Trump likes waterboarding a lot
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights doesn’t think much of Donald Trump.
Mr Hussein said at a news briefing in Geneva: “If Donald Trump is elected on the basis of what he has said already – and unless that changes – I think it is without any doubt that he would be dangerous from an international point of view.”
Mr Hussein said he was “not keen or intent on interfering in any political campaign within any particular country”.
But he said that when an election could result in an increase in the use of torture “or the focus on vulnerable communities in a way that suggests that they may well be deprived of their human rights, then I think it is incumbent to say so”.
That’s sweetly understated. Trump has been very clear about his contempt for human rights.
During the campaign, Mr Trump has said that “torture works” and has promised to bring back “a lot worse than waterboarding”.
Waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques previously used by US forces on terror suspects have been banned by the Obama administration.
Mr Trump said of waterboarding in June: “I like it a lot. I don’t think it’s tough enough.”
His comments on migrants, Mexicans in particular, have drawn fire from rights activists.
He has vowed to build a wall along the Mexican border and in June 2015 branded some Mexican migrants “rapists” and “murderers”.
He’s disgraced us all. It will take years to live it down.
We’ve disgraced ourselves. He is only the medium of our disgrace. He couldn’t have gotten this far if all the voters had chosen not to vote for him.
Of course, then we might have Ted Cruz, who is actually as bad but is more housebroken.
Well that’s what I mean – the fact that he’s the nominee disgraces us because so many of us voted for him (and because there was no effective way to stop him).
I quite literally think there is no significant difference between him and Hitler. Hitler wasn’t special, he was just thoroughly hateful (hate-filled) and angry, as Trump is. I’m finding it intolerably shaming that we have let him flourish.
Trump can be taken as at least a (hopefully!) useful reminder: it can happen anywhere, at any time. The 1920’s and ’30’s weren’t unique that way; Germany isn’t and wasn’t. There will be people always eager to blame any Other for any trouble, and all it takes to enable them to murder and abuse people freely is enough people thinking they’re at least a legitimate partner in normal, acceptable political function.
His election chances aren’t looking too good now, so this may be a near-miss. Still, it’s far too close when the disaster of President Trump would be as large as it is. For those of us who care about human rights and equality, it’s a wake-up call that those aren’t values that run straight through the U.S. electorate. They can’t even command a plurality among one of the two major political parties – not even a hypocritical nod from it.