This morning, to my surprise, I found upon scanning the various Facebook posts regarding the El Paso shooting and its obvious link to Trump's anti-minority/anti-immigrant rhetoric, that quite a number of people were responding with the old worn out "What about Obama/What about Hillary" line. Predictable. I don't know why I was surprised.
But what about Obama? What about Hillary? I don't recall either of them comparing minorities or immigrants to vermin, or to resembling an invasion or an infestation. I do remember Trump saying that they are mostly rapists and killers, gang members and drug runners.
"Obama made disparaging comments about white people", they say. Really? Wow, I don't remember that. Didn't make the news? Riiight. You know what? Maybe you imagined that he made such comments because you felt that his very existence, and especially as president, was insulting to white people.
At the same time, I do understand where these folks are coming from. They don't want to share any blame for the murderous acts of a lunatic. They don't want to feel culpable. And so they are defensive. Just because they generally support Trump, and see his remarks as straightforward rather than detestable and wholly inappropriate, and don't particularly like the idea of so many foreigners coming into the country and sharing in America's bounty, thus decreasing their cut of the same they fear, it doesn't mean that they are about to run out and start shooting Democrats or blacks or immigrants Of course they're not. No one said that they were. We simply make the logical link between hateful words and hateful acts. After all, Hitler didn't personally run out and murder Jews. The common people did it for him, and they did it because his words stirred them to action, stoked the malevolent fires that were already burning in that culture.
Don't be afraid. Be outraged! It's okay. No one, except the rare lunatic, the killer in training, will hold it against you. Quite the contrary: it is honorable. It is the very least you can do.
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