the same way AOC seems to be pining for Venezuela. And I’m not sure where Ringo would rather be, but it seems she’d rather be anywhere but here.
Still, those three are “from” here. So what did the President gain by being factually sloppy, and open to the charge of ignorance, or worse, the charge that he thinks anyone “brown” isn’t “really from America?” I don’t see that the sloppiness gained him anything: It was an unforced error.
In fact, couldn’t his tweet have been every bit as “direct,” but less open to valid criticism, if he’d begun with, “So interesting to see ‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen, only one of whom was born elsewhere, seeming always to prefer and honor other countries while slandering America. And not just any countries! Every country they like is some hellhole, a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world. But they applaud these places and despise America. They think our government should be run like Venezuela, like Somalia.”
As for the second part, I only quibble with one word of it: “back.” But again, couldn’t it have been equally direct, but less exposed to criticism, if he’d said, “Tell you what: They like those places better? Nobody’s keeping them here. They should leave, go to the totally broken and crime-infested places they like better, and help fix them. Then come back and show us how … it is done. These places need your help badly, you can’t leave fast enough. I’m sure that Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to quickly work out free travel arrangements!”
The impact remains. In fact, my rewording is only slightly changed. But by removing the sloppy inaccuracy, any valid basis for suspecting xenophobia or prejudice vanishes, leaving Pelosi & Co. able only to fire off their usual invalid critiques.
Re: “But, at the same time, I sure wish Trump had an agreement with a trio of advisors…” you reply, “That’s effectively stating you wish Romney, Kasich, etc. had been elected.” Not so!
First, notice how I phrased my (unserious!) “proposal”: They could only reword one item per week, and only if 2 of 3 agreed. The idea is to leave Trump substantially unaltered, as he should be, but if the wording of a tweet would needlessly damage his own interests, Ivanka would say, “Um, Dad? Couldn’t it play better if you said it this way?” …and no more than once a week.
The idea that Trump-plus-zero-to-one-edits-per-week would be equivalent to a Romney or Kasich administration is dramatically underselling Trump.
In the end, I find it entertaining, and often strategically valuable from a got-to-rescue-the-Republic perspective, that Trump offends so many people who so badly need offending, if not straitjacketing.
By forcing Pelosi to defend “the Squad” Trump does (beneficially!) force her to accept their horrifying extreme leftism, antisemitism, and giggly affection for Hamas as the new face of the Democrats.
Love it! But no need for him to shoot himself in the foot while doing it. It probably won’t make any difference come election time. But it’s disheartening to make your own allies wince for no good reason.
Zenman:
Hey, that’s not bad. I like it.
I, too, wish he hadn’t worded his “tweet” so as to say, as R.C. quotes,
That’s a very human kind of mistake to make, especially in the heat of the moment, but it’s also an especially low-hanging piece of fruit for the anti-Trumpers of all stripes to rip down.
Leaving out of it the fact that these people have the mindset of many of their various “tribes” from other countries (parents or grandparents from, for instance, Puerto Rico, the Middle East, Pakistan) and reinforced by American anti-Americans (many of whom swear they love America, but she needs to change X,Y,Z and in the end to become somebody else entirely), people like Rashida Tlaib and so on need to go back and fix their American hellholes, like Detroit, first. Except for what their idea of “fixing” would aim at.
Just out of curiosity, I thought I’d find out just who are the actual immigrants in Congress. I found a nifty table from Pew Research which lists all the immigrants and children of immigrants in the 116th (current) Congress. It shows which are themselves immigrants and which are immigrants themselves, and also which are Donkeys and which Heffalumps. Interestingly, there are no Republican immigrant in Congress.
Pew notes that
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/01/24/in-116th-congress-at-least-13-of-lawmakers-are-immigrants-or-the-children-of-immigrants/
Scroll down most of the way to see the table.
Oh well, you know what I mean. Table states whether the person is himself an immigrant or a child of (at least one) immigrant.
Adopted? Three of the four were born in the United States.
Look, I find much of the thing you say offensive, in an UN-Amierican sort of way. In my opinion,. you smeared a Marine and American Hero, Robert Mueller. You’ve falsely alleged that parts of the US Government has engaged in a coup. You stay stone cold silent as your leader praises the communist invasion of Afghanistan, praises the Taliban – supporting Wikileaks, says he believes Putin over our Intelligence services, and goes full Neville Chamberlain and then some on Kim Jong Un.
But I would never tell you to go back to Israel and come back when you’ve achieved middle east peace. I would not say that even if you were originally from Israel. I certainly wouldn’t say that if you were born here…because that would be as obvious as saying; “Jews Will Not Replace Us”.
}}} What they do have a loyalty to is the destructive leftism and hatred of the places they came from
So, they’re like Cali liberals moving to Texas… :-/
}}} Adopted? Three of the four were born in the United States.
Yes, and you cannot tell this from anything they say.
They echo Michelle Obama when they say “This is the first time I’ve ever been proud of my country”, except they’ve simply never been proud of their country.
They NEED to go somewhere else, to actually experience the REALITY of those places, so they stop infecting this place with their insanity.
THIS is at the heart of his tweets.
Every single solitary one of them is an enemy of America, an enemy of our governmental system, and would happily lead us to total destruction. They may be US Citizens, but you cannot discern this from any of their actions or their words. They could not be LESS American than the most diehard foreign spy.
And the Left media is out to enable them. There’s zero question that AOC misspent campaign funds, sufficient to be investigated and almost certainly censured AT BEST, if not impeached, but that little issue has disappeared down the media hole.
Harry, Tramp is a troll. And his trolling is not a spontaneous outburst or slip in tongue, it is not a gaffe. It is thoroughly calculated both tactically and strategically. He throws his opponents out of balance, lures them to take the bite and to show their true colors. Yes, he is Divider in Chief and provocateur, as all revolutionaries are. He was elected not to reform or improve the establishment, but to burn it to the ground. He divides his opponents and make them fight each others, or unites them around the most unpopular and scary leaders. All this is good for his prospect to win the general election.
Trump’s tweets are directly from Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals”: Chose the target, froze it, polarize it, alienate it and attack it. The choice of “The Squad” was perfect, just as the line of attack on them: never mention race, concentrate on the cultural inferiority and hatred toward the largest racial group and its values, ingratitude and the lack of patriotism. These all are hot buttons of popular sentiments and would bring him a lot of new supporters, even if they would be shy to express their approval in public. The conclusion was “We will meet you at voting booth in next November” – a brilliant exploitation of “Shy Tory” phenomenon.
Yes indeed, the trolls are running!
(Must be spawning season…)
From R. Emmett Tyrrell, at The American Spectator:
https://spectator.org/house-speaker-pelosi-laugh-the-girls-off/
Julie near Chicago, thanks for the link on immigrants in Congress. I didn’t know, for instance, that Sen. Hirono is a Japanese immigrant.
R.C.,
“I read what you wrote, and sat back to think about it seriously.”
Thank you for extending that courtesy. Reading your revision and comparing it to what Trump actually tweeted, I do prefer your revision. You do retain the impact and eliminate an avenue of attack. It’s a much more skillful wording than Trump’s tweet, yet changes little.
Unfortunately, I suspect Trump has no one to whom he can consult who will not try to restrain him so that Trump is no longer Trump. I base that on nearly everyone who would act in support of Trump wielding “his big stick” having been driven out of the W.H.
OBloodyHell @ 6:21 does a masterful job of explaining what was probably in the back of Trump’s mind when he wrote that tweet.
Trump is not a wordsmith, he’s not a Ted Cruz, whose every utterance is carefully calculated. “But this man fights.” And above all that is the indispensable quality needed at this time.
Racism? A crafty charge….
Maybe we should let David Duke have the last word!
http://www.thetower.org/7309-former-kkk-leader-david-duke-calls-rep-omar-most-important-member-of-congress/
I guess someone turned the Manju bot on again. It doesn’t seem to do any good to correct his nonsense, but for some reason I feel compelled to try.
“You smeared Robert Mueller. . .” Did Robert Mueller not hire a staff of all Democrats, including some active in Democratic politics? Did Robert Mueller not know that the “dossier” was a complete fabrication early on, but continue the investigation? Those are facts, not smears.
“You’ve falsely alleged that parts of the US Government has engaged in a coup.” Every fact we know so far points to an attempted “soft” coup — Ohr transmitting the dossier to the FBI, the Comey leaks, the Strzok and Page “insurance policy,” the use of the fake dossier and an article based on it to obtain the FISA warrants, the attempted set up of Carter Page and George Papadopoulos as fall guys, and I’m sure there will be more coming out. Facts, not false accusations.
“your leader praises the communist invasion of Afghanistan” — okay, you got me there — saying the Soviets invaded Afghanistan because of terrorists is flat out wrong, but saying it bankrupted the former Soviet Union while not the complete cause, was certainly part of the cause of the fall of the USSR.
Trump “praises the Taliban” — the guy who dropped America’s most powerful non-nuclear bomb on the Taliban, and you consider that praise? When he said “Afghanistan is the Harvard of terrorists,” you consider that praise?
Trump “says he believes Putin over our Intelligence services,” no, he said Putin denies that he did it, and our intelligence services say that he did. And our intelligence services have such a great record of analysis — let’s see, the missile gap, the Russian space program, the Bay of Pigs invasion, the Chinese atomic bomb, the Chinese hydrogen bomb, the Indian atomic bomb, the Pakistani atomic bomb, the Russian seizure of Crimea and invasion of Ukraine — yup, our intelligence services are always right! (The conclusion that Putin would prefer Donald Trump, a man who wanted to substantially increase US military spending and US oil and gas production over Hillary Clinton, who brought them the “Reset ” button, wanted to reduce US oil and gas, and who took $140 million in bribes to let the Russian buy 20% of US uranium production capability, will go down in history with those other great analyses of the IC!)
Trump “goes full Neville Chamberlain and then some on Kim Jong Un” — riiiiiiiight! Neville Chamberlin gave Hitler Czechoslovakia. So far all Trump has given L’il Kim is two photo ops. He hasn’t reduced one sanction — even the one on fish — and Kim has stopped long-range ballistic missile tests, stopped nuclear testing, and is at least saying he’s thinking about considering pondering denuclearizing, which is farther than any other president has gotten. Oh, yeah, Trump suspended large-scale joint military exercises with the ROK last year. BFD. Now they’re back on.
Manju, I’m sure you’d like your posts to be respected instead of ridiculed. All you have to do to achieve that is follow the admonishment of Daniel Patrick Moynihan, on of the great liberals of the 20th Century — you are entitled to your own opinions, but you are not entitled to your own facts.
https://mobile.twitter.com/MoniqueWorthy/status/1152387581071351808