Trump shows how adept he is at stirring up ‘progressive’ Democrats

All the talk in the US is about The Squad, Vox website, Wednesday:

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, then a representative-elect from New York, posted a photo of herself with three progressive women of colour who, like her, were soon to be members of congress — Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib. (Its) caption: Squad.

Donald Trump sets off a storm with a series of tweets, Sunday:

So interesting to see “Progressive” Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe … telling the people of the (US) … 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?

James P. Pinkerton, The American Conservative website, Wednesday:

Is Donald Trump a racist, as the house just declared in a resolution? Or did Trump just lure the Democrats into a political trap? The 2020 election could well hang on such questions. On Tuesday night, the House voted 240-187 … to declare that Trump’s tweets attacking certain members of congress were racist. After citing the pearly wisdom of presidents Washington, Kennedy and Reagan … the Democrats’ resolution condemned Trump for racist comments that have legitimised … fear and hatred of new Americans and people of colour.

Not so fast, Freddy Gray, The Spectator, Thursday:

Once you stop jumping up and down and shouting racism it becomes obvious. Trump isn’t playing 3D chess. He just wants to keep the Squad front and centre of the news agenda.

Pulling no punches, Paul Krugman, The New York Times, Wednesday:

This is racism, plain and simple — nothing abstract about it. And Trump obviously isn’t worried that it will backfire. This should be a moment of truth for anyone who describes Trump as a populist or asserts that his support is based on economic ­anxiety. He’s not a populist, he’s a white supremacist.

Agreement from Keith Woods, NPR website, Wednesday:

Once again, the President of the US has used the sniper tower of Twitter to take aim at immigration, race relations and common decency. And once again, journalists are daring their profession to boldly call bigotry what it is: bigotry. Enough of the ­vacuous “racially charged” … evasions, they say. It’s racist, and we should just call it that.

Colour in perspective, Roger Kimball, Spectator USA, Wednesday:

Well la-dee-dah. The house votes to condemn Trump for his “racist comments” about four Democratic congresswomen of colour. First, I am glad that “racist comments” was in scare quotes. Why? Because there was nothing racist about the President’s tweets inviting creeps like Somali-born Ilhan Omar to leave the US if she doesn’t like it here. Second, I wish people would give the phrase “people of colour” a rest. Everyone is a colour — even, I suppose, Albinos (is that racist now, too?). I, for example, am a pleasing pink.

Jamil Smith, Rolling Stone, Tuesday:

The truth is that Trump reached into the Genesis chapter of the bigot’s bible when he told two congresswomen to go back to Africa, and told the other two to also “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came”, invalidating (their) citizenship … on a whim.

Josh Hammer, The Daily Wire website, Tuesday:

Ocasio-Cortez’s refusal to condemn Antifa … is unsurprising. (Her) Squad does not feel bound by the conventional norms of American politics. Heck, the Squad does not even feel bound by conventional societal norms pertaining to the maintenance of basic human decorum and the ­rejection of virulent bigotry.