Ilhan Omar is a citizen of the United States, like it or not.
This congresswoman from Minneapolis is also "endowed with certain inalienable rights" by virtue of being human. The government of the United States was instituted to secure such rights. The president of the United States is the chief executive of that government.
Wednesday night, President Donald Trump egged on and basked in a chant at one of his political rallies. The mob chanted "Send her back" after Trump denounced Omar, whose family legally immigrated here when she was 10. This was a few days after the president declared Omar and three other U.S. citizens, who happen to be native born and also members of Congress, should go back to the countries they came from.
The quote from Sunday:
"So interesting to see 'Progressive' Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all), now loudly and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run. Why don't they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. 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 [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to quickly work out free travel arrangements!"
Perhaps, reader, you find Omar's politics abhorrent. Allow me to put that shoe on my foot. The political philosophy I believe to be abhorrent beyond all others is Nazism. They killed people who would not or could not leave, then sold the chemical byproducts of their corpses to offset the cost of killing them. Yet I never have and never will support the banishment of a Nazi for his or her political beliefs. Even a Nazi has rights, even though he would deny those rights to others if he had the power.
I was once asked to speak to a civic group shortly after Nazi sympathizers rallied in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017. I was asked what should be done to rein in hate speech. Nothing, I replied: "I want Nazis to have free speech. I want to know who the Nazis are."
If principle does not matter anymore, here is a dose of practical politics. If your party finds it politically useful to make a black Muslim immigrant woman the face of the opposition, try not to make a chanting, racist mob rallying for your party leader the face of yours.
As I have said before, people I know and respect voted for Trump in November 2016. They managed to convince themselves he might not be as bad as all that. Some thought responsible Republicans in Congress and his administration would steer him away from his worst impulses. That was then. This is now. Support him now and you know what you are doing.
This latest proof that there is no bottom started because these four freshman Democratic congresswomen known as "the Squad" criticized every other Democrat in the House for not being as unyielding as they are. Pelosi finally responded, publicly mocking their "movement" as four votes with a bunch of Twitter followers. A president with any sense would have let the Democrats have their spat.
Trump says Squad members say offensive things. Well, duh. These are four freshmen who managed to annoy their own party's House speaker. Zealous, new members of Congress from hyper-partisan districts often say dumb things. The president of the United States should not try to outdo them at it and then propose their banishment to countries most of them have never been in.
Every one of the Squad got elected from solidly safe Democratic districts. None of their races -- none -- contributed to the Democrat's 40-seat gain in the 2018 midterms. The Squad is the liberal version of the GOP's Freedom Caucus, only one-tenth the size.
The president swung at a gnat that was biting his biggest enemy. He hit himself. Inspiring this slap and then the openly loathsome, unAmerican rally Wednesday may be the most substantive thing the Squad has done yet for Democrats.
Commentary on 07/20/2019