Joe Henderson
In his campaign for the presidency, Donald Trump basically told the American people what he was going to do about immigration.
He was going to be tough. He was going to be ruthless.
Mercy was only for the weak.
He would show the world his version of America. It was a two-handed shove to the chest.
So, if you voted for him, don’t pretend you’re surprised border agents are tearing families apart and you didn’t think it would go that far.
This is the nation Gov. Rick Scott had a hand in creating during the campaign when he backed Trump at every turn.
It’s what Republican gubernatorial candidates Ron DeSantis and Adam Putnam endorse every time they use Trump’s name.
This is the America religious leaders like Franklin Graham supported throughout the campaign and in the first year and a half of Trump’s presidency, even as evidence piled up daily that he was a bully-in-chief.
Now that children are being separated from their parents at the border with no timetable for seeing them again, Graham told the Christian Broadcasting Network, “It’s disgraceful, and it’s terrible to see families ripped apart and I don’t support that one bit.”
Disgraceful? He didn’t see this coming?
How could he not?
Trump’s supporters voted for a man who bragged that his celebrity status gave him the right to grab women anywhere he wanted. He supported white supremacists.
He hired Steve Bannon.
They cheered when he shook a fist and shouted repeatedly about building a wall between Mexico and the United States. They stood with him when he insulted our closest allies.
He called Canada a national security threat, but said of Kim Jong Un, “I think it’s great to give him credibility.”
He tripled the number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, and if some of them act like jackboots, well, that’s just the Trumpian way of enforcing the law, eh?
Trump has been exactly what he promised to be. Did anyone think he was kidding during the campaign and would somehow realize he is the president of 320 million people, not just those who voted for him?
What’s unfolding over immigration is just the next logical step.
He gave people like Attorney General Jeff Sessions power, who now says separating families is OK because the Bible supports it.
“I would cite you to the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13, to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained the government for his purposes,” Sessions said.
Sessions has been justifiably skewered for taking that out of context, but he also ignored the instruction from Jesus in Mark 12: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.”
But hey, people should have seen that coming, too.
After all, Trump told students at Liberty University about a verse in “Two Corinthians” instead of 2nd Corinthians, and he told a group of evangelicals in Iowa that he had never asked God for forgiveness.
Um, the Bible kind makes it clear that seeking forgiveness is important.
Evangelicals voted him anyway in large numbers because he pandered to them. They helped create this. It’s too late for some to say they don’t like it.
None of this is an argument against immigration laws and border enforcement, but there is a way to do it without blowing families apart – and on some level, Trump and his minions know this, don’t they?
But they’re all so focused on being tough that they forget everything else.
On Sunday, Father’s Day, Fox News reported Melania Trump’s office said: “Mrs. Trump hates to see children separated from their families & hopes both sides of the aisle can finally come together to achieve successful immigration reform. She believes we need to be a country that follows all laws but also a country that governs w/heart.”
A heart.
That would be nice. But that’s not what his supporters voted for. They voted for a crude brute who told them what he was going to do. They believed him.
He didn’t let them down.
They own this.
2 comments
Spiro
June 18, 2018 at 1:16 pm
It’s not just tRump supporters; it’s virtually the entire GOP now. tRump daily
puts into practice what his mentor Adolf said years ago (“make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it”).
Tim Curtis
June 18, 2018 at 1:25 pm
As is ever the case with anti-America Little Joey Henderson – he lies! And he’s cowardly enough not to answer my comments. I’ll help Lil’ Joey understand – Trump said he would enforce the law. I know it’s a crazy concept. An elected official actually following and enforcing EXISTING LAW. Joey, try to keep up – IT’S THE LAW! And it is the same law that Obama and Clinton were supposed to enforce. They both enjoy veto-proof congresses yet COMPLETELY FAILED to change/make new law. And for Joey’s benefit and others I’ll include this little tidbit of info – when a legal American citizen is arrested and incarcerated and they are the sole guardian of their infant/toddler/adolescent child(ren), those children are also separated from their parent – BASED ON THE LAW. Joey, would you have us house those children in jail with their law-breaking parent?
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