Tuesday, August 6, 2019

Booker’s Racism Charge Against Trump’s ‘Go Back’ Rant is Rich


I usually avoid “whataboutism.” But sometimes it is relevant and called-for. In 'I thought our country was beyond that,’ says [New Jersey Senator and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Corey] Booker, condemning Trump rhetoric as racist, Jonathan D. Salant (NJ Advance Media for NJ.com) reported: 

“I thought our country was beyond that,” Booker said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “This reality is this is a guy who is worse than a racist. He’s actually using racist tropes and racial language for political gain. He’s trying to use this as a weapon to divide our nation against itself."

Booker was referring to Donald Trump’s “go back” harangue against four Democratic congresswomen (more on that later). 

I posted these comments, edited and expanded for clarity:

This is rich. Booker belongs to a political party in which racism is embedded in its ideological DNA, in the form of its collectivist group identity, including racial identity, politics. 

Furthermore, Booker just embraced slavery reparations. [Booker’s bill calls for a “study” of reparations. But give me a break.] Morally and logically, reparations are a form of restitution paid by the actual perpetrator of rights violations to his actual victims. But Booker’s reparations bill necessarily means forcing the transfer of wealth from innocent white people to non-victim black people—“to right the economic scales of past harms,” as Booker frames it. But the premise underpinning Booker’s reparations is that guilt and victimhood are transferred from generation to generation through the individual’s genetic lineage or bodily chemistry. That is biological determinism, the very definition of racism, which holds that a person’s character, ideas, actions, station, and moral standing is biologically determined and that the individual can never escape that biological legacy regardless of his personal morals, choices, or actions.

Booker’s charge against Trump is not entirely inaccurate, though not in the way he means. But if Trump’s comments are racist, he is merely ripping a page from the Democrats’ more polished and highbrow playbook. The Democrats’ collectivist “social justice” ethos—which disregards individual dignity and identifies all individuals by groups, pitting group against group regardless of the innocence or guilt of actual individuals—is the essence of dividing a nation, and the epitome of using race for political gain. 

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Exemplifying the Democrats’ collectivist/racist ethos, consider this from Rep. Ayanna Pressley:

"We don't need any more brown faces that don't want to be a brown voice. We don't need black faces that don't want to be a black voice. We don't need Muslims that don't want to be a Muslim voice. We don't need queers that don't want to be a queer voice."


In other words, you’re not an individual. You must tow the ideological line imposed by your group thought leaders.

For the record, I checked out Trump’s comments. Here they are in full:

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 Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to quickly work out free travel arrangements!

On these comments, Salant reported:

Trump was condemned by the Democratic-controlled House last week after he told four Democratic congresswomen, all women of color, to “go back” to where they came from.

Three of the four, Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, were born in the U.S. and the fourth, Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, was a naturalized American.

Trump nevertheless continued his attacks on the four lawmakers Sunday.

When he said:

I don’t believe the four Congresswomen are capable of loving our Country. They should apologize to America (and Israel) for the horrible (hateful) things they have said. They are destroying the Democrat [sic] Party, but are weak & insecure people who can never destroy our great Nation! 

Now consider further comments by Booker:

“The language he uses is actually tired old tropes that have been used by demagogues all throughout our country’s history,” Booker told CBS. “This president is yet another sad chapter. But what we’ve done all the time as Americans, black and white from different backgrounds, we’ve always joined together and beaten those demagogues, and and [sic] hate-mongers and fear-mongers. That’s where Donald Trump will be relegated.”

Reread the comments of both Booker and Trump, and then notice whose language injects race into the conversation. The Democratic-controlled House. Corey Booker. Not Donald Trump.

Trump’s comments are ridiculous. People (or their antecedents) come here to escape corrupt and oppressive countries and cultures, and America is better for it. It’s ridiculous to say they can’t criticize America's government unless they return to the place that they (or their ancestors) escaped from and fix those problems rather than speak their mind.

Trump’s premise reminds me of the turmoil of my youth. I initially supported the Vietnam War back in the 1960s. But I never agreed with the “love-it-or-leave-it” mantra that some on my side leveled against the anti-war activists. I’ve never bought into that tactic. 

Trump’s comments are uncalled-for. He should be countering the congresswomens’ arguments for “how our government is to be run” with intellectual arguments of his own. His response to these Democrats is ideological, in a shallow sort of way, but ultimately empty. And they are childish. And yes, they are offensive, and can even be characterized as demagogic. If someone told me to “Go back to Italy” from which my grandparents emigrated, I’d be furious. It may be that Trump is racist; a lot of people more knowledgeable than I, other than Leftists, think so. But Trump’s comments, in and of themselves, are clearly not racist. Racism belongs primarily to the other side, which “sees” racism where none exists or exaggerates the lingering racism that does exist. Race has become a major political tactic—an argument from intimidation—of the American Left. As proof, I give you the Democrats’ reaction to Trump’s inane comments.

Related Reading:



Racism
—Ayn Rand

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