Tuesday, January 31, 2017

And on the 7th day, Trump violated the first amendment prohibitions against a state religion

By Mark Sumner
Saturday Jan 28, 2017 · 8:30 PM EST

How do you destroy a democracy? You do it fast. You do it while people still think traditions have meaning. You do it while people still expect policies to be followed. You do it while people still believe that institutions have value. And if it takes coming in on a weekend to erase democracy … you make that sacrifice.

On Friday, Donald Trump signed an executive order abruptly cutting off travel from seven predominantly Muslim nations. But Trump’s order avoided nations where he does business as well as those that were home to the 9/11 terrorists. If the religious bigotry wasn’t obvious enough, Trump followed up by making it clear that Christian refugees get special treatment while Muslims are left behind—a blatant violation of the first amendment.

Trump’s order was so poorly planned and executed that the result wasn’t just clearly immoral, it was also confused and chaotic. With not just refugees, but ordinary immigrants, including many who were already working in the United States, caught up in the misrule.

Watching not just US policy, but the last grains of the nation’s moral standing scrawled away with Trump’s bigoted order didn't bother Republicans. Who found they had something to say on every topic — except that of families torn apart, legal immigrants stranded in airports, and people who had put their lives on the line to serve with the United States being denied the admission they were promised.

But Democratic legislators did come forward and continue to speak out against Trump’s “xenophobic” order and in defense of the people trapped between two worlds by a regime that would rather frighten Americans with the boogeyman of nonexistent danger than uphold the values that truly made America great.

As Trump signed a new brace of executive orders (including one that invites the Secretary of Defense to take another look at torture), Trump was asked about his Muslim ban. His response was to deny that it is a Muslim ban and also to deny the evidence of world-snarling f*ck up visible on every television screen.

And above all this was a reminder to Democrats that there is no nominee, no policy, no subject on which they should support Trump.

Read more
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/1/28/1626628/-And-on-the-7th-day-Trump-violated-the-first-amendment-prohibitions-against-a-state-religion

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