Over the last six-plus years, racism and bigotry from tea partiers has become par for the course. But even by these standards, a statement by a tea-swilling Republican official in Missouri is breathtaking. In his view, while hating races is bad, hating a nation or a religion is just peachy.
Last weekend, some 200 people attended a “Tea Party for Trump” rally at a Harley-Davidson dealership in Festus, south of St. Louis. While the headliner was Jim Hoft of Gateway Pundit–who lives in the St. Louis area–the most staggering moment came from former Missouri GOP chairman Ed Martin. While warming up the crowd for Hoft, Martin declared that some forms of hate are perfectly acceptable in this day and age.
“Donald Trump is for Americans first. He’s for us first. It is not selfish to support, or to be for, your neighbor, as opposed to someone from another nation. And Mexico, Mexicans, that’s not a race. You’re not racist if you don’t like Mexicans. They’re from a nation. If you don’t think Muslims are vetted enough because they blow things up, that’s not racist. There’s white Muslims, black Muslims, green Muslims. This is not racism.”
Lest you think this is snark, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch got a clip.
Yep, folks, this is what passed for leadership in the Missouri GOP from 2013 to 2015.
Martin is a reasonably well-educated fellow. He got his bachelor’s degree at Holy Cross, and his law degree from Saint Louis University. So I’m pretty sure he knows that when Martin says hating races is bad and hating a nation is good, he’s making a distinction without a difference. Bigotry is bigotry and hate is hate–whether the target is a race or a nation.
When Ghazala Hayat, the public relations director for the Islamic Federation of St. Louis, heard Martin’s remarks, she called them for what they were–“bigotry.” She slammed Martin for using the crimes of “less than .01 percent” of Muslims to tar an entire faith, and added that “more than anyone else in America,” Muslims want nothing to do with terrorism.
Martin tried to get out of this hole on Thursday–but only managed to dig himself an even deeper hole. He claimed that he didn’t really mean to attack Mexicans–just illegal immigrants. He also claimed that when he made his comments about Muslims, he only meant to say that “it is not racist to make clear that some Muslims should not be coming to America.” Again, a distinction without a difference.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t this the same mentality that led to ethnic cleansing campaigns and pogroms? After all, they were based on hatred of a nation or religion, not a race. I’m sure Martin recalls how the waves of ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia happened because of Serbs hating Croats, Serbs hating Bosnians, Croats hating Bosnians, etc. Does Martin think that was okay, since they were based on hatred of nations? If the answer is yes, then it would confirm that there must have been something in Martin’s tea before stepping on the podium.
(featured image courtesy Missouri Times’ Twitter)
