Encouraging Intolerable Intolerance

The consequences of President Trump’s multiple threats to our democracy include not only the passive mistrust of government he sows among large swaths of the American public (also here, here, here, and other of my blog posts) but also the encouragement he offers to the most intolerant segments of our society.  Even more dangerous, his contempt for democratic values has begun to spread to other political figures and groups.  These politicians are not just the radical fringe of government whose values Trump has long reflected.  They include also right-wing members of Congress, candidates running for office, and even mainstream politicians who refuse to condemn Trump’s assault on democracy.

Columnist Michael Gerson—writing before Trump’s “zero-tolerance” policy that separated several thousand children from their parents—is worth quoting at length:

Whatever else Trumpism may be, it is the systematic organization of resentment against outgroups. Trump’s record is rich in dehumanization. It was evident

• when he called Mexican migrants “criminals” and “rapists.”
• When he claimed legal mistreatment from a judge because “he’s a Mexican.” (Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel was born in Indiana.)
• When he proposed a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.”
• When he attacked Muslim Gold Star parents.
• When he sidestepped opportunities to criticize former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.
• When he referred to “very fine people” among the white-supremacist protesters in Charlottesville.
• When he expressed a preference for Norwegian immigrants above those from nonwhite “shithole countries.”

And since Gerson’s commentary was published, Trump’s dehumanization has been stunningly evident in his “zero-tolerance” policy that separated several thousand young children from their parents; he subsequently changed policy only after extraordinary pressure from the American people, other world leaders, and, more significantly, from Republican politicians who recognized the damage he was doing to his party.  In reversing his decision, Trump blamed others and would not even acknowledge his own complicity, thus encouraging his supporters’ faith in him that, as he said in accepting the Republican nomination for president: “I alone can fix it.”

Gerson again:

This is more than a disturbing pattern; it is an organizing political principle. And it has resulted in a series of radiating consequences.

In West Virginia, Republican Senate candidate Don Blankenship accused Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) of creating jobs for “China people” and getting donations from his “China family.” (McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, was born in Taiwan.) In Georgia, Republican gubernatorial candidate Michael Williams drives around in a bus he promises to fill with “illegals” who will be deported to Mexico. On the rear is stamped: “Murderers, rapists, kidnappers, child molestors [sic], and other criminals on board.” In Arizona, Republican Senate candidate (and former Maricopa County sheriff) Joe Arpaio is a proud “birther” with a history of profiling and abusing Hispanic migrants ….  In Wisconsin, Republican House candidate Paul Nehlen runs as a “pro-white Christian American candidate.”

These may be fringe figures, but more mainstream Republicans have not been much better.  Until the “zero-tolerance policy,” which created revulsion around the world and threatened the existence of their party, very few Republicans who had not already announced their retirement, were willing to confront Trump’s obvious prejudice or challenge his fitness to be president.

Trump’s attitudes have moved the entire Republican Party toward increasing intolerance.  Candidates have outbid each other to be the most exclusionary.  Gerson again:

Mainstream attitudes toward refugees and legal immigration have become more xenophobic. Trump has not only given permission to those on the fringes; he has also changed the Republican mean to be more mean.

This raises disturbing questions about the degree to which we will be able to reverse Trump’s pernicious attack on democracy after he leaves office.

Almost 250 years ago, the founders of our country recognized that self-government depended upon more than mere tolerance.  In the Declaration of Independence, the founders

hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men [sic] are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

As a people we recognize that when Hispanic immigrants, African Americans, women or Japanese Americans (immigrant or not) are deprived of fundamental rights, the basis for true democracy is deeply threatened.

Democracy depends upon the people’s ongoing affirmation that all people—all races, all ethnicities, all nationalities—all are created equal.  There is no exception for immigrants.  The founders recognized that democracy depended on our being proud of offering liberty to everyone … even those waiting to be recognized.  Yes, we may delay the right to vote or even withhold the right to reside here permanently, but we may not withhold fundamental human rights: respect for the humanity of all: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Our democracy thrives on respect for those who are different from ourselves.  It thrives when we recognize the gifts and value of “the other.”  It thrives when we welcome the stranger.

But, even leaving aside of questions of thriving, our democracy depends, at the very least, upon tolerance for those we disagree with, for those whose culture is different from ours, even for those who cross our borders without documents.  As Trump systematically organizes resentment against the “other,” our democracy—and we who value it—will suffer.