It would be nice if Donald Trump saw this snippet of Tom Brokaw’s piece
Tom Brokaw illustrates the damage that occurs when one travels down the path Donald Trump is now following. Worse is the difficulty and pain of the recovery afterwards.
“Donald Trump’s promise to ban all Muslims from coming to America is more, much more than a shouted campaign provocation,” Tom Brokaw said. “Trump’s statement, even in this season of extremes, is a dangerous proposal that overrides history, the law and the foundation of America itself. In my lifetime alone, we have been witness to the consequences of paranoia overriding reason. During WWII, law-abiding Japanese-American citizens were herded into remote internment camps, losing their jobs, businesses, and social standing, while all Japanese-American division fought heroically in Europe. At the same time in Germany, a regime that declared war on its own citizens if they were Jewish. And Germany paid the ultimate price. Defeat and history’s condemnation. But after the war, America still had to learn about demagoguery the hard way. Senator Joe McCarthy’s reckless anti-communist witch hunt, making ever more outrageous claims, damaging reputations, until one day — [McCarthy hearing: Have you no sense of decency sir?] All of that while African-Americans whose ancestors came here as slaves were treated as second or even third class citizens in uniform and out. Yes, the jihadists are radical Muslims, but they are a minority in a world with a billion and a half Muslims. Even so, defeating ISIS will be long, hard, and expensive. Perhaps even more so now, because ISIS is likely to use Donald Trump’s statements as a recruiting tool. Kareem Khan, a Muslim, responded to a different kind of recruiting, 9/11. An American citizen, he joined the American army to show that not all Muslims are fanatics. He was killed in Iraq in 2007 by an IED, just 20 years old. Mr. Trump cannot exclude him from America. He has a permanent home here, in section 60, at Arlington National Cemetery.
A few weeks ago I admonished Tom Brokaw for his hyperventilating about America being at war. He seemed to have gone full neocon. Now it seems he has settled back into the thinking Brokaw again.
(h/t Mediamatters)
