When President Trump tweeted that The Squad (Democratic Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar) "originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe" and asked, "Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came," he was engaging in act of racism, defamation and xenophobia.
AOC, Pressley and Tlaib were born and raised in the United States and Omar's family sought asylum in this country when she was a child. Of course, this isn't the first time Trump has pulled this stunt. He did the same with federal judge Gonzalo Curiel during the 2016 campaign when he called the Indiana born justice a "Mexican" while he presided over the Trump University case.
Predictably, Democrats came to the defense of The Squad and, in so doing, made themselves vulnerable to charges of tolerating anti-Semitism which Trump has been all too happy to exploit. Both Omar and Tlaib have a long history of engaging in anti-Semitism and AOC and Pressley have excused their behavior.
Yes, it is wrong for Trump to defame The Squad on the question of race and national origin. But it is equally wrong for The Squad to either engage in anti-Semitism or make excuses for it.
It is for this reason that I cannot support either the Republican or the Democratic parties. At this point, I shall only vote for an individual if they earn my support. While I am willing to listen to what most Democratic presidential candidates have to say none of them have said or done enough to earn my support. Democrats are right to condemn Trump, but wrong to ignore the anti-Semitism or, at the very least the tolerance of it by of The Squad. In so doing Democrats are effectively saying that some forms of bigotry are acceptable or at the very least turning a blind eye to behavior they would condemn of a Republican.
Needless to say, Republicans are spineless when it comes to Trump except for Justin Amash. Then again, Amash isn't a Republican anymore. It will be interesting if Amash makes a presidential bid. If he does I have to know why he was the lone member of Congress to oppose enhancing the role of the U.S. Envoy to Monitor & Combat Anti-Semitism to the status of an Ambassador. At this point, he hasn't engaged in anti-Semitic behavior so I'm disposed to giving Amash the benefit of the doubt. But as admirable as Amash has been he too will have to earn my vote and to earn it he will need to answer this question.
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