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Crises, Craziness, and "Security"
http://www.solidarity-us.org/site/node/4542Date Written: 2016-01-01 Publisher: Against the Current Year Published: 2016 Resource Type: Article Cx Number: CX21304 Trump himself is not so important - a vicious demagogue, but not a mass organizer or leader. What matters, following the carnage of the "Islamic State" attack in Paris and the San Bernardino mass shooting, is the climate in which the priority target of opportunity for racist reactionaries has become Muslim refugees, immigrants, communities and mosques. Abstract: - Excerpt: Donald Trump and what he represents must be seen as a symbol and symptom of a sick society and political system. Practically all the Republican candidates wanted to play with the fire of anti-Muslim bigotry, but without getting burned. It was Jeb Bush who first suggested admitting only those Syrian refugees who could prove they're Christian. Other presidential candidates and governors already called for slamming the borders shut to refugees, or closing "suspicious mosques" - Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, Chris Christie, Texas governor Greg Abbott and Indiana's Mike Pence among other sleazy characters. Some 31 governors sued to block refugees from entering their states. When Trump previously called for "registering" Muslims in the United States, the Republican leadership could have denounced him as unfit to be president. They didn't. Now, by calling for excluding Muslims from U.S. shores, Trump has focused the world's attention on the actual meaning of the Republicans' message to their voting base, and thereby blown it up in the GOP's face - performing a kind of public service, in his own perverse and sick fashion. |