Monday, July 22, 2019

Powerline: "The Washington Post Pounces, Mindlessly"

I don't entirely agree with this, but I largely do. And the Twitter argument is pretty damn strong, given how readily Twitter bans conservatives:
  Trump’s remarks about the four were misinformed and unseemly, coming from a president, but they are not racist. Trump didn’t suggest that the four congressional rads leave America because of their race or national origin. He offered the suggestion because of their hatred, as he sees it (and I do too), for America.
   This couldn’t be clearer. There are other “minority lawmakers” who oppose Trump’s policies. He did not suggest, and has never suggested, that they leave America.
   But don’t take my word for it. Even Twitter didn’t consider Trump’s remarks racist. It found that they did not violate its policy against “hate speech,” much to the chagrin of the Post.
   The Post’s lead story is by Ashley Parker, Rachael Bade, and John Wagner, with “contributions” from Mike DeBonis and Felicia Sommez. It comes in at about three dozen paragraphs. A competent lefty blogger could have cranked it out, solo, in about an hour.
   Which of the three authors wrote that Trump’s remarks are “racist”? We don’t know.* The Post likes it that way. The less accountability, the better for the “Democracy dies in darkness” crew.
   The Parker-Bade-Wagner story isn’t the Post’s only attempt to smear Trump and the GOP over his comments about the four rads. The front page also features a tut-tutting article about how “Republicans [and] business ranks appear to shrug off [Trump’s] remarks.” (quotation from the headline in the paper edition)
   Well, they aren’t trying to build a religion around them, as the Post wants to. Nor should they be.
   On the inside pages, we’re treated to a reminder that “go home” has “long been flung at U.S. immigrants.” But Trump didn’t direct his “go home” statement at immigrants. He directed it at four public figures who, in his view (and mine) hate America. Only one of them is an immigrant.
   Trump’s statement isn’t from the anti-immigrant playbook. It’s from the “America, love it or leave it” playbook.
   This doesn’t mean his statement was appropriate, coming from the American president, but it does mean it wasn’t anti-immigrant. Trump is fine with immigrants as long as (1) they are here legally and (2) they don’t hate America. And only if the former condition isn’t met does he favor deportation.
Seems to me, for reasons I've already stated, that the comments were discrimatory with respect to immigration status. "Go somewhere else" is one thing; "go back to where you came from" is another. Though, needless to say, both are stupid.

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