What is even more delicious about the whole thing is that it is the Squad themselves who define themselves by race. They don’t use politics or their age or their economic views as the basis for their unity, but it always seems to be their race.It may even be true that the President is far more “color blind” than they are, given that he objects to their opinions of America, not to their skin color, but they see his criticism founded on race alone.
We will admit that the President bought himself some trouble by ignoring the fact that three of the Squad were born in America, giving everyone the opportunity to add “ignorant and xenophobic” to the list of adjectives employed to describe the President, but the Squad does seem to exhibit stronger attachments to the various socialist paradises in the world than to America, which is their native or adopted country. We also can’t help but think of the dozens of Hollywood celebrities who vowed to leave the USA if Donald Trump was elected President. He was, and they didn’t, but their expressed intention is pretty much the same thing as the President’s suggestion. Come to think of it, some of them made the same promise if George Bush was elected, and they didn’t keep that one, either. Their talk was cheap grandstanding and was not serious, but they sure take the President’s suggestion seriously.
A hundred years’ worth of American radicals have been criticized for expressing admiration for Communism or some other form of government in preference to our own, but criticism is seen as“racist” only when those radicals are non-white, or consider themselves non-white. The original “love it or leave it” sentiment of the Vietnam era was made in objection to the political statements of those invited to leave, not at their race. And, although he did not at all demand that the Squad leave our shores forever, the President’s sentiments were aimed at the many ridiculous statements, distortions and shaky assertions of the Squad, not at their color or origin. President Trump was visibly displeased when a few members of the audience at his political rally in North Carolina chanted “send her back,” and he later disavowed that sentiment. But even this effort to extend an olive branch was disdained and rejected. So much for the tolerance and good manners of the progressive left.
Here is the bitter truth: the Squad, or radical progressives, or leftists, or socialists, or anyone can express the utmost contempt for America and can scoff at its institutions and its heritage, and can ridicule traditional patriotic gestures that have been honored by many generations of Americans, but they seethe with indignation if one disagrees with them for doing so. They are incensed that one “dares to question their patriotism,” even as they demean, despise, and deride those traditional patriotic gestures made by others.
Yes, it is maddening, and although we wish the President could have done so in a more gracious manner, we can understand how he felt a need to defend America, and himself. He did issue a clarification of sorts, when he said, “these are people in my opinion that hate our country. Get a list of all of the statements they have made. All I’m saying is that if they’re not happy here, they can leave.” Like many of his clarifications, that made his critics even angrier, for, we repeat, they are allowed to criticize but do not want to be criticized for it.