Trump's Rhetoric is Getting People Killed

Given the two recent mass shootings on August 3^rd in El Paso and August 4^th in Dayton (although Trump didn’t pay attention when he was told about it so he said it happened in Toledo), Trump was asked by a reporter outside the White House if in light of these attacks he thought his rhetoric was divisive. Trump immediately claimed “No” that his rhetoric brings people together.

In a way, his rhetoric does bring elements together - El Paso shooter Patrick Crusius wrote in his online posting that he viewed Hispanics in El Paso as invaders because that’s what Trump and his supporting far-right mouthpieces have been calling immigrants for the last four years. So Trump helped him bring together his intended targets, his loaded automatic weapon, his disgust with Latinos, and the motivation to kill. In the case of Dayton shooter Connor Betts, he was motivated by extreme misogyny. He had a pathological hatred of women, even making out a rape list while he was in high school and later a kill list. On August 4^th, he felt he no longer needed to restrain himself. Why should he when we have a president who said of women that he could do whatever he wanted, grab ‘em by the pussy…? When the president, now married to a third wife yet was also having an affair with an adult film star and a Playboy model at the same time, shows no more regard for women than that, Connor Betts decided he didn’t need to show them any regard either. Betts was mad at the world - and the misogynistic man who admitted on tape to acting on his impulses, well, he got elected president – so Betts acted on his.

But Trump is 100% right in that his rhetoric brings people together - the people who think just like Trump. The dishonest, scheming, racist, narrow-minded bigots who think only white people should have rights of any kind in this country. Trump’s verbal attacks on non-whites and/or non-christians bring out the worst in people who think like him. They now feel emboldened to say and do things like Trump suggests. If some of that leads to killing those that Trump railed about as invading our country, well that’s the price we pay for the freedoms guaranteed by the First and Second Amendments. Trump supporters just wish the media would stop reporting it. That, to them, is the problem. There’s too much attention paid to the negative things Trump says and does. Why can’t the media just ignore all that? They approve of the torturing and deaths of little children by ICE agents, by Border Patrol, and DHS. It doesn’t trouble them any more than it troubles Trump so talking about how cruel and un-American it is is a waste of time. Their attitude is “I don't care” because they know Trump doesn't care.

This is what we are up against. The people who defend Donald Trump may not have his wealth and power but they damn sure share his ideas. That includes the evangelicals who defend whatever Trump does by claiming he was anointed by God so who are we to judge. There are even profits...er, prophets…who claim the God of the bible told them Donald Trump was going to be president and you can read about it by buying their book which has been mass-marketed at evangelical churches since 2015. Those evangelicals are required by God to do all they can to protect Trump as president, even when he repeatedly says and does un-godly things. They have sold their souls to defend Donald Trump but deflect attention from it by claiming it is the forces of darkness (Satan, demons, the Deep State, the Never-Trumpers, the Democrats, liberals…) who are trying to usurp God’s chosen one by unconstitutionally taking the presidency away from Trump. It doesn’t matter if he colluded with the Russians, or that he obstructed justice, or that he treats women badly, they want everyone to acknowledge that Trump was hand-picked by God…their God…the God of the Protestant (preferable King James) Bible. If the Russians helped get Trump elected, it’s because God wanted it that way.

It has come down to the people who carry a bible also carry a torch for Trump. They make up about 30% of the population. There is another 5% that claim they are ambivalent about Trump.

The other 65% of us are the people who oppose what Trump is doing to our country and to the image of the United States around the world. When Trump’s actions and language encourage a shooting gallery type atmosphere, travel to this country from anywhere will dry up. When he encourages the use of torture by terrorizing little kids in order to stop their parents from seeking amnesty, looking for safety or work in this country, no one will want to come here anymore. Is that what Trump thinks is best for the United States, complete ostracization from the world? At the rate people are being gunned down from sea to shining sea, most countries prudently list the U.S. as a rather dangerous place in which to travel and the Travel and Tourism Advisory Board reported that from 2018 to 2019 there had been a 17% drop in people seeking to vacation in the U.S. Get ready for that number to plunge dramtically this year.

And it’s Trump’s rhetoric that is accelerating people getting murdered. His words have definitely brought people together: the most violent white people imaginable doing the most violent things imaginable in the most violent way imaginable, and it nurtures an atmosphere of hatred where those violent people cause battlefield-type casualties because the president uses battlefield-type language to describe people he just doesn’t like. Yet Cabinet members are still too afraid to confront Trump, even though his rhetoric and inflammatory language are being quoted by mass murderers because those cabinet members have deluded themselves into thinking Trump hasn’t really done enough to warrant removal from office. So more Americans must needlessly die thanks to cowards in high places.

Angela Merkel's Reaction to Trump's Latest Rant

Just imagine if this happened as the world responds to America’s Buffoon-in-Chief.

Former British Prime Minister Theresa May called Donald Trump’s tweets against U.S. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar “completely unacceptable.” Incoming Prime Minister Boris Johnson echoed May’s sentiment that this is not how world leaders act with his own observation that “If you are the leader of a great multiracial, multicultural society, you simply cannot use that kind of language.” UK Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn brooked no semantic games and straight-up called Trump a racist. Canada’s Justin Trudeau told reporters “That’s not how we do things in Canada.” Many more voices were raised against Trump’s screed, from New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, and the European Council. Every day more world leaders express their revulsion over Trump's remarks.

Now German Chancellor Angela Merkel has become the latest to condemn Donald Trump for tweeting and then telling four young Democratic Congresswomen to “go back to your country” while tacitly approving of his sycophants at a Greenville, NC rally to chant “send her back” for a full 15 seconds. Merkel revealed she opposed the sentiments…but for an entirely different reason.

“No, this needs to stop,” Merkel said outside the German Chancellory, “there should be no more of this sending them back talk. Do you realize that if this spreads, those opposed to Trump will demand he go back to where his family is from? I know he told reporters that his father was from Germany, but this is Donald Trump. He lies. His father was born in New York so that is where he should go back to. His grandfather Friedrich Drumpf, however, was born in Kallstadt, Bavaria in 1869. That means people might start demanding that Trump be sent back here.”

          At this point, a look of disgust swept over Ms. Merkel’s face. She then shook violently, took a deep breath, and almost hissed “We don’t want him here. The German people do not want to have any association with Donald Trump. That would be an additional disaster for us to have to contend with. Our past is tainted by tyrants. We have been bled to death by the decisions of those men. But now we are a peaceful country. We have learned to live with others on this planet. We don’t need Trump’s divisiveness, empty promises, and self-centeredness. Donald Trump is America’s problem.”  

          Just imagine if it was possible to send Trump back to Germany like he thinks those four Congresswomen should go back to the country their ancestors left. What kind of chaos would ensue? While I don’t know about conditions in the various countries where the four women’s ancestors lived I would bet that any of them would be welcomed by the people of that country as well as they are welcomed by the constituents they represent in their home states. But the Germans clearly no more want Trump in their country than a majority of Americans want him here. We have to get him out of office, arrest him, try him for the crimes he has already admitted to, and see to it he spends the rest of his life in an orange jumpsuit behind bars. His wealth and power do not put him above the law and they are not "get out of jail free" cards.

Angela Merkel would be right. Only Americans can do anything about a president who defies our courts, who replaces people around him with only “yes-men” and “yes-women” to provide cover for him while he enriches himself  at our expense, who lies about anything as he goes along, who approves of foreign leaders killing Americans or legal residents of the U.S., who was having sex with an adult film star and a Playboy model a year after marrying his third wife and just after the birth of his fifth child then covered it up with Michael Cohen’s help in order to get elected, and a man who is laughed at and denigrated by the rest of the world as confirmed by the former UK ambassador’s private email exchanges, and at the UN last September. That is why we have the 25th amendment, to remove a person who has proven to be morally and mentally unfit to hold the office of President of the United States.

George Washington weighs in on the Trump presidency