Friends of Padre Steve’s World
Yesterday President Trump revealed something about himself that I have long suspected, the President believes that some human beings are not that, but in his words, “not people, but animals”. His first wife, Ivana said what back in 1990 that her husband kept a book of Adolf Hitler’s speeches at his bedside, and if you careful read his tweets, comments to the press, interviews, and immigration policies you can see a certain amount of genuine contempt for humanity in them, especially for those who are of a darker pigmentation.
Yesterday, in his remarks at an immigration roundtable the President said these words after an exchange with the Sheriff of Fresno County California in which she touched upon a number of subjects including members of the MS-13 criminal gang.
“We have people coming into the country, or trying to come in — and we’re stopping a lot of them — but we’re taking people out of the country. You wouldn’t believe how bad these people are. These aren’t people. These are animals. And we’re taking them out of the country at a level and at a rate that’s never happened before. And because of the weak laws, they come in fast, we get them, we release them, we get them again, we bring them out. It’s crazy.
The dumbest laws, as I said before, the dumbest laws on immigration in the world. So we’re going to take care of it, Margaret. We’ll get it done.”
Today the President tried to clarify his statement that he was talking about MS-13. However, in the broader context of the President’s years long history of broad brushing Mexicans and other immigrants as criminals. In announcing his candidacy in 2015 the President said:
“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
Sadly this is par for the course at Trump National. One cannot forget his “shithole country” comments, or his description of the White Supremacist violence in Charlottesville, and too many other examples to list here.
Please don’t get me wrong but members of MS-13 tend to be violent criminals, but they are still human beings, just as are criminals and murderers of other gangs and home grown White American groups. But if we want to go into other brutal and deadly crime syndicates we cannot leave out Russian and Eastern European syndicates. The Russians for God’s sakes are little different from MS-13 and often have ties to the Russian government and corporations.
But there is a big difference. The Russians are White, and the President has many Russian ties. Yet many of these Russian and Eastern European gangsters many are just as illegal in their immigration status as those of darker complexion who the President calls “animals.”
Back during the 2016 elections I lost quite a few friends because I openly called candidate Trump a “racist.” That is not because I disliked the man, but it was based on his words and policy proposals about ethnic minorities and immigrants, legal or not. He has now been in office for almost a year and a half and his race and religiously based policies of deporting or keeping from American soil have been out there for all to see. Yesterday was little different, except that the President himself, and not one of his appointees or media sycophants said the words.
His words were little different from Hitler and the Nazis who called the Jews, Slavs, and many other non-Nordic ethnic groups “Untermenschen” or sub-human. The Jews in particular were referred to as rats, vermin, and parasites. As such after years of propaganda many Germans became willing participants in the genocide of the Jews and mass extermination of what they called subhuman races.
The President has given his tacit approval to the basest and most vile aspects of American racial and religious prejudice by his constant dehumanization of Mexicans, other Latin Americans, Blacks, Arabs, Muslims, as well as members of the LGBTQ community, and his political opponents that it is having its intended effects. Incidents of race hatred, religious discrimination, and even politically motivated violence are on the rise.
I’m sorry but this is not making America great again, it is dragging the United States into the company the worst examples of humanity. As a Christian as well as a humanist I think back to the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer concerning the direction of our country:
“We have been silent witnesses of evil deeds; we have been drenched by many storms; we have learnt the arts of equivocation and pretence; experience has made us suspicious of others and kept us from being truthful and open; intolerable conflicts have worn us down and even made us cynical. Are we still of any use? What we shall need is not geniuses, or cynics, or misanthropes, or clever tacticians, but plain, honest, and straightforward men. Will our inward power of resistance be strong enough, and our honesty with ourselves remorseless enough, for us to find our way back to simplicity and straightforwardness?”
I’m tired of those who try to excuse the President’s behavior, especially Christians and based on history I can only imagine where this ends if he remains in power.
Until tomorrow,
Peace,
Padre Steve+
The Inglorius Padre Steve's World 