GOP candidate Donald Trump has been condemned by just about every politician from both parties at all levels of government since he suggested closing the U.S. to all Muslim immigrants until the officials can get a handle on the Islamic terror threat. Meanwhile, his supporters are rallying.
“We’re at war — get it through your head,” Trump said Tuesday on CNN in response to his critics.
But his critics haven’t backed down, even after the candidate repeatedly stressed that his moratorium on Muslim immigrants would be only temporary while the federal government gets ISIS under control.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest on Tuesday called Trump a “carnival barker” who should be disqualified from running for president, along with any GOP candidate who doesn’t denounce his remarks.
And, at least among the political class, the GOP has largely agreed with Earnest’s assertion. House Speaker Paul Ryan said Trump’s remarks go against what the party stands for. Jeb Bush called him “unhinged.”
But what Republican National Committee chair Reince Priebus had to say about Trump’s remarks is probably most worth examining.
“I don’t agree,” Priebus said. “We need to aggressively take on radical Islamic terrorism but not at the expense of our American values.”
Here’s an interesting tidbit from a poll recently released by the Public Religion Research Institute:
Americans’ perceptions of Islam have turned more negative over the past few years. Today, a majority (56%) of Americans agree that the values of Islam are at odds with American values and way of life, while roughly four in ten (41%) disagree. In 2011, Americans were divided in their views of Islam (47% agreed, 48% disagreed).
Republicans can denounce Trump’s remarks all they want. But their largely white, mostly Christian voter base is going to keep listening to him.
The proof is in the numbers.
A new USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll released Tuesday revealed that even if the GOP establishment successfully ends Trump’s White House bid, an astounding 68 percent of his supporters would vote for him as an independent. Eighteen percent said they wouldn’t, and the rest were undecided.
That poll was conducted before Trump’s remarks Monday. But when half of Americans “agree that the values of Islam are at odds with American values and way of life,” it’s hard to believe that anyone would agree with Priebus that Trump is the bigger threat to American values.
And while the American political left is going to continue comparing Trump to Adolf Hitler, a Jimmy Carter comparison would be far more apt.
Remember the Iranian hostage crisis? At its height, Carter barred all Iranians from entering the U.S. unless they opposed the Shiite Islamist regime or had a medical emergency.
“[T]he Secretary of Treasury [State] and the Attorney General will invalidate all visas issued to Iranian citizens for future entry into the United States, effective today. We will not reissue visas, nor will we issue new visas, except for compelling and proven humanitarian reasons or where the national interest of our own country requires. This directive will be interpreted very strictly,” Carter said in 1980.
In addition, the Carter administration began a thorough campaign to deport Iranian students who had overstayed their visas.
The move, aimed at protecting American lives, was not very controversial at the time. And it’s a fair wager that, if carried out sensibly and diplomatically, Trump’s plan wouldn’t be either.
Some would argue that Trump’s plan is different because it bars members of a religious group. But it’s important to remember that it is the religious group responsible for the Earth’s only modern theocracies and one hell-bent on world Islamic rule.
It’s also a religious group with a long history of disdain for American values. If it weren’t racist to acknowledge anything about Thomas Jefferson other than his slave ownership, perhaps more people would know that.
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