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# What He Hath Wrought
July 22 2019
Written by Abby Zimet.
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****
**CITYWATCH TODAY**--Remarkably, our tireless Il Douche is still spewing sick racist hate. This weekend, he again reversed himself and [declared ](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-rally-racist-chants-ilhan-omar-send-her-back-democrat-congress-a9013361.html)the "Send Her Back" mob at his latest Nazi rally "incredible patriots," and on Monday bizarrely [dubbed](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1153315875476463616) the brown-and-black-skinned Squad "a very racist group of troublemakers."
In exquisite pot/kettle dissonance, he also [proclaimed](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/weak-insecure-incapable-loving-our-country-trump-blasts-squad-after-n1032066), "I don’t believe the four Congresswomen are capable of loving our Country...They (are) weak & insecure people who can never destroy our great Nation!" - thus affirming one more ugly time that only white people *really* belong to our great white supremacist shindig.
With large swathes of a historically bigoted populace now feeling free to bray their collective intolerance aloud, Trump's [textbook racism ](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/federal-law-go-back-came-from-discrimination_n_5d2e815de4b085eda5a390cc)is increasingly, unsurprisingly bearing fruit, with “go back where you came from" outbursts sprouting like toxic weeds from[ New Jersey](https://www.commondreams.org/further/2019/07/20/%20https:/www.nj.com/news/2019/06/teen-bully-who-beat-nj-mom-unconscious-deserves-to-be-charged-with-hate-crime-lawyer-says.html) to [California ](https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-go-back-to-where-you-are-from-stories-2019-story.html)and [beyond](https://www.commondreams.org/further/2019/07/20/%20https:/www.citynews1130.com/2019/07/21/bus-backpack-police/).
In Chicago, a black pregnant state legislator buying groceries with her daughter was[ accosted](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/black-georgia-lawmaker-erica-thomas-says-she-was-verbally-attacked-by-man-who-told-her-to-go-back-where-you-came-from/) by a guy snarling to go back where she came from. In nearby Naperville, a gas station clerk [harassed](https://www.facebook.com/mariafernanda.hernandezmurphy/posts/2600026523354429) a local group of Spanish-speaking customers, calling them "illegals," sneering they should “go back to their country” and threatening "ICE will come," with another customer helpfully chiming in to [explain ](https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/naperville-gas-station-clerk-fired-hispanic-customers-video-chicago-illinois-512891321.html)"you have no rights."
A spokesman for owners Buchanan Energy [claimed](https://www.chicagotribune.com/voice-it/ct-fds-voiceit-naperville-gas-station-20190719-j5qyk2ulyvebvnphm2gm7eojwa-story.html) the women were acting "confrontational" - translation: they didn't want to be racially abused - but [conceded](https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/naperville-sun/ct-nvs-naperville-mobil-clerk-video-fired-st-0719-20190718-66teypxeajfrflkafhznhzao7m-story.html) the clerk "should have handled things differently" and [fired ](https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/naperville-sun/ct-nvs-naperville-mobil-clerk-video-fired-st-0719-20190718-66teypxeajfrflkafhznhzao7m-story.html)him, proving we live in a time when gas station attendants are at least occasionally held to a higher standard than our purported president.
The mayor also [spoke up ](https://www.facebook.com/steve.chirico.338/posts/128174971751320)to declare, "Hate has no home here in Naperville (or) society at large" and "urge everyone in our community to showcase the kindness, compassion, and good decorum that our residents are known for and that our world needs more of."
Lofty sentiments, all. Alas, as *The Root's* Michael Harriot [notes,](https://www.commondreams.org/further/2019/07/20/%20https:/www.theroot.com/what-they-mean-when-they-say-send-her-back-1836503461) they run counter to our woeful foundational belief that "America belongs to white people and white people only, (and) anyone else is not a *real* American." Thus, the all-citizens Squad "are not *American* Americans. Because there is only one enduring and eternal truth about the definition of 'American': White people get to decide."
The screed to "send them back" is likewise [longstanding,](https://www.commondreams.org/further/2019/07/20/%20https:/www.theroot.com/what-they-mean-when-they-say-send-her-back-1836503461) from Lincoln proposing blacks be sent "back" to Haiti etc. to [Alien and Sedition Acts ](http://www.ushistory.org/us/19e.asp)to deport anyone publishing "malicious writing" against the government to [Know-Nothing Party](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/archaeology-and-history/magazine/2017/07-08/know-nothings-and-nativism/) conservatives seeking to deport “[radical leftists](https://www.sec.state.ma.us/mus/pdfs/Irish_Immigration_and_the_Know-Nothings.pdf)” who “hated America” to Tea Party freaks [clamoring ](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2019/02/28/mark-meadows-2012-vow-send-obama-to-kenya-resurfaces/3013304002/)to send Obama "back" to Kenya to, now, MAGA bigots. "The[ idea ](https://www.commondreams.org/further/2019/07/20/%20https:/www.theroot.com/what-they-mean-when-they-say-send-her-back-1836503461)of 'send her back' is the timeless and indestructible pillar upon which this country was built," he writes.
"It is a clarion call that allows the upholders of white supremacy to believe black and brown bodies are as returnable as defective Amazon packages. Because, at the heart of their belief is their willingness to disregard the Constitution, the law, history and everything that they believe makes their country great...They are all white supremacists. The most American thing of all."
In the face of this harsh reality,[ argues](https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/07/send-her-back-battle-will-define-us-forever/594307/) *The Atlantic*'s Adam Serwer, resistance to Trump becomes the ultimate battle for us all. For context, he [cites ](https://monoskop.org/images/6/6d/Benjamin_Walter_1936_2008_The_Work_of_Art_in_the_Age_of_Its_Technological_Reproducibility_Second_Version.pdf)Walter Benjamin in 1936 on a "fascism that (proposes) a series of false imperatives that (do) justice to emotional demands but disregards reason."
Similarly and chillingly, Trump's bigotry, nationalism, divisiveness and belief that America is only for white people "is all he is," he writes, with its belief that "American citizenship is conditional for people of color, who should be grateful we are even allowed to be here."
Serwer [blasts](https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/07/send-her-back-battle-will-define-us-forever/594307/) the weakness of Democrats unwilling to confront his fundamental racism and its challenge to the rule of law and morality, because it's about us all. Omar and her colleagues must be defended, he [writes,](https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/07/send-her-back-battle-will-define-us-forever/594307/) not because of her views on any issue but because "the nature of the president’s attack on her is a threat to all Americans."
"This is not about Omar anymore," he says. "It is about defending the idea that America should be a country for all its people. If multiracial democracy cannot be defended in America, it will not be defended elsewhere. What Americans do now, in the face of this, will define us forever."
*(CityWatch guest columnist, Abby Zimet, writes for Common Dreams … where this piece was first posted.)*
*-cw*
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