Post-Debate Sept 18^th

Before the 2008 Presidential election a woman talking to Senator McCain called then Senator Obama an “Arab.” McCain took back the microphone and said , “No ma’am; he is a good American with whom I have some political differences.” Now when someone calls President a Muslim in a Donald Trump event, what happens? Trump screws up his face in his standard knowing pout and nods his head. What a difference eight years has made. Then the questioner followed up by asking what Trump planned to do about “all of these Muslim camps that want to kill us.” Trump again rose to the occasion by saying that as President he would look into it. Later another fan commented that farmers were being charged for pasturing their cattle on BLM (public) lands. I suppose these folks believe anyone has the right to cut timber, mine coal or perhaps even sell public land for their personal benefit. They don’t!

Humans have a long and sordid history of “demonizing the other.” The tendency might well be genetic. The enemy in war is always pictured as savage, brutish and not at all like us. Newcomers in residential neighborhoods are often viewed with suspicion particularly if they look different or have different customs. Having a black President is more than many people can tolerate, so he has to be presented as not only black but very different otherwise, a Muslim and probably not eligible to be President because he wasn’t even born in America

This failure of citizenship was pushed by Trump before, and this in spite of the President releasing his birth certificate, so it’s no surprise that Trump’s still coy about discussing it. Now he says that he has other things to talk about but he hasn’t recanted his skepticism about President Obama’s citizenship.

On the Muslim front remember that one poll finds that 43 percent of Republicans actually believe President Obama is a Muslim, that’s 57 percent of Trump supporters. Having failed to counter this questioner’s notion that The President is a Muslim, Trump is in a pickle. Perhaps this time he will need to regroup; he has cancelled an appearance because his people say he has an important business deal in the works. (Why of course he does.) His problem is obvious: if he claims that Obama is not a Muslim he risks losing those 43 percent of Republicans who say he is a Muslim; but if he continues to allow questioners to claim the President is a Muslim without objecting, he could lose the support of the 57 percent who claim they don’t know, or claim that he is a Christian. Poor Donald, no wonder he needs to think about this a bit. (Trump’s excuse for not answering the guy who claimed the President was a Muslim has just surfaced; Trump says that he didn’t hear what the man said. I don’t believe that dog will hunt!)