Donald Trump is throwing American religious freedom under the campaign bus.
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Wikipedia states the following: Godwin’s law (or Godwin’s rule of Nazi analogies) is an Internet adage asserting that…if an online discussion (regardless of topic or scope) goes on long enough, sooner or later someone will compare someone or something to Hitler or Nazism.
Well, screw Godwin’s Law, because Donald Trump has stepped over the line.
Yahoo News is reporting this in an interview with Donald Trump published this morning:
“We’re going to have to do things that we never did before. And some people are going to be upset about it, but I think that now everybody is feeling that security is going to rule,” Trump said. “And certain things will be done that we never thought would happen in this country in terms of information and learning about the enemy. And so we’re going to have to do certain things that were frankly unthinkable a year ago.”
Yahoo News asked Trump whether this level of tracking might require registering Muslims in a database or giving them a form of special identification that noted their religion. He wouldn’t rule it out.
Don’t like ads? Become a supporter and enjoy The Good Men Project ad free“We’re going to have to — we’re going to have to look at a lot of things very closely,” Trump said when presented with the idea. “We’re going to have to look at the mosques. We’re going to have to look very, very carefully.”
If you disagree with an idea you have to say so. Mr. Trump did not. Mr. Trump allowed a similar moment to pass when a man asked him about “getting rid of them” earlier in the campaign.
“We have a problem in this country. It’s called Muslims,” an unidentified man who spoke at a question-and-answer town hall event in Rochester, New Hampshire asked the mogul at a rally Thursday night. “You know our current president is one. You know he’s not even an American.”
A seemingly bewildered Trump interrupted the man, chuckling, “We need this question. This is the first question.”
“Anyway, we have training camps growing where they want to kill us,” the man, wearing a “Trump” T-shirt, continued. “That’s my question: When can we get rid of them?”
“We’re going to be looking at a lot of different things,” Trump replied. “You know, a lot of people are saying that and a lot of people are saying that bad things are happening. We’re going to be looking at that and many other things.”
The real estate mogul did not correct the questioner about his claims about Obama before moving on to another audience member.
Mr. Trump is following an age old political strategy. He is using dangerously divisive and bigoted views of race and religion to gain political power. In doing so, he is suggesting we set aside our what our founding father’s framed as a clear and unambiguous guarantee of religious freedom under American law.
This is neither a conservative or liberal issue. This is about our essential rights as Americans. This is about the central role religious tolerance plays in creating a stable and peaceful society. And it begs the obvious question: after they come for the Muslims, who will they come for next?
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AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast
Donald Trump won’t rule out the possibility of creating databases and IDs to track U.S. Muslims https://t.co/StFQ2MhWu1
— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) November 19, 2015
So remember yesterday, when I asked which Republican candidate would have a final solution for refugees? https://t.co/0rgdMLq4if — Chris Kluwe (@ChrisWarcraft) November 19, 2015
People in pre-war Europe thought Hitler was a joke politician at one point. https://t.co/2YURa2m2Uq
— Dan (@DPorterBrown) November 19, 2015
German-American Donald Trump won’t rule out warrantless searches, ID cards for American Muslims https://t.co/gVNA5bPX2A — oc (@ocblues) November 19, 2015
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Yes, Donald Trump is a fascist. https://t.co/pJi3JBm5P8 pic.twitter.com/KDDnXlJc3T — New Republic (@NewRepublic) November 19, 2015
Trump might consider making Muslims wear yellow crescents etc. Remember reading about that in history book somewhere https://t.co/n51W97s1hA
— Steve Silberman (@stevesilberman) November 19, 2015
Special Muslim IDs. So it’s now actually fair (!) to speak of Donald Trump as America’s Adolf Hitler. Good to know. https://t.co/8R2rTOQCEa — Brian F. Kelcey (@stateofthecity) November 19, 2015
Trump on Muslims: “certain things will be done that we thought would never happen in this country”: https://t.co/6N23NQrjdW — Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) November 19, 2015
Trump crosses line into fascism. Won’t rule out registering Muslim-Americans. https://t.co/9S2sTLdbDd
— Mark Greene (@megaSAHD) November 19, 2015
By the way, let’s not forget that Donald Trump is averaging several interviews, speeches, and Q&A sessions per week. You’ve chosen TWO. In fact, you’ve chosen small bits from two. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4c3c8qdNDM Hey! Maybe people support Trump, not because of “dangerously divisive and bigoted views,” but rather because of his stances on multiple issues in which he’s apparently far more knowledge than you are when it comes to politics. I bet you’re one of those that still insists that Donald Trump’s stance on illegal immigration translates to racism or opposition to immigration as a whole and nevermind that his mother and… Read more »
“Donald Trump is throwing American religious freedom under the campaign bus” – actually he isn’t per se, he’s throwing all religious freedoms under the bus that don’t agree with his. It’s frankly an acerbic problem that is accentuated under a two party system where by lots of little factions lump themselves together in the hopes of being the dominant party that gets to call the shots. Frankly the part that bothers me the most is if there are so “many of us” who still value things like inclusion and co-existence, how on earth is he or many in the GOP… Read more »
Trump is polling well among the GOP base. During primaries, the most ideologically strident members of any given party are what come to the forefront. God willing his percentage will drop when taken as a part of the voting public as a whole. My issue is simple. We have to stop laughing at this guy and start treating him as a serious threat to basic American values.
Let me guess, you don’t like Trump
I don’t like Trump’s actions. I don’t actually know Trump.