Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ‘16

Guest blogger: Joshua Goetz, J.D. Candidate 2016 University of San Francisco School of Law

With escalating anti-immigrant vitriol, partly in response to the Syrian refugee crisis, 2016 Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump has called for a “total and complete” block on Muslims entering the United States.

Trump continued: “Until we are able to determine and understand this problem and the dangerous threat it poses, our country cannot be the victims [sic] of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in jihad, and have no sense of reason or respect for human life.”

When asked if customs agents would ask a person his or her religion, Trump answered: “That would be probably…they would say, uh, are you Muslim?”

Trump was then asked: “And if they answer yes, they would not be allowed in the country?”

Trump answered: “That is correct.”

Not only are Trump’s recent comments divisive among Americans and the world at large, but also they are divisive among his fellow Republican presidential candidates.

Republican presidential candidate and former Governor Jeb Bush reacted to Trump’s comments: “What we shouldn’t do is to just, you know, say all Muslims aren’t coming into our country…You’ve got to find the proper balance of believing in American values and being serious and real about keeping us safe.”

It is understandable that Bush would want to distance himself from Trump’s increasingly polarizing rhetoric, but Bush’s values might not be as far removed from Trump’s values as Bush’s reaction suggests.

On the topic of whether to allow Syrian refugees into the United States, Bush said that we could take some…if they were Christian. When asked how that would work, Bush answered: “…you’re a Christian. I mean you can prove you’re a Christian. It’s…I think you can prove it.”

There seems to be a lot of talk among Republican presidential candidates regarding the Syrian refugee crisis, but there does not seem to be a lot being said.

Whether it is the extreme position taken by the likes of Donald Trump, Dr. Ben Carson, and Senator Marco Rubio, or the slightly less extreme position taken by the likes of former Governor Jeb Bush and Senator Ted Cruz, the positions taken regarding the Syrian refugee crisis by the 2016 Republican presidential candidates seem to be two sides of the same coin. To be fair, Trump’s position is broader in scope and more menacing in language than Bush’s position, but both positions reek of xenophobia and more specifically of Islamophobia.

We now have 14 Republican presidential candidates jockeying for position along fairly indistinguishable lines on the issue of the Syrian refugee crisis among many other issues. And so, as Hunter S. Thompson chronicled the breakdown of the Democratic Party as it split between candidates in Fear and Loathing on the Campaign trail ’72, maybe here too we will see the breakdown of the Republican Party as it splits between candidates in the 2016 Republican primaries…one can hope.

I honestly cannot imagine that the Republican Party will survive itself in the 2016 presidential election. But then, I have lived through stranger presidential elections. George W. Bush was elected President…twice. I could not have imagined that George W. Bush would have been elected in either of his bids for the Presidency. Both times, I found myself in utter shock. But both times, I was living in San Francisco. It can be difficult to keep your finger on the pulse of the nation when you live in a city that leans so heavily in one political direction.

Maybe I will be disillusioned over the Holidays. I will be spending them with my family in Central Illinois. Illinois is generally predictably a blue state, but as far as I can tell, that has everything to do with Chicago. Chicago and Central Illinois and Southern Illinois are worlds apart. I can be sure to hear at some point someone talking about this clever thing or that that Rush Limbaugh said about former Secretary Hilary Clinton being a femi-nazi and Senator Bernie Sanders being a pinko-communist or about how the Mexicans are going to take all of our jobs and the Muslims are going to kill us all.

But there is hope in Central Illinois even if it is silent hope. At a recent Trump rally in Springfield, Illinois, a young black woman was plucked from the audience, ostensibly for political reasons, and seated directly behind Trump during his speech. Unimpressed with Trump’s vitriol, she sat in silent protest and read a book. It made national news.

Who knows where United States immigration policy is going? Who knows where the Republican primaries are going? Who knows how the presidential election will ultimately unfold? I do not know, but I hope that as a nation, we will soon move past this most recent and ugly chapter of xenophobia and Islamophobia.

bh