“It’s vile. It’s hateful. It’s anti-American!”
Some of the common refrains following the “send her back!” chant at President Trump’s rally in North Carolina last night.
The seemingly extemporaneous audience demand about Rep Ilhan Omar (D-MN) drew rage and ire from the political establishment, and even many on the right. I’ll confess, I gasped when I heard it live.
Because “send them back” is perhaps the most uncharitable thing any American, or Westerner, has been taught they can express about immigrants and immigration as a whole. We are asked to believe it is a literal negation of our Western values, and in America, also a repudiation of one of the pillars of the American founding.
It’s true to an extent, which is why I gasped.
