By now, it's fairly well-circulated and well-publicized that the prohibitive frontrunner for the Republican nomination for President of the United States announced that, should he win, he would bar any and all of the Muslim faith, foreign nationals and U.S. citizens alike, from entering the country. It goes without saying - or at least it should - that Donald Trump's position is wildly offensive, historically deeply troublesome, and a clear and present threat to national security, not to mention repugnant to the U.S. Constitution. But how did we get to this point? How did we arrive at a major party presidential candidate's advocacy of such a fringe policy?
The Republican Party has a long and storied tradition of stoking fear in order to win elections. To be fair, the Democratic Party has not always been guiltless thereof; prior to the administration of President Lyndon Johnson, when they were the dominant party in the South, Democrats did plenty of fearmongering surrounding slavery, Jim Crow, voting rights, and so on. But the Republican Party has long since assumed the fear mantle. In the 1950s, then-Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-WI) crusaded against communists, actual and otherwise. Following President's Johnson's signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Republican Party gleefully swooped in to claim white Southern voters who would rather not have seen African Americans become their societal peers.
More recently, the Republican Party deftly turned gay rights into a wedge issue in 2004. Massachusetts had recently legalized marriage equality, and Republicans (led at the time by Ken Mehlman, who later came out as gay himself) used that development to resounding electoral effect, reelecting then-President George W. Bush (for this and other reasons) and buttressing their majorities in the House and Senate. Voters in eleven states additionally approved, in some by large margins, constitutional amendments to limit marriage to between a man and a woman. These eleven and their ilk are the amendments that the U.S. Supreme Court struck down in legalizing marriage equality nationwide on June 26, 2015.
Donald Trump is, if nothing else, a businessman. In the opinion of this author, Trump does not believe in much beyond the almighty dollar. If one can point to any consistent position or advocacy on his part before he announced his presidential candidacy, one will invariably recall Trump's strident contention, colloquially known as "birtherism," that President Barack Obama was born perhaps outside the United States, thereby invalidating his presidency. President Obama, in April 2011, produced his "long-form" birth certificate proving he was born in Honolulu, a fact not in legitimate dispute. For swaths on the right-wing fringe, however, the affirmation of the President's Hawaii birth did little to assuage widely-held suspicions of the illegitimacy of the Obama presidency, doubtless fueled by this President being a biracial man with an unusual name, and stoked by the likes of Donald Trump.
Can it be any surprise, then, that so many are on board with Trump's plan to bar Muslims from entering the U.S.? Trump has fanned this un-American fire of ignorance and intolerance. But Trump cannot claim sole credit here; this is a monster of the Republican Party's creation. The GOP is reaping what it has sown. For all it has done in recent decades to effectuate political strategy couched in fear and division, Donald Trump is the candidate the GOP deserves.
Make no mistake: Trump's strategy will not work in a general election, should he advance thereto. But the effects of Trump's radical, and arguably fascist, policy positions will not be confined to his presidential race. In what was already figuring to be a rough election cycle for Republicans in U.S. Senate races, Trump would do vulnerable Republican incumbents no favors. In fact, Trump's presence at the top of the ticket could easily represent the proverbial nail in the coffins of GOP Senators in highly competitive Senate races in states such as Illinois, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Ohio, and more.
Donald Trump's candidacy has proven time and again to be a regrettable chapter in American political history. The lowlight reel from Trump is extensive, and we as Americans should not fool ourselves; the world is watching. The world sees crowds cheering Donald Trump as he calls for a wholesale ban on Muslim entry into our country. But the world should also take notice of the widespread vocal condemnation of Trump from disparate corners of American political life. Mainstream news media has not been shy about recalling the dark history of instances of singling out classes of people for different treatment; Tom Brokaw offered a particularly poignant commentary.
This is an episode of American politics that we will overcome, but it is one from which we must continue to learn and one we must not forget.
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