Only Nixon can go to China; only Trump can scare the bejeesus out of jihadist lunatics, or their backers. I recall a speech that Trump gave in Iowa a month or so ago. He spent the first half hour in vainglorious boasting, and the next in some boasting and some profound truths. He said that America had become entirely too predictable in its negotiating positions. He said that America had to become way less predictable in its negotiating positions. He spoke of the Iranian regime as “great negotiators” while excoriating the pact Obama had created with them. “Great negotiator” is a high accolade in Trump’s estimation.
Trump is not talking to the Atlanticist elites, the New York Times, the media: he is talking past the US public to the Arabs, the Iranians, and he is saying: “I am ready to nuke you fuckers because it might amuse me to do so, then again it might not.” So as Dirty Harry said to the black punk lying on the ground, with a loaded weapon within his reach, “so what it’s going to be punk? Did I shoot six shots or only five?”
That, in my estimation, is what Trump is doing. A very high-stakes negotiation is unfolding before our eyes. And I bet the American people are ready to back him, to the hilt. This was a nation that fought a civil war over slavery, not because Yankees gave a shit about blacks, really, but they were not going to be pushed around by slave owners.
Even the pansified America of Obama is finding its backbone.
Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump on Monday called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States,” the most dramatic response yet to the string of terrorist attacks that have Americans increasingly on edge.
Trump released a statement citing polling data he says shows “there is great hatred towards Americans by large segments of the Muslim population.”
Trump’s announcement comes the day after President Barack Obama addressed the nation, calling on Americans “to reject religious tests on who we admit into this country.”
A number of Republican presidential hopefuls, including Trump, have called on Obama to stop accepting Syrian refugees into the U.S. after last month’s deadly attacks in Paris. Trump, however, is the first to suggest ending Muslim immigration as a whole following the terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California, that killed 14 people.
None of Trump’s GOP rivals has yet to back his call, with many speaking out forcefully against it.
Unhinged fascist demagogue? Not unhinged; he is acutely conscious of what he is doing. Fascist? A fascist is a conservative winning an argument with a liberal. Demagogue? A demagogue is a popular politician calling for radical measures.