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Khizr Khan, The Democrats’ New Rockstar
To give Hillary Clinton and the DNC their due, they nailed it in finding Mr. Khan. Expect to find his speech — half-elegy for his US Army captain son, half endorsement of Clinton — re-tweeted and shared on Facebook, along with challenges from your liberal friends.
It’s powerful stuff — if the story they tell is true, CPT Khan died a hero’s death — but there are ways to parry it. So, Ricochet, let’s crowd-source our responses.
Via the Independent, here’s the text of the speech:
Published in GeneralTonight we are honoured to stand here as parents of Captain Humayun Khan and as patriotic American Muslims – with undivided loyalty to our country.
Like many immigrants, we came to this country empty-handed. We believed in American democracy; that with hard work and goodness of this country, we could share in and contribute to its blessings.
We are blessed to raise our three sons in a nation where they were free to be themselves and follow their dreams.
Our son, Humayun, had dreams too, of being a military lawyer, but he put those dreams aside the day he sacrificed his life to save the lives of his fellow soldiers. Hillary Clinton was right when she called my son ‘the best of America’.
If it was up to Donald Trump, he never would have been in America. Donald Trump consistently smears the character of Muslims. He disrespects other minorities; women; judges; even his own party leadership.
He vows to build walls, and ban us from this country. Donald Trump, you’re asking Americans to trust you with their future.
Let me ask you: have you even read the United States constitution? I will gladly lend you my copy. [he pulls it out] In this document, look for the words ‘liberty’ and ‘equal protection of law’.
Have you ever been to Arlington Cemetery? Go look at the graves of brave patriots who died defending the United States of America.
You will see all faiths, genders and ethnicities. You have sacrificed nothing and no one.
We cannot solve our problems by building walls, sowing division. We are stronger together. And we will keep getting stronger when Hillary Clinton becomes our President.
In conclusion, I ask every patriot American, all Muslim immigrants, and all immigrants to not take this election lightly.
This is a historic election, and I request to honour the sacrifice of my son – and on election day, take the time to get out and vote.
And vote for the healer. vote for the strongest, most qualified candidate, Hillary Clinton, not the divider. God bless you, thank you.
Obvious retort: Has Clinton? Did she like what she saw?
Remember this is someone who doesn’t think a group of people should be allowed to make a movie criticizing her during an election and who describes the largest 2nd Amendment advocacy organization as among her favorite enemies.
This appears to have been well-chosen. Google is filled with pictures of Clinton attending ceremonies at Arlington but — unless I’ve missed something — there’s nothing about Trump ever having done so.
Unfortunately, not all Muslims share this loyalty and those that don’t are killing Americans.
Welcome! All who wish to come here through our established legal immigration channels, assimilate, and share in and contribute to its blessings like you are welcome. Those that wish to come here illegally, not assimilate, or not contribute are not welcome. Your becoming a U.S. citizens and sacrifice of your son is something we all should cherish and not sully by encouraging those who wish to break our laws and exploit our blessings to do so.
Amen sir.
Your son sacrificed mightily to save his fellow soldiers. Hillary Clinton risked the lives of his brothers and sisters and those that risk all working in diplomacy and intelligence with her willful negligence handling classified material. Your family and son’s memory do not need the endorsement of a treasonous criminal. He, and your family, are heroes to all Americans.
We must control our borders and immigration to ensure more folks like you join the American dream and those that wish to commit acts of terror do not come here under false pretenses and tear that dream. The first responsibility of the federal government is to protect our national sovereignty for all citizens including you.
Donald Trump is imperfect and while he gives us all pause with his rhetoric we know for certain that Hillary Clinton by her documented conduct over decades and specifically while serving as Secretary of State wishes this nation harm similar to the terrorists that have killed so many of our brothers and sisters.
Yes, we have, and walked among the rows of markers. Some of our brothers and sisters rest in peace there beside your son thanks to the willful neglect and malfeasance of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
Ours is a nation founded on the principle that military service is not a perquisite for political service. Neither candidate this year has sacrificed the way your family has to ensure our freedom.
His son died fighting in a war to liberate oppressed Iraqis, with the hopes of setting their country on a path towards prosperity; where they themselves could eventually attain their own ‘liberty’ and ‘equal protection of law’. Real progress towards this end and dreams of further gains were squandered under the Obama administration, during her steerage at state.
Hillary Clinton has done more since Barack Obama’s inauguration to weaken our nation and sacrifice its brave diplomats and service members than any politician this century. Trusting her the presidency will only exacerbate the doom she wishes on our nation.
Indeed we should not, but unfortunately we did not take the primary process seriously and this is where we find ourselves. Your son died so you may vote your conscience this November. I join many other Americans and encourage you to stand for the memory of your son and not be seduced by a traitor seeking to exploit him and you for her personal political and financial gain.
Thank you sir. We will join you in the franchise.
May God Bless you and your family with comfort, wisdom, and strength to turn away from the serpent and toward the light that your son paid for with his life.
Go in peace.
Unless he was making a private visit there why would he participate in a ceremony at Arlington? Perhaps he’s attended a funeral there or paid his respects, but Arlington ceremonies are mostly attended by families, heads of state, diplomats, and service members.
Tom, sorry for the choppy comments. Too cheap to pay for unlimited word count.
Also, IIRC, there is nothing in the text of the Constitution that mentions allowing all-comers. But what is the text of the Constitution at the DNC among friends?
Disclaimer: I don’t think we should ban Muslims but it seems perfectly rational to temper immigration from parts of the world where the emigrants have comparatively illiberal ideals.
Dang. You guys are good.
Last point, I promise. Assuming you believe that Trump’s official policy is to cut-down on immigration from certain parts of the world and assuming a country can not admit all applicants simultaneously, it would seem to me the way to combat Trump’s argument would be to speak on the merits of allowing these people in to the country compared to other people. It needs to be shown as a net positive, which there is an argument to be made for (and I personally think this is where the ‘healthy’ debate could take place) — but progressives would prefer to stay out of the weeds there. Instead, they want to posit one-off individual success stories, for which there are many one-off individual failure stories, which then lets them paint the counter-example’s proponents as generalist-racists.
I can’t get a clear enough picture of the moment to determine if that was a Heritage or Hillsdale copy of the Constitution. I’m relatively sure he didn’t get it from any leftist organization.
It is untrue that Trump has proposed keeping all Muslims out. He did not, but the democrats want you to think he did. He proposed putting a hold on the process until we could figure out how to proceed with immigration without importing terror to our shores. In reality, this would be a difficult thing to do (separate the peaceful from those who’d harm us either from terror or crime), but we should be TRYING to vet people immigrating to our country. And really vet, not pretend-vet.
When did it become controversial to say that we would try to keep terrorists and criminals out of our country? Good Grief!
We look at Europe’s problems with Muslim immigration – rational people want to avoid the trouble they’re experiencing. Our government wants to rush head-long into it. Why?
All I can think of is that if his son had been stationed in Benghazi on Sept. 11, 2012, Hillary wouldn’t have lifted one bony finger to help him.
CPT Khan and his parents deserve better candidates than either of the ones they (and we) have been given… let’s hope and work for improvements in 2020.
“Why” is an excellent question. “Why” should be asked at every opportunity. “Why” would be asked if we had a press that wasn’t so sycophantically devoted to the Democratic Party.
Wow, there’s such a thing as a good and patriotic American Muslim. That changes everything.
Never apologize for showing your loyalty to one of America’s most underappreciated presidents.
One of the problems with Trump is his “bluster”. He said it awkwardly, but it needs to be said: we have the right, and the obligation (to our citizens) to manage our immigration system to ensure that we keep our people safe (avoid the ‘European problem’) and and ensure we preserve our system of government – the freedom that Kahn speaks of.
As I said above, it is madness that this has become a controversial position.
If you can zoom in and it says “Living Constitution” and it is autographed by Elena Kagan you know it was issued by the DNC.
He didn’t get it from any leftists because they’ve never even heard of it from what I can tell.
.
We cannot solve our problems by building walls, sowing division.
Mr. Khan, I am sorry to inform you that the Democrats, especially their leader Barack Obama, are the ones who sow division and enmity. They have deceived you if you believe Donald Trump wants to ban all Muslims. He wants to protect our sovereignty and protect our people from any more violence. A wall at our border and a smart immigration system is a step in the right direction. We all respect your son for his noble sacrifice. We also respect and mourn those who Hillary Clinton allowed to die in Benghazi to protect a cheap political narrative. We are sorry you allowed yourselves to be used as a photo-op in this smarmy and disrespectful way.
Here are two links, one from Arlington Cemetery, and one from a Washington Post story about Captain Humayun Khan.
It might be just be best to say:
We honor and respect the memory of Captain Khan. We honor and respect the grief of his parents and siblings. They will mourn his loss for the rest of their lives and we hope they find some measure of peace when they see their son reflected in the faces of their children, and perhaps someday in the grandchildren that may come.
There are many Americans that have not sacrificed a son, daughter, mother, or father in our Armed Forces, and that includes Hillary Clinton. There are many of us that have not walked through the garden of stone that is Arlington Cemetery, and if given the chance we should.
There is one image that comes to mind, and that is Hillary Clinton standing in front of the flag draped caskets of those that died defending a remote US Consulate in Benghazi. Standing in front of those caskets and lying to the families of the lost to protect her own political career.
Unless he was making a private visit there why would he participate in a ceremony at Arlington? Perhaps he’s attended a funeral there or paid his respects, but Arlington ceremonies are mostly attended by families, heads of state, diplomats, and service members.
Ouch.
[Update: This comment originally quoted from another, as you can see below. My bad.]
I think there is a ripple in the matrix again. KP got attributed my comment. He may not be Ok with that.
I served 9+ years in the Navy and my first roommate from flight school has a marker there (no remains from the crash) and I’ve never been photographed in a ceremony at Arlington. I would actually be surprised if Trump has been.
Yes and no.
The way most folks first heard about the “ban” was from when Trump read the statement during the speech. Since the actual body of the text did not include the word “immigration” and since Trump did not read its title, the literal meaning of his words was that all Muslims should be banned entry to the United States.
Depending on one’s attitude toward Trump, one could conclude that this was the result of 1) Intentional dog-whistling, 2) Typical Trump sloppiness, 3) An honest, genuine mistake that anyone could make.
I lean toward #2.
I had text from a different comment highlighted; my bad.
Yeah. There are a bunch of blank pages in the back where you want to add more “rights” that you want.