Certainly, the chant Send her back!, heard at a recent Trump campaign rally, and presumably directed at Rep Ilhan Omar (D-MN), has its racist salience that makes it worth wondering for how much longer the Trump adherents will turn off their brains and dishonor themselves. But something I’ve not seen in my quick reading of the reactions is something which can undo Trump’s own remarks. First, here’s WaPo‘s report on Trump’s reaction to the controversy:
President Trump broadly declared Friday that no one should criticize the United States while he is president, part of a renewed attack on four minority congresswomen whom he has targeted as un-American.
Trump also praised his supporters who chanted at a rally, “Send her back!,” a refrain directed at one of the lawmakers, Somali-born Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.). The president called the campaign crowd “incredible patriots” — a day after saying he disagreed with the chant.
It’s rare that improvement occurs without prior criticism, whether from within or without. The logical extension of Trump declaring that there should be no criticism of the United States, then, is that he doesn’t want to improve the United States. It’s almost as if President Trump is preaching … treason.
As if the Republicans never criticized President Obama. As if any political leader anywhere has never been critiqued.
It’s the recognition of shortcomings and the elucidation thereof that leads to improvement, not slavish supplies of praise to a narcissistic leader. So if Trump cannot stand a critique of himself or America, well, then we know how much better he’s going to become.
He’s not.
And that hurts the country a lot.
