Some people are viewing Donald Trump’s recent tweets toward four congresswomen as racist. He told the four congresswomen to go back to where they came from, implying that they came from foreign countries. Actually, one of them did, but the other three were born in the U.S.
But it was Trump’s reason for telling them they should go back to where they came from that shows his authoritarianism and true ignorance of what America stands for.
Trump tweeted, well, I’ll just quote the relevant passage: “…and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run. Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came…”
Here it seems that Trump doesn’t understand exactly why the Founders wrote a Bill of Rights into the Constitution.
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, that Trump swore an oath to “preserve, protect, and defend,” protects the right of the people to criticize the government that rules over them, and to tell the politicians
“how our government is to be run,” as Trump put it.
The First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
Now, those four congresswomen are U.S. citizens, and of course they have a right to express their view on what’s wrong with the U.S. government in Washington. All human beings have a right to freedom of thought and conscience, so, even non-U.S. citizen foreigners have the right to criticize the U.S. government’s bad policies, just as I have a right to criticize the governments of Saudi Arabia, the U.K., and China and their bad policies.
But Trump is even worse than ignorant, because here he is a total hypocrite. For years, even decades, Trump has spent many speeches and tirades criticizing the U.S. government’s wars, its irresponsible spending, etc.
Liberty Is Peace 