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So This Is Where We Are
David Leonhardt, New York Times
| Last night, the president of the United States stood in front of his supporters while they chanted about expelling a Muslim-American member of Congress from the United States: “Send her back! Send her back! Send her back …” |
| It was an ugly, lawless, racist sentiment, and President Trump loved it. He had worked the crowd into a frenzy by denouncing the congresswoman, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, and three other House Democrats — all women of color, as well. |
| “No safe, sane, decent country or leader should ever speak of its own citizens this way,” Jill Filipovic said on Twitter. “And it’s difficult to put into words how profoundly sad this makes me. Is this who we are? Is it who we want to be?” |
| The Atlantic’s Ronald Brownstein offered a good way of thinking about it, by posing a question to corporate executives: “If workers in your companies chanted ‘send her back’ at a colleague of color they disagreed with would they retain their jobs? Is this now the standard you’ll accept for how your workers interact in a diversifying country?” |
| Joe Walsh, a former congressman, said: “It saddens me beyond belief that the standard-bearer for the Republican Party, my Party, is making ‘Send her back’ his re-election rallying cry. It’s so ugly. It’s so un-American. It just saddens me beyond belief.” |
| And yet elected Republicans — those with power — continue to do nothing about Trump’s behavior. Some bless it. Some are quiet. And some mumble modest regret. But virtually none would even vote for a symbolic resolution this week decrying his racism. |
| “Thank you, @realDonaldTrump, for visiting the great state of North Carolina today,” Senator Thom Tillis, who represents the state, said on Twitter. “I know you are working hard to Keep America Great!” |
The Republican Party’s 2020 election strategy seems to be hatefulness.
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For more …
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| On the latest episode of “The Argument,” Ross Douthat, Michelle Goldberg and I debate whether the Republican Party has been fully Trumpified and whether his racism will hurt him in 2020. (We also quiz our colleague Farhad Manjoo on his attitude toward pronouns.) |
| My colleague Gail Collins writes in The Times that Trump seems to be running for re-election against “the squad” — the group of four progressive members of Congress that includes Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The chant, Collins writes, “was an echo of the ‘Lock her up!’ chants Trump elicited when he was ranting about Hillary Clinton. Who was a presidential nominee. Omar is a lawmaker who has been in office about six months.” |
| Neera Tanden of the Center for American Progress: “Send her back/ lock her up[.] It’s always an attack on women. And women with any power.” |
| Jamil Smith of Rolling Stone: “Folks can tiptoe around this if they want, but we need to say what Trump is doing here: he has found something beyond ‘Lock her up!’ Omar is home, but it won’t matter to the mob. The president is willing to put Omar in physical danger to get re-elected.” |
| Steve Vladeck, University of Texas law professor: “I’m old enough to remember when John McCain literally took the microphone away from a supporter at a 2008 campaign rally after she called [Barack Obama] ‘an Arab.’ How far we’ve fallen.” |
| Kimberly Ross of Arc Digital: “Those who chanted/supported “send her back” should be ashamed of themselves. Like her politics or not (and I don’t!), Rep. Omar is a citizen. We don’t deport people for holding different opinions. Stop with the bigotry. My goodness.” |
| Guy Benson of Townhall.com: “I’m very tough on Omar [because] she deserves it, on the merits. I am sickened by the hate-laced “send her back” chants. Shame on every person who participated. POTUS has a responsibility to put an end to it.” |
And my colleague Nick Kristof in The Times: “Trump has taken two of the most ignominious threads in American history — nativism and McCarthyism — and woven them together in an outburst that is an affront to democratic norms.”
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