What Did You Expect Would Happen?

by Irene Daniel

There appears to be much shock and awe regarding the latest divisive suggestion from Donald Trump; this time to ban all Muslims from entering the United States for an unspecified period of time. Even other Republicans are denouncing his remarks, and the GOP establishment is in a panic. Well, what did they expect would happen?

This is not the first time, nor will it be the last, I'm sure, we hear of Trump's maliciously vitriolic statements directed at one group of persons or another. This has been going on for weeks and months. And yet, this is the first time that GOP leaders have made any real attempt to call him out and denounce him.

I'm not going to take the time to explain that Trump's proposal is unconstitutional, because it is. That should be obvious. Nor will I engage in comparisons to Hitler. I'll let my readers draw their own conclusions. If you look up the word fascist, and do a little research on how Hitler came to power, you will find similarities, as well as distinctions.

My question is for the Republican party: what did you expect would happen?

What did you expect would happen when Trump's GOP opponents proposed policies that may seem less outlandish, but are equally unconstitutional and divisive? For example, Jeb Bush suggested that only Christian refugees should be allowed into the United States. Isn't that just one small click to the left of the GOP front-runner?

And then there's Ted Cruz, perhaps the most similar to Trump in tone, who refuses to denounce Trump outright. Cruz is a strong 2nd choice to Trump in many GOP polls, and stands to gain the most should Trump leave the race, or simply becomes unpalatable to a majority of Republican primary voters; neither of which seems likely at this point.

There are many other examples of Republican candidates and Republican leadership making statements and adopting policies that blame and shame "the other." The immigrant, the non-white, the working poor and women have had to fight for respect in the party of Lincoln for a very long time. This kind of language and demonizing has been going on since Lee Atwater's Southern Strategy so successfully elected Republicans in the 1970s.

This monster of subtle racism and blaming those with the least power in our society, "the least of these," has been allowed to fester for far too long. So long that it has grown into a cancer in our American soul, and may very well doom the Republican party next year, and perhaps for several election cycles to come.

For now, not only does Trump refuse to leave the presidential race, he is openly suggesting that he will bolt the party and run as a third-party candidate if he is "not treated fairly," whatever that means. I'm sure that only Donald Trump has the answer to that question.

I laud the comments of so many Republican leaders who have openly and unmistakably denounced Donald Trump. Bob Dole -- for whom I have the utmost respect -- among others like Senator and fellow GOP presidential candidate Lindsay Graham, Speaker Paul Ryan and even Dick Cheney can see how very dangerous Trump and his words are; not only to their party, but to our national security. I thank them for speaking up. Finally.

However, for those of who have witnessed decades of messages aimed squarely at the subliminal and subconscious bias of middle-class white Americans, throwing the rest of us under the bus in order to win elections, we could have told you where this divisiveness would lead. Moreover, the emerging demographics for our 21st century America -- predominantly Latinos, women and millennials -- does not favor the GOP, a party that is 90% white and over the age of 50.

So, for the GOP, it might just be too little too late.


                                                                              Copyright 2015, Irene Daniel, all rights reserved.