There is no longer any doubt that Donald Trump has crossed the bridge from right-wing demagogue to the leader of an American fascist movement. And it is time for all Americans to reject the toxic brew of religious and ethnic hatred he is selling.
His statement of December 7, 2015, calling for a prohibition on Muslim entry into the United States represents an egregious act of irresponsibility. His campaign has already coarsened American political discourse. It has already caused anger and hatred to be directed at ethnic and religious minorities. He has already caused Latinos to fear for their futures. He has caused Muslim-Americans to doubt their place in our great nation.
Trump has crossed barriers that should never be crossed. He crossed those barriers long before December 7. He has called for mass deportations that run contrary to fundamental decency. He has catered to the most paranoid elements of the American body politic and made them mainstream.
Trump, however, has gone beyond even these barriers with his statement of December 7. It can fairly and honestly be said that the looseness of his rhetoric threatens the interests of the United States.
We have an interest in the free mobility of peoples. Our trade, our commerce, our educational system, our tourism, all depend on that. We have a vital interest therefore in opening our doors to the world. We benefit when foreign students choose to study at our universities, or when foreign business people come to our shores to trade, or when global scientific and professional organizations choose to hold their meetings in our great cities. All of that is now put at risk by Trump's fascist rhetoric.
We have an interest as well in seeing that Americans can travel freely abroad, whether for commerce, or knowledge, or seeing and experiencing all that the world has to offer. If we erect barriers, if we even threaten to erect barriers, so will other nations. Peaceful relations among persons and states are served and enhanced by contact and travel. And we have a deep and compelling interest in a peaceful world order.
Donald Trump's proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States will have the further effect of provoking religious hatred, perhaps even religious conflict. ISIS strategy manuals call for constricting the "gray zone," that area of social tolerance which western societies extend to all persons living in their midst. ISIS wants an intolerant society. It thrives and gains sustenance from backlash and hate. Pointing to evidence of hatred and intolerance will only enhance ISIS recruiting. We must not give to ISIS and its kindred the kind of division and discord on which it feeds.
As a Christian, as someone who has studied the Crusades, and who edited a book on the idea of the just war, I am fully conscious of the sins my medieval co-religionists committed in the Middle East. I am aware also how that history lives on in the minds of many Muslims. Muslims have a legitimate list of grievances against the West that extends from bloody-minded Crusader kings, to colonial wars, and even to more recent times. These events still burn brightly in the minds of many. We should not add kerosene and kindling to the mix. American politicians have a duty to be responsible in the language that they use.
Donald Trump still leads in the polling for the Republican presidential nomination. He gives every appearance of not only being the front-runner, but being the strong front-runner. I am not a Republican. Still, I would like to say to my Republican friends that the time has come to stand against Trumpism and all it stands for. La commedia e finita.
Donald Trump should be banished to the sidelines. I have done a quick evening's search of Republican Party rules and it may be difficult to formally disqualify him. On the other hand, there are many less formal steps that the Party can and should take at this time. Republican Party officials -- from Reince Priebus on down -- should no longer appear on a stage with Donald Trump or demonstrate directly or indirectly that they condone his conduct or his presence.
There is, furthermore, no law requiring that Trump be invited to a candidates' debate. Candidates who poll below a certain threshold of support are not invited to debates. Why not invoke a decency requirement? Any candidates whose incendiary remarks are calculated to do great harm to American interests, whose continued candidacy jeopardizes all that we hold dear, should no longer share the stage with candidates who are not deliberately putting our nation at gratuitous risk of harm. Should Trump win delegates in the nominating contest, the credentials of those delegates should be subject to challenge at the convention.
We need to drain our national cesspool of hatred and anger. And a good place to start is by delegitimating Donald Trump as even a pretender to the White House.