Back when I was in grade school, we read about Patrick Henry and his immortal quote, “Give me liberty or give me death!” That was then and this is now. Under the leadership of folks like Donald Trump, we hear a new slogan: ‘Take my liberty, but give me safety!”
In other words, it’s OK to tear up our Constitution and ban Muslims as long as it keeps terrorists from doing us harm. To some, this sounds like common sense; to me it sounds like cowardice. If we’re willing to junk what hundreds of thousands of Americans have died for just to protect us from some religious nutcases, it might be argued that we deserve what we get.
The guy who killed three people and wounded 17 in Colorado at the Panned Parenthood clinic declared that he did it because he was “a warrior for the babies.” He was a non-Muslim white man and he was dismissed as a nut. Had he been named Abdul or Mohammed, I bet the Hate Press would be in high gear by now. He wasn’t a Muslim, therefore he wasn’t a real danger? Does this make sense? Murderer and cannibal Jeffrey Dahlmer was part Welsh. Does this mean we should attack Wales?
Donald Trump feels he can protect the United States by taking on 1.8 billion people and barring any of them from coming here. He would be willing to turn the First Amendment into toilet paper in order to keep America safe. But what is America without the First Amendment? Patrick Henry would spin in his grave if he thought we’d ever want to choose between the freedoms he and the other early patriots fought for and the added security (maybe) of a Trumpolice state.
I believe Trump is a coward and wants to make us all cowards, too. To be sure, most of us didn’t get five deferments from the military as Mr. Trump did, but many of us seem willing to try to get deferments from our sacred obligation to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States from all enemies, foreign and domestic.
This coming election season will separate the patriots from the cowards.