The bar was set mighty low for President Trump’s Congressional Address on Tuesday. Pretty much anything short of a Heil Hitler salute would’ve been considered a success. So, against that metric, this was his most rational, even-tempered speech, maybe ever. He didn’t rant. He didn’t encourage Members of Congress to beat each other, then offer to pay their legal bills. He, shockingly, did not even trample on the First Amendment rights of a Free Press.
So, a big high-five to President Trump for remaining uncharacteristically “hinged”.
However, he did not completely disappoint his alt-right followers. The Gestapo-like office of immigrant bashing he’s created in the Department of Homeland Security should give everyone pause. VOICE, which stands for Victims Of Immigrant Crime Engagement, may just be the most un-American proposal of a President of the United States in my lifetime.
Its purpose is to list crimes committed by undocumented immigrants to disseminate to the American public. Why just them? Do they commit crimes at a higher rate than native born Americans? No. Not even close. In fact, undocumented immigrants, in particular, do their best to avoid the attention of the police.
So, then, what is VOICE? An anti-crime initiative? An immigrant education or assimilation program? Nope. VOICE is a government-funded smear campaign meant to further marginalize a segment of the population that’s especially easy to pick on. It is designed for one and only one reason: to raise the temperature of bigots toward immigrants by publishing crime statistics ONLY of immigrants.
So, if the president is searching for a VOICE, I’ll give him a VOICE.
V is for the VIOLENCE perpetrated on Indian men on their lunch break in a Kansas diner.
O is for the OBSCENITY of antisemitism and islamophobia sweeping our country since the inauguration.
I is for the INJUSTICE of denying Syrian refugees entrance to the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave based solely on our chief executive’s cowardice and pandering to others’ fears.
C is for the CONSTITUTION he gives lip service to, but clearly has no grasp of what it represents.
E is for ENOUGH! Enough of the race-baiting! Enough of the fear-mongering! Enough of trying to lead America goose-stepping over the cliff of intolerance!
The President had an opportunity to bring America together, and in some ways, the tone he struck and the platitudes about working together could have accomplished just that. But his program for taxpayer-funded bigotry is beyond the pale. It’s not American. It’s hate. It’s not the sign of a strong nation, but a weak one, ruling from a position of fear.
This is beyond politics. This is an attack on democracy itself. A line must be drawn when the Constitution is used as scrap paper to author a bigoted, nationalist screed.