Mickey Friedman
August 5, 2019
You can spend your days and nights responding to lies. Rep. Ilhan Omar expresses concern about Republican attempts to end a refugee resettlement program: “the only leverage you have is that you are part of this contract and you can be part of the negotiations on how many people get resettled in your state. And so it is not that they might not be knowledgeable about this, but they use it as a tool to stir up hate and division. And ignorance really is pervasive in many parts of, of this country. And as someone who was raised by educators, I really like to inform people about things that they might be ignorant to, willingly or unwillingly”.
Yet President Pinocchio lies to his MAGA supporters in North Carolina: Omar “looks down with contempt on the hard-working Americans, saying that ignorance is pervasive in many parts of this country.”
Telling Americans: “I hear the way she talks about Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda has killed many Americans. She said you can hold your chest out, you can — when I think of America, when I think of Al Qaeda I can hold my chest out.”
This is absolutely false. The New York Times writes: “grossly distorting — remarks Ms. Omar made during a 2013interview … Nowhere in the interview does she proclaim ‘love’ for Al Qaeda or ‘how great’ the terrorist group is. In fact, Ms. Omar repeatedly noted that Al Qaeda and Al Shabab had committed ‘evil’ acts and ‘atrocities’ and were ‘taking part in terror’ around the world.” No chest out, just a description of a professor she once had who “every time the professor said Al Qaeda, he sort of like — his shoulders went up.”
More Trump lies about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna S. Pressley, Rashida Tlaib, and Ilhan Omar: “When I hear the hatred they have for Israel and the love they have for enemies like Al Qaeda, then you know what? … A politician that hears somebody, where we’re at war with Al Qaeda, and sees somebody talking about how great Al Qaeda is.”
You need permission to hate. And nothing works better than a lie. Who wouldn’t hate a strange woman who calls you ignorant? Who embraces the enemy?
Slavers said blacks were inferior. Segregationists called King a communist. Told civil rights activists to go back to Africa. Told anti-war demonstrators “love it or leave it.” Liars lie to protect their corrupt purposes. The truth about Trump: incompetence, collusion, obstruction. The answer, Omar supports terror.
This feels like the moment when the lying, self-absorbed bully moves from dangerous to lethal. The moment the tyrant needs to unleash the beast.
So often white rage is inflicted on people of color. Many think of lynching as a historical artifact, a deeply disturbing black and white photo in a book you really didn’t want to read. You don’t remember segregation. Didn’t know Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, Philando Castile? How many white folks know that more than 57 percent of African-American women killed by police were unarmed?
People of color are the canaries in our unsafe coal mine. Killed first.
But let’s avoid simple stereotypes. Remember Trump’s so-called base, the deplorable poor white working class left behind. Except Hillary Clinton got 53% of votes from those who earned 30,000 or less; 51% of those who earned between $30,000 and $49,900. Trump, on the other hand, got 50% of those earning between $50,000 and $99,900. Won 48% to 47% of those between $100,000 and $199,900. 49% to 48% between $200,000 and $249,900; and 48% to 46% above $250,000.
Yes, Trump won 51% of voters without a high school diploma, compared to Clinton’s 45%. But in 2012, President Obama won 64% of their votes. The UK Guardian headline put it clearly: “White and wealthy voters gave victory to Donald Trump, exit polls show.”
So who will join the President’s descent to unbridled racism and political intolerance? Believe that progressive critics of the President are the enemies of true blue, true white America? Believe his lies about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna S. Pressley, Rashida Tlaib, and Ilhan Omar.
This will require a mind-boggling suspension of disbelief. Because none of them deferred to the Russian Communist who interfered in our election. None believed Putin, the former KGB operative who kills his opponents. Disbelieved our intelligence services and the FBI.
None of them exchanged love letters with Kim, the brutal North Korean Communist dictator who starves his people, who killed an American for taking a poster from a hotel room.
I saw shiny white faces, and their children, yelling “send her back!” I saw the well-fed, well-dressed white middle class. Liberated to hate, relishing the moment they could proudly announce they wanted their world to be white.
More than ever, when the lies turn lethal, the burden is on decent white Americans to say loudly and without equivocation: I won’t tolerate racism or racists.
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“When Lies Turn Lethal” was first published in the July 25, 2019 issue of The Berkshire Record.