Group Calls On GOP To Condemn Trump Tweet, Sign Petition
I received this email from Robert Weissman, president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen regarding President Trump’s anti-immigrant comments aimed at four new progressive women of color including U.S. Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (New York), Ilhan Omar (Minnesota), Rashida Tlaib (Michigan) and Ayanna Pressley (Minnesota).
I agree with Robert Weissman wholeheartedly and he has my support. I encourage you to read the email from him below and sign the included petition calling on the GOP to condemn the President’s insensitive and racially-charged tweet:
“Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.”
That was the message of Donald Trump’s racist tweet yesterday attacking four new progressive women of color members of Congress — U.S. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts.
Trump isn’t even saying the only “real” U.S. citizens are people who were born here — after all, three of the four congresswomen were born in the United States. He’s saying the only “real” citizens are white.
A message from the president that is so fundamentally racist, anti-immigrant, exclusionary and, yes, anti-American, demands a response.
And yet, virtually none of the GOP has condemned it.
Let’s stipulate that deeds matter more than words and that we must continue to fight against the spate of racist and anti-immigrant policies from this administration.
But words matter, too, especially from the president of the United States, and it’s important to consider and challenge the vileness of Trump’s remarks.
First, a vicious anti-immigrant, xenophobia defines this statement.
There is a lot of cruelty wrapped up in Trump’s short statement — the idea that immigrants should “go back” if they don’t like America, the obliviousness to the dangers in some countries from which immigrants flee, the duty of America to provide asylum, the presumption that all countries with brown and black people are “broken,” the dehumanizing rhetoric of a crime “infestation” and more.
Second, Trump spews the unconscionably racist view that people of color are not, essentially, American.
Only one of the four women Trump is targeting were born outside of the United States.
But far more significant is Trump’s idea that people of color don’t really belong in this country — for that is exactly what he means. Let that sink in.
Third, Trump’s views are fundamentally anti-American, or least with the best of the American tradition.
The idea that immigrants or nonwhite people are not American and owe their loyalty to someone else is contrary to the Constitution and contrary to the best of the American ideal, and draws on the worst white nationalist strains in our country’s history.
Equally anti-American is the idea that those who criticize the country are against it, rather than trying to make it better, or that dissent itself is anti-American.
Fourth, Trump’s hypocrisy reveals not just his white supremacist views, but his dangerously fascistic personality and worldview.
It is not true that Trump believes there is anything wrong with criticizing America, since he does it all the time.
What Trump does believe is that there is something wrong with criticizing him.
That’s a worldview consistent with fascism, which brooks no criticism of the Great Leader.
And when the GOP stays silent against this backdrop, it is propelling these anti-American worldviews that threaten the very fabric of this country.
Tell the GOP to take a stand against Trump’s racism, fascism and xenophobia.
Thank you for speaking up in defense of our values,
Robert Weissman
President, Public Citizen