A lot of people—me included—have been giggling about the whacky claims made by Donald Trump against immigrants. Why do conservatives believ such crazy stuff?
The claims were whacky. They deserved our ridicule. But they can also be dangerous.
As political commentator Ana Navarro said, passionately, on CNN,
“This thing that Donald Trump said about immigrants eating cats and dogs came out of left field and you thought he was completely absolutely insane. If Joe Biden had said the same thing he would have been pulled off the stage and sent immediately to a loony bin, but because Donald Trump gets away with being Donald Trump, and saying crazy things. What’s happening with Donald Trump, as Kamala Harris said, he always goes to an old tired playbook. He always tries to go against immigrants. He tries to cause fear. He tries to build that so folks vote out of fear. Last week it was about Venezuelan gangs taking over Aurora Colorado. The official of that city said that story was false. This week it is a completely made-up story about somebody eating a cat and it turning into a Haitian immigrant. It may be funny to some people. A lot of people have made funny memes. But it’s also incredibly racist and incredibly dangerous. Because I remember when a whack job triggered by things that were said against Latinos, took a gun and hunted down Latinos in an El Paso Walmart. And I remember when a whack job triggered by conspiracy theories went to the Comet Pizza Parlour in Washington D.C. and sex ring that the Clinton’s were supposedly running there showed up there with a gun. So, its crazy. It may be funny. It may lead to a lot of memes but it’s also racist and dangerous and it is shameful that it continues to be amplified by people like Donald Trump his followers and his vice-presidential candidate.”
Once again Donald Trump is an instrument of ignorance and hatred. This is a deadly and combustible mixture that we must expunge from our societies. People, like me, ask where all the hatred and violence in America come from. Some of us blame guns. Others blame a lack of religion or a lack of morality. Some of us blame the other side. There is plenty of blame that can we spread around like shit from a honey wagon, but without a doubt, political leaders like Donald Trump and his cohorts, deserve a significant portion of the blame. Their actions against vulnerable immigrants are despicable and disgraceful. They really are not funny. They are dangerous.