The Leave theory
The White House transcript of Trump’s racist bullying today:
Q Mr. President, three of the congresswomen that you talked about were born in America. (Inaudible.) What were you talking about?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, they’re very unhappy. I’m watching them; all they do is complain. So all I’m saying is, if they want to leave, they can leave, John. They can leave.
But that’s not how that works. Legislators are allowed to want to change some things, to improve things. Legislators are allowed to point out things that are not good enough. That’s an important part of their job. They are not required to say everything is already perfect. They’re allowed to say some things are not good enough, and as a member of another branch of government, Trump has no business at all telling them they should leave the country if they don’t like it.
That is of course independent of the long ugly history of conservatives telling critics to love it or get out.
Now, you can say what you want, but get a list of all of the statements they’ve made. And all I’m saying: that if they’re not happy here, they can leave. They can leave. And you know what? I’m sure that there’ll be many people that won’t miss them.
Q But they’re American citizens. What do you make of the fact that they’re American citizens?
THE PRESIDENT: But they have to love — they have to love our country. They’re Congress people. And I never used any names. But these are people —
No they don’t. There is no “love” test for being a federal legislator.
And as for loving our country…what has Trump ever done in that line? He racially discriminated in housing early in his career. He’s stolen and cheated and lied throughout his career. He tried to get the Central Park 5 executed. He stoked birtherism against Obama. What has Trump ever done that indicates any genuine love of the country at all?
The reality is that he’s made many millions of us come closer to hating it than we’ve ever been. A state that can let a Donald Trump take power is a very broken state. I detest what he’s making us stand for, and so do millions and millions of other people.
WTH is “Make America Great Again” but a giant-assed complaint that you don’t like the way things are? If you didn’t like the status quo, and YOU were so unhappy, why didn’t YOU leave?
DJT doesn’t love America. He might possibly love himself. He might possibly love money. Doubtful, though. I don’t think he has any idea what love is. He doesn’t love anything, not really. He doesn’t have the capacity to love or to understand love. He greedy-grabs, and he gets a kick out of being cruel, but he is one of the most profoundly unhappy people I’ve ever seen. I wish HE would leave; just go away.
Ha, good point, Mad Dog. Make America Great Again? If you don’t already think it’s great, then get the f out!
(Although I generally am not a “love it or leave it” person, I did many years ago become acquainted with a couple from Norway that constantly told everyone about how Norway was better than the US in every single way. I must say that after the 400th reason why Norway was better claim I was really tempted to ask why they didn’t just go back to Norway. I have no doubt there are Ugly Americans, but I assure you there are at least 2 Ugly Norwegians…)
I seem to remember a number of Republicans who were unhappy when Obama was president.
Of course, as Ophelia points out, no one runs for office saying, “Everything is perfect the way it is! Vote for me to keep everything the same!”
Everyone has complaints, ideas for improvement, criticisms of the status quo. Something.
Yes, but he doesn’t mean “they”, does he? He means “They”.
“They” have no business meddling in “Our” affairs.
I’m pretty sure they love their country more than Trump. It’s why they acknowledge its flaws and try to make it better.
Trump is behaving like Mad King George on a bad day. No, make that an average day. Though in his mind the world definitely revolves around him, it is not to his specifications by any means.
All he needs now is a list of people to send into exile. Maybe on that a deal can be done with his pal Vlad Putin, or perhap Kim Jong Un. Siberian steppes? Or maybe North Korean salt mines?
And who to put on the list?
The last US President to have such a list was Nixon. The actor Paul Newman had managed to get himself onto it; which he referred to as his “award.” Better than an Oscar.
I’m sure the commentariat at this site would be on the (very long) list. And the fact that many of them are not from the US, or currently living in the US, would not bother him a bit. He would still be willing to send them “back where they came from”. Facts are irrelevant.
@Omar – Mad King George was a family man and when sane, a decent and well-meaning king, who promoted agriculture and botanical research. He was a much better man than Trump, and truly patriotic.
@iknklast:
Unless they’re alternative facts.
latsot, you’d probably be one of the first he’d “send back”. And I mean that as a compliment.
#1
You remind me of this great bit from David Cross:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX1evRf4uh4
I had a similar experience when I was in graduate school in Texas. A friend of mine from England was at dinner with me, and we were joined by a friend of hers from Switzerland. Another American friend was with us, one who, like myself, is able to see the flaws in this country with more clarity than is comfortable at times. As we sat there listening to these two go on and on and on about the wonderful wonderfulness of European countries vs the awful awfulness of America, I was quite tempted to point out to them that they were going to school on the American taxpayer (they both had school jobs that gave them resident tuition instead of the higher tuition for non-Texans). I also thought it was too much when my English friend would point out that THEIR empire was much more benign and kind than previous empires. Really? Probably, but still brutal and ugly a lot of times. And as for that, at least OUR empire doesn’t claim the other countries as ours, put our flag over them. We do somewhat nominally allow them to pretend they are an autonomous country, and they often do act against our interests, which was not going to happen in the English-installed governments of the British Empire. I refuse to brag about OUR empire being somewhat less grabby or claiming that the sun never sets, blah blah blah. She was actively proud that their little island once commanded and controlled a large part of the world.
Sometimes you do have to jump to the defense of your country, even when it is less (far less) than perfect. But that doesn’t mean I have to accept without complaint all the nastinesses that are perpetrated in our name.