Spiridon Louis wrote:
No. He’s pro-America and anti-people who aren’t America. Said another way, “America first.” That’s not racist.
My answer is yes.
To address the above poster.......if you take that literally.....yes. He's against the Chinese and other trade problems, wants more advantageous immigration policy with surrounding countries, and wants to reshape our role abroad in national security.
Taken in the way I'm pretty sure you and POTUS mean it.......it's a pretty vile and disgusting thing to divide a united populous under one flag as "not American" because they disagree with your ideology.
How many revolting communist, socialist, fascist dictatorial leaders can we think of that basically said "you don't agree with me, so you're not 'us'".......and acted on it?
Also, your opinion of "no" isn't well justified with the sentences after that. Just because someone wants to divide and conquer a populous by excluding dissenters from the republic doesn't make them racist........nor does it make them not racist.
The key I think a few of you forget is that he told US Citizens to go back to another country. He made a presumption based on race and religious affiliation about their countries of origin. So, he's batting 3 for 3 on both racist and Islamophobe and arguably xenophobe.
It's like the old "well, black people like watermelon and fried chicken". Or, white men can't jump or dance. She's Muslim so she must not be from America: 1. She's Latina so she must not be from America: 2. They share an idea I don't like that has origins from other countries and I'm attacking that (it isn't native): 3. For #3, it isn't that he (or you) don't like it. That's perfectly fine. It's the why that matters. He and some others seem to not like it because of where it comes from.
To get more in depth on #3, the xenophobia, it's usually related to bringing up the very old-school American political trick of the most repugnant forms of socialism and communism that can be found abroad. Then draw a parallel, however loose, to yoke a foe to the most repugnant example you can find. Usually a close neighbor like Cuba and conjuring up murderous images of Che and Castro and a truly socialist regime. Or other banana republics.
Not realizing whatsoever that the US has had a long history of quite a few programs that are quite socialist. Uhmmmm, social security? 1935. Medicare, 1965. Disaster relief, FEMA, 1979, trade unions since forever.
We've all got a little racism in us. It's all in how we react when we're confronted about it.