Shameful decision: SCOTUS Upholds Trump’s Muslim Ban
Trump is taking victory laps after the Supreme Court allowed his travel ban. Here’s his crowing tweet from yesterday morning.
Donald J. TrumpVerified account @realDonaldTrump 59m59 minutes ago SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS TRUMP TRAVEL BAN. Wow!
But really, who cares? In the long run, all the ban will accomplish will be to further stain Trump’s, and this Supreme Court’s, reputation in the Eyes of History. In the short run, only his xenophobic followers will be happy; they don’t particularly like anyone who’s not white and Christian, but they especially fear and loathe Muslims and this ban is—let’s face it—a Muslim ban, with Venezuela added as a credible facade to pretend that it’s not.
The Court’s 5-4 decision was predictable. Roberts, Alito and Gorsuch will almost always support conservative causes, especially if they touch on racial and ethnic matters; those three gentlemen have repeatedly indicated they prefer an America that is white and Christian. They were joined, as usual, by the sole Black Justice, Clarence Thomas, who is widely viewed as an Uncle Tom by his fellow African-Americans.
“Let’s just say most African Americans are repulsed by the very thought of him and his history,” says the website Urban Intellectuals. The black Mississippi Congressman, Bennie Thompson, agrees; so did the white Congressman Ryan Winkler, although he was later forced to apologize.
No apologies here! Clarence Thomas has kissed the boots of his white masters ever since Reagan appointed him Chairman of the Equal Opportunity Commission, in 1982. Thomas may have come to Washington to do good, but he did well. Being a lackey for reactionary politicians, who wouldn’t want to live next door to a Black person, appears to have troubled him not at all as he grew rich and powerful at the behest of those white overlords, who loved having a docile Black lickspittle do their bidding.
So people from the seven countries Trump has banned will no longer be allowed into the U.S. I don’t see how this will impact our national security, or boost our economy, one bit, or create a single job. It will inconvenience a lot of foreigners, but Republicans don’t care for foreigners anyway. Along these lines I am reminded of Trump’s statement a few days ago that “My people love it [i.e. family separation at the southern border).” Of course they do. Trump’s people are virulently anti-brown-skinned and black-skinned people, especially foreigners, who they believe (via Trump) are “infesting” America.
Interesting verb, “infest. “To overrun or inhabit in large numbers; swarm in or over,” is how my Webster’s defines it. As in insects: fleas, lice, mosquitos, ants, termites infest, and thereby must be eradicated. Hitler used a similar analogy when he referred to Jews: “The Jewish bacillus,” he repeatedly called them, in colorful sloganeering that brought his rightwing, white supremacist followers to their feet with cheers and Heils. Here’s one example from hundreds: “Don’t be misled into thinking you can fight a disease without killing the carrier, without destroying the bacillus. Don’t think you can fight racial tuberculosis without taking care to rid the nation of the carrier of that racial tuberculosis. This Jewish contamination will not subside, this poisoning of the nation will not end, until the carrier himself, the Jew, has been banished from our midst.”
Infest…contaminate…bacillus…c’est la même chose. Today, it’s “banishment” or “ban.” Tomorrow, internment camps on military bases for thousands. And the next day? Paging Pastor Niemöller.
Trump even appears to have closely studied Hitler’s speechifying histrionics and copied them:
No rational analyst, as far as I can determine, thinks that travelers from the seven banned countries pose the slightest risk to Americans—at least, no more risk than travelers from, say, Saudi Arabia (whence the Sept. 11 hijackers came), or Belgium or India or anyplace else, for that matter. I mean, are we really afraid of Venezuelan terrorists? Hawaii v. Trump undoubtedly will be listed in future lists of the worst Supreme Court decisions in U.S. history, alongside Dred Scott (Black Americans aren’t citizens), Korematsu v. U.S. (which allowed the Japanese-American internment camps), Plessy v. Ferguson (permitting segregated public schools) and Bowers v. Hardwick (criminalized gay sexuality). It just proves that merely because someone is on the Supreme Court doesn’t make him a decent person.
But such horrible consequences don’t matter to Trump’s protectors on SCOTUS, who publicly state they value “the law” over morality, but who privately (to judge from their decisions) favor Republican causes. They have enabled Trump once again. He will once again feel vindicated, invincible; once again he will brag to his white supremacist followers, “You see? I’m right. Everything’s going our way. God bless Gorsuch!” Once again those followers will be emboldened, and will double down on their bug-eyed, screaming hysteria at Trump rallies. And once again, The Resistance will roll up its sleeves, gird our loins, dust off our wounds, and do battle.
