The big furor last week concerned President Trump’s use of the word “animals” to refer to members of MS-13. Some news reports claimed he had used the term to describe all immigrants, which led to push-back from Trump supporters: There the media go again, lying about the president. This retort elicited a rebuttal in turn, to the effect that Trump’s precise wording (to the extent such a thing exists; “Trump’s precise wording” is almost an oxymoron) doesn’t matter because the president “systematically obliterates any distinctions between the overwhelming majority of immigrants who are law-abiding and the violent minority among the foreign-born.”
That’s certainly true, going back to the president’s statement that Mexican immigrants are “bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
A year or two ago remarks like that hit the air like a thunderclap out of a clear blue sky. Now they seem, if not tame (can one say “tame,” or is that too much like “animals”?), then more mainstream. But not in a good way. A. Barton Hinkle is confused why this is scapegoating continues even as the economy grows.
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