{"id":76146,"date":"2019-07-18T10:53:57","date_gmt":"2019-07-18T16:53:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=76146"},"modified":"2019-07-18T10:53:57","modified_gmt":"2019-07-18T16:53:57","slug":"send-her-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/07\/send-her-back.html","title":{"rendered":"“Send her back!”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Happy<\/a>
My loyalty is to the Constitution and to our constitutional republic, not to any politician.(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

By now, you\u2019ve probably heard about the Trump rally in North Carolina yesterday in which, with reference to Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and uncorrected by the President, the crowd began to chant \u201cSend her back! \u00a0Send her back!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve already expressed my opinion of the presidential tweet that started all of this. \u00a0(See here<\/a> and here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I haven\u2019t yet called attention to the absolutely astonishing and utterly Orwellian attempt by one of Mr. Trump\u2019s campaign personnel to rebut criticisms of what the President tweeted:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump Campaign Staffer Claims \u2018Twitter is Lying,\u2019 Says President Never Tweeted \u2018Go Back\u2019 to House Democrats.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

(For further insight, see William Shakespeare\u2019s The Taming of the Shrew<\/em><\/a>, Act IV, Scene v, in which Petruchio plays the role of a Trump campaign staffer and Katharina takes the part of the American public.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

From Wikipedia: \u00a0\u201cA\u00a0big lie<\/em>\u00a0(German:\u00a0gro\u00dfe L\u00fcge<\/i>) is a\u00a0propaganda\u00a0technique and logical trick (fallacy). The expression was coined by\u00a0Adolf Hitler, when he dictated his 1925 book\u00a0Mein Kampf<\/i>, about the use of a lie so \u2018colossal\u2019 that no one would believe that someone \u2018could have the impudence to distort the\u00a0truth\u00a0so infamously\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Let me now quote the reactions of three conservative commentators to that North Carolina chant. \u00a0They are reactions with which I agree.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone who follows me,\u201d wrote Ryan Saavedra of the Daily Wire<\/em>, \u201cknows that I cover the far-left and that includes Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and I\u2019m aggressive in my reporting which comes from a conservative angle. With that said, chanting \u2018send her back\u2019 at Omar is not good. Keep in mind, I am one of her harshest critics.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Send her back\u2019\u00a0is an appalling chant,\u201d wrote Guy Benson, the editor of Town Hall<\/em>. \u00a0\u201cOmar is a US citizen. My less-catchy chant would be: \u2018Condemn her bigotry, combat her radicalism, and investigate her seriously alleged fraud!'\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cVile,\u201d wrote the conservative commentator Ben Shapiro. \u201cOmar is awful. She is a radical anti-Semite with terrible views. She is also an American citizen and chanting for her deportation based on her exercise of the First Amendment is disgusting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

That North Carolina crowd was following the President\u2019s lead. \u00a0Not only as provided in his now notorious tweet, but as illustrated throughout his political career and even before. \u00a0Consider, for example, just these two recent examples:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cDonald Trump Lashes Out at \u2018Stupid Guy\u2019 U.K. Ambassador Who Called Him \u2018Insecure\u2019 in Leaked Emails\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump continues to lash out at British ambassador:\u00a0<\/span>Diplomat referred to the president as a \u2018pompous fool\u2019 in emails\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump calls Ryan a \u2018baby\u2019 after the former speaker blasted him in a new book\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump blasts Paul Ryan as \u2018weak, ineffective & stupid\u2019 in fresh attack on ex-Speaker\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I agree with the startling assessment of the distinguished conservative writer George Will, made just the other day on CNN:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that what this president has done to our culture, to our civic discourse . . . you cannot unring these bells and you cannot unsay what he has said, and you cannot change that he has now in a very short time made it seem normal for schoolboy taunts and obvious lies to be spun out in a constant stream. I think this will do more lasting damage than Richard Nixon\u2019s surreptitious burglaries did.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

As I\u2019ve explained before, the American presidency combines the roles of ceremonial\/symbolic \u201chead of state\u201d and practical \u201chead of government\u201d that are separated in many other nations (e.g., in the United Kingdom, with its monarch and prime minister, and in, say, both Israel and Germany, which have a president and a prime minister). \u00a0Each role is quite important. \u00a0Our president isn\u2019t merely the chief executive; he also lays the wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, honors national champion sports teams, speaks at times of national tragedy, and so forth.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ideally, a president should be good in both of these roles. \u00a0Donald J. Trump, however, is plainly inadequate and inappropriate as a head of state. \u00a0He is coarse, divisive, brazenly dishonest, and anything but a moral exemplar.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Which means, alas, that \u2014 as things currently stand \u2014 I\u2019m probably going to throw my vote away again in the 2020 presidential election.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The fact that I\u2019ve even thought<\/em> about possibly voting for Joe Biden \u2014 Joe Biden!<\/em> \u2014 illustrates how desperate I am. \u00a0Still, the Democrat lurch to the left that begins to make Mr. Biden seem moderate by comparison also makes it impossible for me to consider that party right now. \u00a0They are flirting with quasi-socialist ideas that will blight the economic prospects of millions of Americans and diminish American liberty. \u00a0And likely Democratic appointments to the federal judiciary would damage the United States for generations to come.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I just can\u2019t go there.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

But neither can I, in good conscience, cast a ballot for Mr. Donald J. Trump.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I realize that he\u2019s put conservative people in federal judgeships and, most notably, on the Supreme Court. \u00a0And I\u2019m very happy about that. \u00a0Moreover, there are several other appointments and policy decisions of the Trump administration that I\u2019ve supported. \u00a0I haven\u2019t counted them up, but I probably agree with more of the Trump administration\u2019s policies, both foreign and domestic, than I disagree. \u00a0However, my form of conservatism is about much more than mere politics and policies. \u00a0It\u2019s a view of life, of community. \u00a0A particular vision of social grace.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Perhaps if I didn\u2019t live in Utah, I would have a more difficult time with my decision. \u00a0But we all know that, pending Ragnar\u00f6k, my adopted home state will go (however unenthusiastically) for Trump in 2020. \u00a0No matter what I<\/em> do.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t recall exactly when it was during the 2016 Republican primaries that I decided that I simply could not vote for Donald Trump. \u00a0I think it was when he was at a rally and was mocking Senator Marco Rubio, a primary opponent who had been sweating profusely under the hot lights at a very recent Republican debate. \u00a0(Senator Rubio apparently suffers from the sweat disorder called hyperhidrosis, a frustrating problem that also afflicts a beloved member of my family.) \u00a0Anyway, as Mr. Trump made fun of \u201cLittle Marco Rubio\u201d and, to illustrate how sweaty the Senator had been, ostentatiously and cruelly poured a bottle of water onto the stage beside his podium, I suddenly exclaimed \u201cThat\u2019s it. \u00a0I can\u2019t do it. \u00a0I can\u2019t vote for such a man.\u201d \u00a0I considered him not only unpresidential but unworthy of the presidency.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And other disclosures, about his business dealings and his treatment of women and so forth and so on, haven\u2019t done anything to change my view.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

So that\u2019s where I still am.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I feel disenfranchised. \u00a0I\u2019m not happy about it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 By now, you\u2019ve probably heard about the Trump rally in North Carolina yesterday in which, with reference to Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and uncorrected by the President, the crowd began to chant \u201cSend her back! \u00a0Send her back!\u201d \u00a0 I\u2019ve already expressed my opinion of the presidential tweet that started all of this. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n"Send her back!"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    By now, you've probably heard about the Trump rally in North Carolina yesterday in which, with reference to Rep. 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