Donald Trump has normalized hatred in America. During his campaign, he said despicable things about Mexican immigrants, African-Americans, women, and Muslims. And now that hatred is being expressed by Republicans who ardently support Trump and consider his every word to be truth.
Over the course of the 2016 race for the White House, Sabrina Siddiqui, a reporter for the Guardian, talked to a great many Trump acolytes and other members of the GOP who were supporting one of the Republican candidates. She asked one of them at a campaign event what should be done about Muslims in the United States. His reply:
“We should exterminate them.”
Siddiqui, by the way, is a Muslim, and she recalls the moment when the man told her American Muslims should be killed if they refused to leave the country:
“Although his words remain with me 19 months later, I didn’t make too much of it then. Only now, in retrospect, does the encounter foreshadow the anger and fear that was a dominant theme of the 2016 campaign… There were many more chilling conversations with those who, like the man in South Carolina, wished aloud for violence and concentration camps.”
Anger and fear are what Trump used to stir up voters so they’d cast their ballots for him. Republicans have used fear for decades as a way to win elections. They know they cannot win on the issues, so they frighten Americans with threats of terrorism, crime, and the unknown. But as this voter proved when he spoke to Sabrina Siddiqui, fear and anger only serve to encourage violence, hatred, racism, and intolerance.
Featured Image Via Citispotter
