Donald the Clown is revealing a few lovely pieces of hypocrisy within the Republican Party, almost as if he’d planned it this way.
Trump’s criticism of Judge Gonzalo Curiel has now got most of the Republican bigwigs defending Mexicans and Muslims—and even the federal judiciary!—after decades of scapegoating, both blatantly and in the form of dog whistles.
I don’t have time today to write a detailed article with charts and links and all that. Wish I did. Most of the facts are well-known anyway. Please read more below.
Trump (whom Bill Maher has styled a #WhiningLittleBitch) is insisting Curiel should recuse himself from two lawsuits charging Trump University and Donald himself with fraud and with RICO violations. The reason Judge Curiel should recuse himself, according to Trump, is that Trump wants to build a wall separating the U.S. from Mexico—so Curiel, being a Mexican, can’t be objective. When asked if this means a Muslim can’t be objective either, since Trump wants to ban all Muslims from entering the country, Trump said yes.
Republican bigwigs are going crazy. They don’t want to piss off minorities (especially not Latinos and Hispanics) more than they already were doing, since they can’t win the presidency—and can’t win seats in the Senate or the House in many places in the country—without at least some Hispanic votes. Furthermore, they’ve been pushing anti-LGBT and anti-choice legislation under the guise of bogus “religious freedom” bills; to appear to attack religious freedom, in the form of blatantly attacking Muslims, could undermine the high ground they’re pretending to take.
Of course, at the same time, Republicans have been giving a wink and nod to huge segments of their bigoted base who hate brown people and Muslims. They’ve been walking this tightrope, seducing racists and Islamophobes while at the same time needing to pull in more votes from people who aren’t aging white male bigots.
Trump has sliced right through that tightrope, claiming that racial or religious affiliation should be enough to disqualify a federal judge from hearing a case. This is beyond dog whistles and the nudge-nudge of usual Republican propaganda. The accusation of bias, if it were true, would be a violation of ethics rules and possibly even federal law. It’s a serious matter. Just making the accusation is in-your-face racism of the worst kind.
Furthermore, it would allow any defendant in any case of any kind anywhere in the country at any time to force a mistrial simply by making racial or ethnic or religious (or sexist?) slurs against the judge, then claiming the judge can’t be impartial since he or she has been insulted by the accused. Even holding a political opinion that is unpopular among some group the judge belongs to would appear to be enough to question the judge’s impartiality, under Trump’s argument.
Yet Republicans, in addition to wanting to get elected, also want to put people in jail. Trump’s moronic position undermines that as well. Of course, Republicans have been railing against federal judges for decades, and have even refused to hold hearings on the appointment of Dead Scalia’s replacement. In fact, they’ve refused to seat over one hundred of President Obama’s appointments to the federal bench. The contradiction is seldom underlined between a) wanting to jail people (and thus to support the for-profit prison industry) and b) fomenting distrust of the judicial system. We’re in danger of having someone point out this hypocrisy.
So the Republican Establishment is now in the uncomfortable position of defending Hispanics, Muslims, and federal judges. And is being forced to defend these groups from the attacks by their own presidential candidate.
Judge Curiel, of course, isn’t even a Mexican. He was born in Indiana, which means he’s an American citizen. His parents immigrated from Mexico; which means he’s an anchor baby. (His parents were already American citizens by the time Gonzalo Curiel was born, but Republican bigots seldom make such distinctions; they were born in Mexico, and to most bigots, that’s enough. They’re immigrants.) Remember, not too long ago, Republicans were challenging the idea that being born in America was enough to make you an American citizen? Their defense of Gonzalo Curiel calls this argument into question.
Trump could end the whole fru-frah by apologizing for his attacks and letting it drop. That would be hard for him though, since he’s facing serious charges, and may be about to get indicted for being the head of a criminal enterprise (Trump University), and could therefore wind up in federal prison for RICO violations. His goal here may be to discredit the judge so as to somehow force a better outcome in the case. (Though attacking the judge who’s hearing your trial doesn’t seem like a good negotiating move to me.)
(Pause with me for just a second and savor the thought of the Republican presidential nominee being indicted for RICO violations. Ah, good times!)
(Okay, let’s continue...)
Trump isn’t ending it though. He just told his surrogates to double down on the attacks, thus prolonging and deepening the problems faced by the Republican establishment.
If Republican elites condemn Trump for his blatant racism and Islamophobia and attacks on the American judicial system, they are admitting their own anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, faux-pious, anti-judiciary rhetoric is all an opportunistic partisan sham. If they don’t condemn Trump, they will further alienate the people they need to con bring in to the party in order to win elections, people who are members of the fastest-growing demographics in America. If they do renounce Trump, they’ll piss off their own pitchfork-wielding insane bigoted base. And if they do, it sparks a war between the Republican presidential candidate and the Republican House and Senate campaign committees.
It’s almost as if Trump is a double agent, a stealth bomb, a Manchurian Candidate sent to dismantle the Republican Party by pitting its pieces against each other, and against virtually all American voters.
I really don’t believe Donald the Clown is that clever. But it’s a nice thought.