I was disgusted — almost sick to my stomach — when I saw the Republican Presidential nominee, barely 24 hours after the most despicable, largest mass murder in our nation’s history, use the tragedy to exploit our divisions and attack his political opponents and the President of the United States in a most scurrilous manner.
With victims of the cowardly terror-hate attack still in serious condition and with the loved ones and friends of those who were mowed down still grieving, I vowed not to comment on the almost sacrilegious words of a maniac named Donald Trump.
But I don’t have to break that vow — at least not to the extent I would like to.
The Editors of the Washington Post, one of the nation’s largest and most reputable newspapers, whose press credentials Trump has revoked for daring to report the truth, have done it for me and so much better than I ever could.
It had not seemed possible, but Donald Trump descended this week to a new low of bigotry, fear-mongering and conspiracy-peddling. Republican leaders who said last week that they expected a change in tone after Mr. Trump’s racist attacks on a California judge quickly received their answer. What can House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) or Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) possibly say now?
As the country mourned the wanton slaughter of 49 people early Sunday, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee took a victory lap, hinted darkly that President Obama is an enemy of the nation, libeled American Muslims and, in grotesque punctuation, finished up with a vindictive attack on the media .
“Appreciate the congrats for being right on radical Islamic terrorism,” he tweeted. “I don’t want congrats,” he continued, as though that were not exactly what he wanted, “I want toughness & vigilance.” Mr. Trump may have calculated that a suddenly anxious electorate would be more receptive to his campaign of fear and prejudice, emotions he immediately attempted to inflame.
The Editors describe how Trump “painted a false picture of a nation infiltrated by waves of unscreened Muslim refugees and immigrants, who, abetted by Democrats, are destroying American values and threatening the public…[A]mong other things chillingly [accusing] Muslim Americans of complicity with terrorists…”
The Editors continue with something that “shouldn’t have to be repeated, but [which] Mr. Trump makes it necessary”:
Most American Muslims are as patriotic and law-abiding as most American Christians, Jews and Hindus. Many have fought for and are fighting for the United States in dangerous theaters far away. To generalize as Mr. Trump does about “the Muslims” is to set the nation down a dangerous road it has trod, to its eventual regret, in the past: banning Chinese immigrants a century ago, rounding up U.S. citizens and noncitizens of Japanese descent in the 1940s, expelling “wetbacks” a decade later.
The Washington Post Editors then comment on Trump’s “poisonous speculation” about the President’s and Hillary Clinton’s motives, “[raising] suspicion…that Mr. Obama wants terrorists to strike the United States, or at least looks the other way as they scheme.”
The Editors quote Trump’s attack on the President: “We’re led by a man that either is not tough, not smart or has something else in mind. And the something else in mind — people can’t believe it. People cannot believe that President Obama is acting the way he acts and can’t even mention the words ‘radical Islamic terrorism.’ There’s something going on,’” and they quote Trump’s adviser Roger Stone’s claim that Clinton’s top aide, Huma Abedin, “might be ‘a terrorist agent.’”
After mentioning how Trump “capped a day of assaulting fundamental liberal democratic values by announcing he would ban Post reporters from covering his campaign events…” the Washington Post Editors conclude:
Before the Orlando shooting, Beltway analysts speculated about how a terrorist attack might affect the presidential election. Now we know at least part of the answer: Mr. Trump would reveal himself more clearly than ever as a man unfit to lead.
Now, to hear even more powerful and inspiring words, please watch President Obama’s just concluded speech on “Radical Islam.”
The Democratic gloves are off, Mr. Trump, and about time!
Lead Image: The specter of a vulture occupying the White House hangs over the Nation’s House (my take) Cartoon by DonkeyHotey via Flickr
The author is a retired U.S. Air Force officer and a writer.