There’s always an awards show on somewhere, so let me put a bid in for the most shameful political performance by Donald Trump and a supporting bid for the most shameful reaction by the people in the audience.
No, let me reverse that. In this case, the crowd of faithful supporters should get the starring role, and their reward should be a great big star on the Walk of Shame. A Star of David would be appropriate.
Now, that might strike some people as anti-Semitic. Especially since the recent incident I am talking about took place in front of an audience of Jewish donors, right after he went to the Mexican border in California and announced that there was no longer any room for immigrants in the United States.
Now, if the media quoted him properly - and cameras were rolling as he said it - Trump came back from the border and changed American policy on accepting refugees.
"This is our new statement: The system is full. We can't take you any more. Whether it's asylum, whether it's anything you want, it's illegal immigration. We can't take you any more....Our country is full, our area is full, the sector is full. We can't take any more. Sorry. Can't have it....So turn around. That's the way it is.”
Naturally, he was so proud that he took the same message to a meeting of the RJC - the Republican Jewish Coalition - and repeated it to some of the party’s biggest donors. Sheldon Adelson hosted it at his casino, Bernard Marcus - co-founder of Home Depot - is also a member in good standing.
And, from what I have been able to read about the reception, the group shared his vision. Certainly no one there compared it to a similar position taken more than 70 years ago. After all, who remembers ancient history?
That was a time when Adolph Hitler was securing his grip on Germany, and Jews were forced to wear a yellow Star of David on their clothes so they wouldn’t mix with the pure-blood Germans.
What, they were German too? Well, Hitler and his supporters managed to avoid that distinction. Now a lot of Jews - at least a lot who could afford it - tried to flee Germany and looming death, only to be told no uncertain terms by almost every nation in the world: “We can't take you any more. Whether it's asylum, whether it's anything you want, it's illegal immigration. We can't take you any more....Our country is full, our area is full, the sector is full. We can't take any more. Sorry. Can't have it....So turn around. That's the way it is.”
Or words to that effect.
Now I am sure that some of Trump’s supporters will make a distinction between rich Jewish refugees who were fleeing Nazi terror and brown-skinned refugees from South America who are fleeing death at the hands of drug cartels and dictators, or starvation because there is no work for them anywhere.
Some are called “economic refugees” and the argument goes that you are certainly welcome if you flee you home because you are facing death from a gun, but not if you are starving and your children are dying.
I wonder what Trump thinks about his grandfather, who fled Kallstadt to avoid military service and later returned but was deported.
Hundreds of thousands of Jews were turned away by almost every nation in Europe when they tried to escape death. They were also turned away by the United States, which - after all - had immigration quotas. They could, of course, wait in France or Poland for their turn, and try to avoid Nazi troops and local mobs.
There is just one word for someone who can applaud Trump from the comfort of an elegant rally and so carefully make a distinction between those who are worthy of mercy and those who should be sent back to certain death.
And, it’s not a nice one
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