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A Slip Twixt the Cup and the Lip? [Updated]
This is not good at all. President Trump unleashed a series of tweets that have cut short the story about Democrats self-destructing, making him and us the targets now. I don’t know how he’s going to dig himself out of his false claim that any of the “’Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen,” other than Ilhan Omar, came from another country.
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……
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 14, 2019
….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!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 14, 2019
They are, as they are happy to point out, “women of color,” so the race card is just too easy to play here. Indeed, President Trump knew this as he chided AOC and her “squad” for falsely accusing Nancy Pelosi of racism. Before he tweeted this Sunday, Maureen Dowd of The New York Times was attacking AOC for her false claims of racism, in a piece mockingly titled “Scaling Wokeback Mountain.” The AOC Squad was advocating “grabbing” power from the old leadership. They were busy self-destructing and President Trump had added fuel to the fire, saying “[Pelosi] is not a racist.” In doing so, the president was voicing the sensible middle of American thought.
The “Squad:” Reps. Ilhan Omar (Minn.), Ayanna Pressley (Mass.), Rashida Tlaib (Mich.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.)
Then he rolled out a variant of “go back where you came from.” This was a bad move. Had he only addressed Ilhan Omar (“she,” not “they”), he would be on very solid ground. Had he called out the others for loathing the country of their birth that had given them such advantages, including a path to become Congresswomen, he would have been preaching to the sensible center. Instead he created a mess.
He hates apologizing, but here he is going to have to clean up his own mess. Otherwise, he is going to lose reelection and hand the whole Congress to the Democrats. No matter how much he touts economic advances and criminal justice reform helping racial minorities, he has just made a vote for him toxic to suburban women and all the darker skinned ethnic groups he has actually dedicated his administration to helping.
Every member of the administration, every member of Congress, every state and local official, will be forced to denounce these tweets and President Trump for typing them. Time for him to show a skill he has not had to use, finding some way to turn this unforced blunder into a political win.
John Hinderaker calls this “A Blunder of Epic Proportions.” I’m not sure about the magnitude, but it certainly makes a tough reelection tougher. To get how bad the Democrats were doing before President Trump just helped them, see this: “Democrats Start to Worry.” Maureen Dowd was criticizing AOC. The “Squad” was split from Pelosi. PresidentTrump has put them back together, for now, with Pelosi defending the progressive congresswomen who had been attacking her.
When @realDonaldTrump tells four American Congresswomen to go back to their countries, he reaffirms his plan to “Make America Great Again” has always been about making America white again.
Our diversity is our strength and our unity is our power. https://t.co/ODqqHneyES
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) July 14, 2019
President Trump seems to recognize his blunder. He has already responded to responses in this way:
….and the many terrible things they say about the United States must not be allowed to go unchallenged. If the Democrat Party wants to continue to condone such disgraceful behavior, then we look even more forward to seeing you at the ballot box in 2020!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 15, 2019
The only fix, in our “Ronnie Raygun the nuclear cowboy,” “Bushitler” “pubic hair on Coke can” “high school rape” reality, is to go on offense. Yet, that offensive must be effective. Tucker Carlson was far more focused and careful in his attack on Ilhan Omar, not conflating any facts with the life stories of her allies in Congress. Perhaps President Trump should be tweeting something like this:
The other Progressive Democrat Congresswomen, who work together, aren’t in the same category as Ilhan Omar. While they all attack America and defend bad foreign governments, only Omar was born outside America…
All the other Progressive Democrat Congresswomen were blessed to be born here but show hate for our country and want to change America to be like the countries so many people are leaving to come here…
My mistake: the “Progressive Democrat Congresswomen” only sound like government mouthpieces from countries whose people these Democrats support more than our legal immigrants and long time American citizens who are ethnic minorities…
Sad, contempt for America is homegrown through our schools and media. The Progressive Democrat Congresswomen, except Congresswoman Omar, have contempt for the country of their birth and success, America. They should go to their hometowns and count the blessings of being born here.
I don’t say President Trump has thrown away the 2020 election. He continues to have strength among the “battle ground states,” with a diverse range of voters who “love him because he listens.” Indeed, there is growing bipartisan buzz that President Trump will be reelected. There is even talk of Democrats worrying about holding the House.
[Monday midday update]
To this end, President Trump has both worked and communicated tirelessly to win over voters who no Republican has ever really fought for in past elections. What do you think the president is doing when he reels off “best African-American employment rate ever, most Latinos, most women working ever?” Stop and really think on this: why does he recite these figures every week, virtually every time he steps in front of any microphone?
You will not get the obvious answer from conservative talk radio or pundits, entrenched in what has always worked for them with their audience. Indeed, Monday morning found talk show hosts pretending President Trump was only tweeting about one congresswoman (don’t believe your lying eyes), or waving it off as Trump being Trump (no big deal if he scratches an Archie Bunker itch), and after all the congresswomen had it coming. The messaging only reinforces core support while amplifying the old message that minorities don’t matter to Republican election plans. Contrast this response to Tucker Carlson getting fired up and hectoring the administration anytime he senses the president steering foreign policy towards the dreaded “neocons.”
Sadly, there is no public voice, besides the president, invested in expanding the electoral coalition, in confounding the Democrats’ plan for long term demographic dominance. President Trump has sought to do well by doing good for demographic groups long written off, taken for granted, by both parties. Now, as he seeks to close the deal, he has made a misstep with people who have never voted for a Republican before, but who he is striving to sell on himself.
I do say President Trump put words on virtual paper that will be rammed down every Republican’s throat. He needs to turn the conversation, again, and not in the good loser direction. Roll out a string of tweets like I suggest above and everyone can say “I don’t need to defend the President’s tweets; President Trump has corrected them completely.”
Published in Politics
I believe Pressley got lumped in with the others because there was the “Squad” of four challenging Pelosi before Trump even said a word. She joined the other three in their attempt at overthrowing Nancy. and whether Trump intended to include her or not is ambiguous. But they were the four.
Who says they couldn’t speak a word of English? And even so, you have to be able to speak English to be anti-American? What? Ever hear of Saccio and Venzetti? Ever hear of Puerto Rican FALN terrorist group? What difference does it make whether they speak English or not? Maybe it’s your defense that surprisingly not serious.
See, that’s the problem. There’s way too much hate from the left these days.
The nightmare continues. I agree fully with Jonathon V. Last who writes:
‘”Go back to your own country’ isn’t exactly a tape of Trump saying the N-word, but it’s in the same zip code. Maybe the same ballpark.
“And what’s happened?
“The Republican base has doubled down on him. Elected Republicans have stood with him, on the record. Approval numbers from Republican voters have increased.
“And the stigma of outright racism is evaporating everywhere.”
See https://thebulwark.com/the-cancer-is-spreading/
I also agree with Andrew Egger who writes:
“Republicans have always told themselves that despite Trump’s authoritarian impulses, he would never be able to act on them. The guardrails of democracy were too strong; the main body of the party would only let him stray so far.
“Ask yourself this: If congressional Republicans could not support a non-binding resolution condemning these remarks as racist, then what line could Trump cross that they would push back on, especially if pushing back was going to cost them something?
“What if, just as a for-instance, Trump is defeated by a narrow margin in 2020 and decides to contest the election? What if he claims his defeat was the result of “illegal votes” and a “rigged system”—both charges he made about the 2016 election? Are we now supposed to believe that, in such an event, that congressional Republicans would condemn his behavior as dangerous? That they would insist that Trump stop and proceed with the transfer power?
“Maybe, in such a hypothetical situation, they would. Then again, three years ago you would have thought that at least some large portion of the party would have stood against Trump’s racist attack on their fellow legislators by, at least, voting for a meaningless resolution.”
See https://thebulwark.com/the-gops-surrender-to-trump-is-complete/
What a load of horsecrap. Passing in on through this bandwidth is an embarrassment to our host.
Even more outrage. At a Trump Rally, the crowd chanted “Send her back” when Trump referenced Representative Omar. See https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/watch-crowd-chants-send-her-back-as-trump-rails-against-ilhan-omar
I disagree with with literally everything Rep. Omar has ever said. But she is an American Citizen. Before Trump, any Republican President or Nominee, Reagan, either Bush, Romney, McCain, Dole, Nixon, Goldwater, Ike, etc. would have cut off the crowd immediately.
Trump is turning the Republican Party into the “Know Nothing” party. He could stop the crowd. He didn’t. Shame on him. Appalling. And appalling for us to not stopping him as he wades deeper and deeper into the sewer.
I don’t have to sign on to calling the president’s tweets racist to find them offensive and wrong. If there’s any general election political benefit in them, which I doubt, they’d still be offensive and wrong. I’d let it go at that. But I bet you won’t let me. Some of you are going to insist that unless I can prove that this and this alone will lose 2020, then it’s okay! Great! Checkmate! Jackpot! 4D chess!
In the Sixties, NASA’s contractors had to prove, in very tough terms, that their hardware was ready to fly, or there was no launch. By 1986, and Challenger, this NASA attitude had mysteriously flipped over to, “We’re going to launch unless you can prove your hardware is defective”. Bad choice. Set the program back years.
False premise. As I mentioned in the other thread the problem with deleting the earlier post was that others, including me, had already posted in response. That is not the case here. You could have deleted the other thread when only one post notifying of this thread existed. Since you took the opportunity to repeat much of that post here, it was unnecessary. It was only after you declined to delete that others posted there.
I am a bit damned if I do and damned if I don’t do.
This is the liberal tactic of saying that because some racist in the past used language in a certain way, that way of speaking is forever the property of racists, and anyone who uses that language is a racist by definition. Sort of like the way they believe anyone in favor of strong borders is a racist because many racists are in favor of strong borders.
No, because the situations were not the same. I have a pretty good recollection of the earlier incident because my posts were deleted.
What is the basis, other than pure speculation, for claiming that others would have tried to silence a crowd at a rally? If you disagree so vehemently with the anti-semitic Omar, why have I seen no evidence of it here amidst the numerous broadsides against Trump? Are you comfortable excusing antisemitism simply because someone is an American citizen?
So we’re shipping out 2 second generation folks, and one actual immigrant thats been here 25 years. and then you could go either way on the black lady. Thats great. And we’ll insist they go back to crappy countries instead of say Canada, since they deserve it. Maybe Trump will have the white people he wants shipped out in next weeks tweets.
This all seems very nativist and nasty. Gotta be the first time a US president stooped so low to chase backbench House members out of the country.
One of my proudest days as a Republican was when Reagan visited the Butler family in Maryland after the Klan burned a cross on their front lawn. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/08/27/the-day-president-reagan-comforted-a-black-family-who-had-a-kkk-cross-burned-on-their-lawn/?utm_term=.8860c9dcfbda Another proud day was when John McCain quickly corrected a woman who claimed that that Obama was a Muslim. https://time.com/4866404/john-mccain-barack-obama-arab-cancer/ Another proud day was when Bob Dole said in his Acceptance Speech at the convention that any racists could exit the party at any of the clearly marked exits. https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2017-08-14/ronald-reagan-george-w-bush-and-bob-dole-spoke-out-against-racism-in-the-past What has happened to our party? Does anyone doubt that Reagan McCain, Dole, the Bushes, Nixon, Goldwater or Ike would have immediately stopped such a chant?
Do you really think that if there was an obnoxious Canadian immigrant socialist as the 5th member of the ‘squad’ they wouldn’t have been lumped in just the same?
It’s your privilege, I suppose, but this is almost entirely non-responsive.
Ditto. The notion he said ANYTHING racist is in the Liberal and NeverTrump minds.
The people who support Trump as President for the policies he brings to the office do not like what the four in the Squad suggest as potential policy for the nation. Of course, they have been in office for more than half a year and have nothing to show for the time there beyond their divisive, unAmerican words. A little legislative work to solve our border problems would be appreciated.
Tucker Carlson had Ben Carson on and Hannity had the challenger to Ocasio-Cortez, Scherie Murray, an immigrant from Jamaica, who announced her candidacy today. Both expressed their view that America is a great country, that the President is not racist and they support him.
I’m sorry you have no place to go except to the memories of past Republicans.
Nah, If he was attacking a Canadian socialist that was born here, he might compare their ideas to Venezuela, but wouldn’t tell them to go anywhere.Trump supported single payer after all. Thats what AOC wants. Socialism isn’t that big a deal for him. Its non whiteness.
More inane embarrassments. It’s becoming a banner night here at ol’ Ricochet. A couple of real clowns…
You are straining your credibility by expressing your opinions without any specifics in support, and I don’t mean just words. If you allege someone is racist you need some factual actions to back that up. Do you think Ben Carson would not recognize racism if it were there? You just resemble the Leftist media.
People keep on putting “go back to your own country” in quotation marking as if they’re quoting someone. Whoever they are quoting, it’s not Trump. He did not use those words.
Do you know who this is?
Not the guy on the left; that’s me. I mean the guy on the right. Do you know who he is and what his job title is?
Great picture. I wish I had one. With him.
He gave an awesome speech. This was in a July 2015.
Wait how is someone Canadian if they were born here?
Forget the guy on the right, look at the other one. I had that exact shirt in the Seventies. I don’t just mean the same color pattern; I mean probably the same shirt, which must have drifted up to a resale consignment store in rural New England. It’s the simplest explanation. In 1974 I had the same hair color, too, but that’s appeared to change.
Nice pix!
Polls show 2/3rd of the country thinks his tweet was racist. Thats basically everyone thats not a hardcore Trumper. Richard Spencer, a well known white supremacist, thinks they were racist. I mean, what more evidence are you looking for that this is not a fringe opinion?
https://nypost.com/2019/07/17/most-americans-think-trumps-incendiary-tweets-are-un-american/
https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2019/07/16/white-nationalists-celebrate-trump-racist-tweets-sidner-pkg-lead-vpx.cnn
I actually got that shirt at Lucky Jeans. I really like it but I can’t wear it any more because it has huge holes in the elbows. As for the hair color, well, it’s been a hard 4 years.
Polls shmolls. They said Trump would lose. I don’t care what polls say. I’m not going to believe something just because I’m told I should because other people supposedly think it.
I also don’t care what Richard Spencer says. You’ve mentioned him at least three times now. Weird.
Your doctor?
Hey, he mentioned you on Tucker tonight. (“Wha?”) Not by name, but he talked about the wonderful people he met in small towns while running for president.
[edit, typo]