One of the reason I write this blog is to purge thoughts out of my head so that they don't keep rattling around. I have other more important things to do, and to be able to express ideas of varying quality in this way helps to put them somewhere else. It's like my own personal pensive, so that later I can go back and examine my thoughts and determine whether they were good or not.
So in writing about Mr. Trump's racist thoughts yesterday, I was hoping to clear my head of such thoughts to get on to better Kingdom of God things. Yet I still continue to think about what he said, and I find that I am not happy with what I wrote. Because ultimately, what this debate has been about has been all the wrong things: should we slap a label of 'racist' on his thoughts? That's easy, actually. When discourse is watered down, the simplest thing to do is create a perjorative label (racist, liberal, retarded, etc.) and then judge everything by what you believe that label to mean.
But to actually speak in depth about a topic is much more difficult, yet helpful. Are Trump's words racist? Sure, and I still struggle how his supporters keep on defending the indefensible. But there's more than just that. His tweets, as I see them, were based not so much on blatant racism as they were his thin-skinned insecurity for which he is so famous. What he's saying is that people are not 'real Americans' if they are criticizing him. To be patriotic in Trump's America is to line up behind him, accept whatever he says, and continue to call him great (despite all evidence to the contrary).
While racism may have a part in what he says, this kind of mindset is far more about shutting down freedom of speech and thought. Trump has always admired dictators and strongmen who are able to suppress dissent; and now he is expressing this openly about how he wishes people (especially women of color) would just stay silent and do whatever he wants.
Not to create another label, but this is simply 'unAmerican'. Part of the beauty of this country is being able to express your disagreement with what is being done. To say that people, any people, don't have the right to speak up is simply wrong. This is what leads to police states, dictators, and repression. I may think that the four Democratic congresswomen are wrong about many of their policies or ideas...but in this country they have the right to speak as they choose about Trump, America, or even me.
This is America, Mr. Trump. Don't like freedom of speech? Then go back to Russia where your true home (or luxury hotel) really is.
