Trump’s factually incorrect remark about 4 newly elected Democratic firebrands has been labelled as “racist” in a resolution adopted by the Democratic majority of the U.S. House of Representatives (eg, Guardian). It’s unclear to me how you can label Trump’s highly provocative and factually incorrect remarks as racist, unless you start stretching definitions.
The definition of anti-semitism has been stretched for much longer. Semitism once referred to people belonging to the 3 Semitic religions or Abrahamic religions, being Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The reason is simple: all 3 religions recognise “patriarch Abraham, a major biblical figure from the Old Testament”. Also see my 2016 blog: The origin of antisemitism.
In the USA, the term sexism now includes what Europeans would (still) call flirting. MarketWatch, June 2019: “In the #MeToo era, 60% of male managers say they’re scared of being alone with women at work”. The U.S. vice-president has even adopted the Billy Graham rule: “not travel (including by car), eat or meet alone with a woman other than his wife” (WaPo-2017).
The 4 Democratic firebrands, a.k.a. The Squad, are somewhat of a nightmare for the Democratic party as these 4 women keep issuing provocative statements – similar to Trump. Republican Newt Gingrich called Trump a “strategic genius” and stated: “He wants the Democratic Party to identify with them. I think the president is often inartful, but remarkably effective.” (WE)
The most notorious squad member is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), who recently stated: “The U.S. is running concentration camps on our southern border and that is exactly what they are. They are concentration camps.” (CBS). She has already accused the Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of “singling out newly elected women of color” (eg, BI, CBS, CNN, Fox).
Trump is actively stoking in these internal Democratic feuds by attacking these 4 firebrands. His attacks appear to be a win-win game: either the liberal-left media will attack the Dems for not supporting these 4 women, or Dem voters may turn away for supporting these 4 firebrands. Trump, being a “strategic genius”, is stretching definitions. He is more like an evil genius-spirit.
Considering that thus far none of the many Trump scandals (eg, Bloomberg, HuffPost, ThoughtCo, Wiki) sticks to “Teflon Don“, it seems more and more likely that the arrogant Left will lose (again) from the ignorant Right – in 2020.
The above reminds me of an old English proverb:
With friends like these, who needs enemies?
Trump was even stretching the definitions of this quote by offering “support” to Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in her struggle with AOC and the Squad (CommonDreams, RawStory).
I’ll Be There for You (1995) by The Rembrandts – Friends Theme Song
artists, lyrics, video, Wiki-1, Wiki-2, Wiki-3
Note #1: all markings (bold, italic, underlining) by LO unless stated otherwise
Note #2: the cartoon above, by political cartoonist Gary Varvel, is from a 2016 Medium article.
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