OPINION – Donald Trump insults an entire race of people and his popularity increases.
He insults one old, white man, and his bid for the presidential nomination is on the rocks.
What does this say about racism in the United States?
Trump fired a low-trajectory volley of ignorance when, in announcing his intention to seek the Republican Party’s nomination to run for the Presidency, he steeped his campaign on immigration, aiming his sights south of the border.
“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best; they’re not sending you,” Trump said during his announcement speech. “They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
I know some good and decent conservatives, long-standing members of the Republican Party who, I am sure, he does not represent.
However, the billionaire real estate mogul picked up momentum for his campaign, even when he refused to back down from his statements, insisting, instead, that they “were correct.”
He lost a few bucks when sponsors and those who carry his line of products severed ties, but that’s about all. And, it didn’t seem to bother his supporters when it was pointed out that his complaints about U.S. jobs being shipped overseas were hollow because, well, items of his clothing line have consistently been made in China, Vietnam, and, you guessed it, Mexico.
But, when he took a potshot at Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, the foundation of the house that Trump built began to crumble.
“He’s not a war hero,” Trump said at Saturday’s Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa. “He’s a war hero because he was captured.”
He poured kerosene on the flames when he added, “I like people that weren’t captured.”
The Family Leadership Summit was a day-long gathering of approximately 3,000 social conservative activists.
The comments drew immediate censure from the other GOP candidates, as well as the Republican National Committee, which also criticized Trump and defended McCain.
“Senator McCain is an American hero because he served his country and sacrificed more than most can imagine. Period,” RNC Chief Strategist and Communications Director Sean Spicer said in a statement. “There is no place in our party or our country for comments that disparage those who have served honorably.”
Now, politically, I am a world apart from McCain. I can’t think of a single issue we agree on.
However, I would never disparage McCain’s military record.
McCain was aboard the USS Forrestal on July 29, 1967, when a Zuni rocket was accidentally discharged from under the wing of an F-4B Phantom II fighter. The accident resulted in multiple explosions and fire aboard the aircraft carrier. There were 134 men killed and 161 more injured in the incident. McCain sustained injuries in his legs and chest from fragments created by the explosion.
Three months later, while flying his 23rd bombing mission over North Vietnam, his A-4E Skyhawk was shot down over Hanoi.
McCain fractured both arms and a leg when he ejected from the aircraft, nearly drowned when he landed in Truc Bach Lake, had his shoulder crushed when a North Vietnamese soldier struck him with a rifle butt, and suffered a bayonet stab wound.
He received treatment in a Vietnamese hospital, then was taken to the Hoa Lo Prison, nicknamed the Hanoi Hilton, where he was a prisoner of war enduring 5 ½ years of torture.
Trump’s comments about McCain were clearly out of line and deserving of the chastisement he has received at the hands of the RNC and other presidential hopefuls.
But, so were his disparaging remarks about Mexico and its people.
There are some who think the whole Trump campaign is a joke.
In fact, the liberal news aggregator, The Huffington Post, decided late last week that all future coverage of Trump’s campaign would be relegated to its entertainment section, which really did little except hold the HuffPost’s credibility to a harsher light. Trump, like him or not, is a legitimate candidate and should be covered as such.
And, as a legitimate candidate, his words and actions are subject to the deepest scrutiny and vetting.
Which is why it is so disconcerting that this guy’s racists comments have not scuttled him in the public’s eye.
In late May, 65 percent of Republicans viewed him unfavorably. However, after officially jumping into the race and making his anti-Mexico statements, a whopping 57 percent of Republicans had a favorable view of him, according to Washington Post-ABC News polls.
That’s a heck of a flip that can only be attributed to Trump’s racist spewing.
The greater population, thankfully, has a dim view of this guy, with 61 percent finding him unfavorable while 33 percent find him favorable.
We’ve got a long way to go – about 16 months – before we cast our ballots for a new president and, as we have seen, the early numbers don’t always hold through the campaign.
And, as somebody rooted on the other end of the whacky political spectrum, I should be happy to see how these early numbers are falling, but I’m not.
I would like to see a viable, respectable contender emerge from the Republican ranks, one who can stimulate thought and debate; one who could engage us; one who, even if my candidate loses, I can still be proud of instead of a guy who would ride a wave of hate and racism into the Oval Office.
We deserve better.
The world deserves better.
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- Republican county chair: Don’t be afraid of tough political debates; STGeorge News Videocast
- Opinion: Are Republicans prepared to govern?
Ed Kociela is an opinion columnist. The opinions stated in this article are his and not representative of St. George News.
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @STGnews, @EdKociela
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2015, all rights reserved.
You’re right on, Ed. Trump’s campaign is all about his ego and personal publicity. And he’s dead wrong about illegal immigrants and crime. Immigrants are underrepresented in our prisons. In California where immigrants constitute 35% of the adult population, they constitute 17% of prison inmates. http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/jtf/JTF_ImmigrantsCrimeJTF.pdf
Trump is playing to stereotypes foisted onto those ready to believe the worst about others who “aren’t like them.”
Of course they’re under-represented in California prisons, they aren’t prosecuted! They get a free pass because of their race or status. THAT is racism. So much for justice being blind. The California stats are completely meaningless. According to the U.S. Sentencing Commission (nationwide, direct from the source, http://www.ussc.gov/research-and-publications/annual-reports-sourcebooks/2014/sourcebook-2014) illegal immigrants made up 36.7% of federal prosecutions in 2014 even though they only make up 3.5% of the population. Illegal immigrants represented 16.8 percent of drug trafficking cases, 20.0 percent of kidnapping/hostage taking, 74.1 percent of drug possession, 12.3 percent of money laundering, and 12.0 percent of murder convictions. You’re right, they’re model citizens. Let’s make it easier to understand: illegal immigrants are 4.8 times more likely to sell drugs, 5.7 times more likely to kidnap, 21.1 times more likely to possess drugs, 3.5 times more likely to launder money, and 3.4 times more likely to commit murder. Wanting our borders secure has NOTHING to do with racism, and everything to do with law enforcement and common sense. We are a nation of laws, after all. Or at least we used to be.
Brian, this is one of those rare times where you and I completely agree.
BRIAN, I bow to your superior source. I wasn’t able to find a table with the exact percentages you quote above but the ones I found certainly illustrated your point. Thanks for the better source.
Brian’s reporting from the US sentencing report is misleading and seems to be taken straight from the Trump campaign. The federal report he references divides between US citizens and non-US citizens but nowhere in the table does it say that the non-US citizens are illegal. Even Prof. Jonathan Turley has noted that fact. Non-citizens may be legal permanent residents, legal residents on visas, etc. There is no data on illegal immigrants in that report at all so it makes no sense to quote it as pertaining to illegal immigrants.
One especially startling statistic quoted by Brian (and others on blogs) is the claim of 74% of drug possessions by illegal immigrants. Really? How come every picture I see in the paper of drug possessions are young white people? The answer: the report is about FEDERAL prosecutions, the ones where the bad guys get caught with huge caches of drugs. Those are federal prosecutions, and we all know that the drug cartels are behind them. To infer that 75% of all drug possessions are by illegal immigrants is incorrect.
In other words, using statistics from that report is meaningless as far as the average illegal immigrant is concerned.
Let’s be more careful with bandying about so-called “statistics” about ethnic groups in the US. We need to go after the bad guys, period, and not lump people all together as criminals.
Where do you think US citizens and legal non-citizens get their drugs from? The original source is illegals carrying them across our ridiculously porous southern border. Secure the border. It has nothing to do with race.
Well written and well documented. Score a big 10 for Brian.
Guess you missed my comment, Mesaman. Brian’s post was copied from some blog posting. That’s why Big Guy couldn’t find the same numbers because they are not in the document that Brian claimed. I looked at the original document as well. Brian’s “documentation” does not support the assertions he made.
And your source of information? Show your credentials, present your evidence for our perusal, or take an aspirin and try to understand; all we have, at this point is you opinion.
My source of information, Mesaman, is the report that Brian included as a link in his post. If you actually click on his link you will see that there is no mention whatsoever of illegal immigrants in the documentation tables, just like I said. The tables refer to citizen or non-citizen, and, as you know there are millions of non-citizens in the US who legal. They are not illegal immigrants. They have legal status. This is not rocket science, you just have to look at the tables in the report.
Brian also ignored the fact that the report is FEDERAL offenses, not state or local. Brian asserts that illegal immigrants make up “74.1 percent of drug possession”. Those are the FEDERAL crimes which are all about the cartels running drugs and getting stopped on I-15 with huge drug caches. It has nothing to do with the vast majority of illegal immigrants.
And now my one opinion, I would guess that more than 90% of ALL drug possession crimes are committed by whites. Just look at the pics of the folks incarcerated in Purgatory. Have a nice day.
I’m sure you mean well and hope to score an uptick in your commentary by those you think would agree, but your interpretation might be faulty. It could be correct, but I would question your reality testing ability. My advice; “don’t believe everything you think.”
OK, here is another source from Texas, that just came out yesterday: http://pjmedia.com/jchristianadams/2015/07/22/alien-crime-wave-in-texas-611234-crimes-2993-murders/?singlepage=true
The report covers 2008 – 2014. During that time Texas identified 177,588 unique criminal alien defendants (NOT just huge drug traffickers, these are the whole group), and that group committed 2,993 murders during that time frame. So 1.685% of those illegal immigrants were murderers.
In 2013 Texas had a population of 26.51 million, and 1,151 murders. So 0.0043% of those in Texas are murderers.
The takeaway in Texas: Illegal immigrants are 388 times more likely to COMMIT MURDER than the average Texan. Far, far worse than the national average, and way worse than I would have guessed. And yet the federal government still insists on letting them go, and even giving them amnesty and tons of money to come back to the US to testify against our border patrol agents. Secure the freaking border already!
Brian’s “source” for his latest claims about illegal immigrants is from the Drudge report. It comes from an unreleased report so it cannot be verified in any way for starters. It likely leaves out some important statistics.
Brian then takes the numbers and concludes that Illegal immigrants are then 388 times more likely to commit murders than the average Texan. What Brian did not account for is that each murderer likely committed more than one murder which drops his “388” quite dramatically. The “report” says “over the lifetime of their careers”. In other words, Brian’s numbers are way over- inflated.
I am not here to defend illegal immigration. I want the borders secure too (and I believe the Senate passed a border security bill that the House ignored) but I do not think it is helpful to create Trump-like drama against a whole population that for the most part is law-abiding.
Brian, I want to state again that I agree with your original point. I think that we need to kick the illegals out and prevent them from coming back in unless its through the proper channels but I don’t see how you can do it and not have Republicans up in arms over the federal gov’t expanding under President Obama. I’d have to do tons more research her but my high level hypothesis is that, in order to successfully “secure” our southern border, we would have to hire 100s if not 1000s more border patrol agents at a cost of billions of dollars. Now I don’t know where you’ve been but it seems to me that so-called conservatives in both the house and senate have resisted government expansion in this way since Obama took office but they were all for it when Bush 2 was in the chair (Think TSA, Homeland Security, Patriot Act, ect.) My question is, How do you propose to do it?
Karen, FYI, Drudge isn’t a “source” for anything, he just links to other sources. No, we don’t have direct access to the Texas report, yet. And no, the analysis isn’t perfect. But even if it’s 1/10th of that it’s mind boggling. The vast majority of Texan’s can tell you how much damage illegals are causing. My liberal sister in Arizona feels way stronger about illegal immigration than I do, because she sees it every day. I’m all for immigration and the melting pot, but these are illegals that aren’t melting (integrating) and are just bringing pot (not all, obviously). I welcome guests that come to my house, but people coming through the window at 2 AM aren’t guests, they’re intruders.
I don’t need sources and I don’t need to read any studies to know that illegal immigration causes crime. It doesn’t matter if illegal immigrants commit 10% ,20% or 100% of the crimes, if they weren’t here, then none of the %’s would actually exist. Trump also never said anything racist….he may be brash but he certainly isn’t racist.
Exactly. Apparently Karen’s is too bone headed to get this. “How come every picture I see in the paper of drug possession are white people?” Really? Are you that stupid? Look again, and then look at the demographics of southern Utah. When you are done, go look at the bookings in Phoenix or L.A. The bottom line is they are ILLEGAL. What part of ILLEGAL don’t you get? It’s against the LAW for them to even be here in the first place, let alone breaking the law. If just one commits a crime, that’s too many. Now you have a nice day, and do yourself a favor and read something useful. Maybe something about the current state of affairs in California. How they are bankrupt, waterless, and up to their eyeballs with ILLEGALS. I have a sneaking suspicion you have spent a lot of time there.
This is typical of some of the commenters here. Instead of looking at the actual data which Brian very kindly supplied with a link, it is ignored with “I don’t need any sources”. And then they resort to name-calling and yelling in capital letters like The Donald himself. Quite funny, actually.
Since this article is about Donald Trump, I am very much enjoying watching his spectacle of a campaign and looking forward to seeing him on the debate stage. I hope he lasts that long.
This may make you tremble in anger, but whether Trump becomes the GOP candidate for president or not, it will not be determined by those who agree or don’t here in St George, America. So cheer or jeer till your fingers ache, won’t change a thing.
Another cogent point by professor baby smacker
😉
Something you liberals used to say during the Obama campaign that I’m going to use now. “Trump’s here to stay. Get used to it.” I think what I like most about Trump is that people like you despise him.
mrs smith you got it all wrong, trump is a worm for the left wingers and he is tearing apart the gop from the inside out, the fact that the gop has 17 different people running, means the gop is grasping for straws in order to get at least one decent candidate for primaries.
you are totally disillusioned, if you think trump (a draft dodger that had his way paid out) will become el presidente
What exactly do I have wrong here? The fact that Trump is here to stay or my feelings of joy when liberals like Ed feel the need to get their panties in a wad? As for the GOP, they have been a lost cause for the past 2 elections so why bother with thinking that they are going to drum up something worth voting for. I think you are the one disillusioned.
You must be a retired member of the CIA/National Security/Secret Service and a friend of 007. Where on earth did you get all this confidential intelligence and yet choose to live in a GOP state and an even more GOP county. Whining in the news was rare until your ilk moved in.
Oh, geez, another “if you don’t like it, leave,” remark from the distinguished college professor.
I would be more than willing to help you pack. As they say in Utah’s Dixie, “y’all come back now, heah”. I hope that isn’t too descriptive for youl
You get more ridiculous by the comment, MM.
+1 for MRSMITH
It’s not racist to state the fact that these illegals are pushing the country to the breaking point. Something should have been done years ago to stem the tide. Now there’s so many of them camped out here it may be too late. Idiot mexican gov’t sets free the worst drug lord in history. what does this tell us about the culture they bring with them? All this diversity crap has been thrown in our faces for too long. Has NOTHING to do with race– these illegals are breaking the law!
According to this morning’s Christian Science Monitor, Trump’s figures didn’t drop because of his comment about McCain. The country seems to be ready for the new Jackass Party.
I like to listen to Trump, it is great comic relief.
His quote about veterans was stupid. However, when did it become racist to be anti ILLEGAL? Following the LAW is bigotry? Now that is stupid.
Simple fact. The longer Trump stays in, the more it helps the Dems. If he goes third party might as well inaugurate Hillary right now.
Trump is a bomb thrower but even reckless bombs hit their mark. Last night he said illegals are treated better than vets and I’m sad to say there’s some truth in that bomb.
Even when you agree with him it’s a bomb. Now that is true liberal hypocrisy.
Is it like smacking a baby in a crib and not getting satisfaction from it? How do you even think about something like that Mesa? Is it a LDS thing?
I have the same question, 42214…
Maybe it’s a LSD thing
Can you teach auto shop and be called a professor?
Somehow you seem to be fixated on the smacking the baby comment. I was attempting to suggest my feeling that you were unable to compete in a war of words. It is encouraging, for you, to know 421/2 wants to be your buddy.
I associate “smacking a baby” with a pedophile or a child abuser. Do you just have a perverted sense of humor or are we on to something here. I assume from your rantings that you’re LDS so it seems like a logical question. Which is it, bad sense of humor or something much more sinister?
I suppose a liberal, the a prisoner’s number, could construe and twist and contort any thing their little cognitive processes could conceive, but the unfortunate results are still nothing but hysterical confabulation. And, 421/2 what is with the auto shop. Me thinks stupidity fell on you.
You’re such a presumptuous old fool. Prison number? Liberal? You stereotype anyone who isn’t a religious zealot a non-American liberal. Fool Isn’t a strong enough adjective for you.
You are still the more stupid of the two of us. Prove me wrong. Write something intelligent.
MM…you made the baby-smacking comment. Now you’re mad at everyone who mentions it. Why don’t you sit quietly under your rock for a few hours and think about that. Ask yourself why people might be bothered by such a terrible image – it doesn’t matter what you were “attempting to suggest”…it’s still a terrible image that leads the rest of us to wonder about you. And you tell other people to write something intelligent? Look in the mirror, pal.
I’ll just keep quiet and let you prove how stupid you are. You don’t need my help, you do a great job by yourself.
Trump is like a sparkler on the fourth of July. He’s going to make Ross Perot look like a long distance runner. However, in the process, maybe he’ll push the bazillion republican candidates out of their comfort zones and they’ll actually have to talk about something substantial.
I believe Trump’s popularity comes from the fact that he is NOT a politician. Americans have become so tired of the same old song and dance from the politicians. They blame the other party or their predecessor for all the problems in this country. When Obama took office and started blaming all the country’s problems on Bush 2, I remember yelling at the television “We didn’t elect you to tell us who or what caused the problem, we elected you to FIX IT! Now FIX IT!” See how far that went….
Too many people vote for a particular candidate as a way to vote against another one. The problem with that is that the winning candidate doesn’t see that he was the lesser of 2 evils, he just believes that he is the popular one or that the people believe he has the answers. WRONG! We’re all sick of narcissistic politicians who are all so c…sure that they don’t see that their behavior is exactly what we’re sick of!
And a narcissistic media thug is an improvement? Trump is a master politician, don’t kid yourself.
Round ’em up / ship ’em home, anchor babies and all!
Donald Trump for President.!!! he couldn’t do any worse than that idiot that’s in there now….. and besides that Donald is funny
The way you secure the border: 1) Choose politicians that have a 100%, unwavering, life-long commitment to doing it. No one else. I don’t care what letter comes after their name (I’m a lifelong conservative that despises the GOP). 2) You create jobs across the company by creating a steel and / or concrete fence design (that’s best left to the engineers, not the politicians) that can be built off-site and trucked it. Each piece is lowered into a deep trench (the deeper the better, to prevent tunneling) and then welded to the one next to it. This isn’t a “virtual” fence or a pretend one, this is the kind you see in Jurassic Park. (You bury corrupt politicians in the pit before you back fill) 3) For the installation, you use our full-time military (it is, after all, their job to keep our nation safe from outside forces). They have the labor, they have the equipment, and they’re already getting paid. This is just their deployment. And they can protect each other while they work (this is the border, after all). 4) Vibration sensors, thermal sensors, and cameras protect the fence itself, to prevent damage (which given the robust nature of the fence would take a while). 5) This takes precedence over the left-handed pink-spotted hoot owl, the green-nosed flat fish, and whatever bull crap the left comes up with. Eminent domain is also used (and properly, I might add) to make sure property rights from the right don’t get in the way. This is national security we’re talking about.
More idiocy out of you. The solution isn’t a fence you idiot, the solution is political, since the politics of today basically welcome in illegals with open arms. The solution is punishing employers who hire the illegals, because today employers are nearly rewarded for doing so. When the illegals learn that they aren’t welcome or wanted they’ll start to pack up and head home. And it doesn’t help any that so many gringos love them mexican cartel supplied drugs so much. This fence nonsense is more loony hard right radio you’ve been listening to…