On Sunday, President Donald Trump told four Congresswomen of color to go back to what he assumed were their foreign countries of birth.
Of the four, three were born in the United States, and the other is a naturalized U.S. citizen.
Not that Mr. Trump cares. All he needed was that their color of skin is other than lily white, and so, naturally, they dont belong here.
MR. TRUMP targeted these four women because they frequently have common goals and, of late, have opposed the status quo among House leadership. Trumps tirade has two goals: to stir division among Democrats and to rile up his base.
The women were elected to Congress in 2018 from their respective states of Minnesota, Massachusetts, Michigan and New York.
Ms. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Bronx, N.Y., is of Puerto Rican descent; Ayanna Pressley, an African American, was raised in Chicago and now lives in Massachusetts, and Rashida Tlaib was born in Detroit to Palestinian immigrants. Only Ilhan Omar of Minnesota was born outside of the United States. At age 6, she and her family fled war-torn Somalia. After spending four years in a refugee camp in Kenya, they made their way to the United States. She became a U.S. citizen at age 17 in 2000, and was first elected to the Minnesota legislature in 2016.
Our presidents controversial comments should shock few; sadly, we all seem numb to it by now. But we reserve a deep sorrow and special species of shame for the Republicans who say nothing in the face of such hatred, who fail to speak out against bigotry, whose fear of Trump is only matched by their desire to survive one more election cycle. This is not to say that they, too, are necessarily racist, but only that they have ceded their principles and values to a man who does not deserve the honor, and they have seemingly either accepted this or know not the difference. Were that they were more afraid of letting such bigotry be further woven into our countrys fabric.
You cant leave fast enough, Mr. Trump tweeted, pretending to call out the women for their attacks on democracy by calling for immigration reform.
The remarks play perfectly into Mr. Trumps campaign strategy of regularly and frequently stoking fear among his supporters that our democracy is in jeopardy and only he can save it. Mr. Trump has proved it doesnt matter if what he says is true because sure as the sun came up this morning, he proved to never pass up an opportunity to divide us, to draw a line in the sand and watch America fight it out. Such a game plan only tears us apart bit by bit, tweet by tweet.
Our president stole our Sunday and guided our public discourse to a mean and nasty place, one where brown people must prove theyre American, elevating the worst in us instead of inspiring our country to embrace the difficult but necessary journey toward both unity and diversity. Who needs Russia to undermine democracy when our own president does it so gleefully?
The Register would like nothing better than to bury this story. Why? Because our mission is to foster community, not tear it asunder with divisiveness. But we also have a mission to tell our countrys history warts and all as it plays out.
Only the American people can dictate how the next chapter will read.
Susan Lynn
