Rod Thomson

The evidence that President Trump is a racist hovers between thin gruel and nonexistent. The acceptance as fact that everyone knows he is a racist — by all the smart people on the left that are incapable of actually proving it — says a lot more about those people than Trump.

Yet it has become religious canon among many Americans that Trump is a racist. And for too many within that group, anyone who voted for Trump is not only a racist, but also necessarily approves of every facet of Trump’s past and present and every thing he says, does and tweets. Sixty-three million racists!

This is where we stand in an age where a President of the United States is not only hated beyond all reason, but that hatred has seriously affected the faculties of otherwise relatively smart people to actually take a rational position. All is yelling and pronouncing “facts” with nothing supportive, but to the applause of fellow inhabitants of the Trump Derangement silo.

We cannot necessarily help them with their derangement, beyond laying out the basic case that knocks down each “reason” that is given as evidence for Trump’s racism.

Much of this list comes from some of the smarter people I know who are Liberals and Trump haters, because not all Trump haters are liberals, but all liberals seem to be Trump haters.

1) Cancelling DACA racist

DACA was almost assuredly unconstitutional before Trump cancelled the Obama executive order with his own executive order.

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals was Obama’s action granting a form of amnesty to children who came here illegally by their parents, not of their own volition. Previously, Obama had said on several occasions that he did not have the authority to do what some people wanted him to do, and simply use his pen to make them legal. He was right.

However, Congress voted the proposal down repeatedly (which by the definition of those charging Trump’s act here proves racism, means more than half of Congress at the time was also racist — which it is possible some may actually believe.) So Obama decided if Congress wouldn’t act, he would — exactly what the Constitution constrains a president from doing and why the courts were set to strike down DACA. (Which means the courts are racist, too?)

Trump undid an unconstitutional action and set federal policy in line with the majority vote in Congress and the law. Citing that as evidence of racism is the weakest of cases.

2) The Muslim ban racist

This one is just so easily felled, despite being an article of faith on the left.

There simply was no “Muslim ban.” That was entirely made up by Democrats and the mainstream media — who are the same people — and a phrase that even Fox News used. Journalist are very pack-oriented creatures. They all used that terminology, which is just despicably bad reporting. It is factually impossible to call it a Muslim ban. It is the fakest of all fake news spins.

It was a ban on seven predominantly Muslim countries which the State Department labeled either terrorist countries or hosts for terrorist organizations. They represented only 12 percent of all Muslims worldwide, meaning more than 88 percent of Muslims — almost 9 out of 10 — retained their travel rights here. That is by any definition not a “Muslim ban.”

Side note, Obama labeled the same countries the same way and increased travel restrictions. Even Obama recognized the increased threat from those countries. Trump merely took it a step further as he promised to do during his campaign. There is no way to honestly view this as even moderately radical or racist.

Alas, it continues to be used to call Trump both radical and racist by those calling Trump a bigot and a racist.

3) Criminal justice reform racist

Criminal justice reform? This could range from how to deal with the opioid epidemic to stopping racist police brutality and ending racist judicial sentencing. The problem is that most of this conversation is based upon yet another set of duplicitous assumptions and accusations. Whenever reforms are proposed, they are founded on the factually unsupportable charge that blacks are the victims of systemic racism in arrests, charges and incarcerations.

There seems to be absolutely no actual evidence of systemic racial injustice in the American criminal justice system. This is not about anecdotal incidents. There certainly are those. But any reforms or policies based on anecdotes and Youtube videos are bound to be awful reforms and policies.

Data — concrete, actual facts — based on crimes committed and incarceration shows some slight differences at the margins, which can be studied for causality, but is not the major driving bogeymen some want to make it out to be. Just as is the case with the charge that there is an epidemic of cops killing unarmed black men. Actually, black suspects are significantly more likely to be shot by black police officers than white. Last year, according to a Washington Post study, only 16 unarmed black men, out of a population of more than 20 million black men, were killed by police. That figure is less than the number of black men hit by lightning. Hardly an epidemic.

There is a wealth of information in this Wikipedia entry on the subject, which includes more citations than probably anyone could ever get through.

4) Immigration policy racist

This charge of racism continues to make the head shake.

The majority of Americans want some type of “reform” when it is asked broadly. But they may be thinking of anything from legalizing 12 million illegals to building the wall and sending 12 million illegals home. So when we talk about the specifics, there is no clear support — except for enforcing existing law when asked, which it rarely is.

A big part of the problem stems from the endless media fudging on being honest in describing illegal aliens — a proper legal term for people to live here illegally — with just “immigrants” not even illegal immigrants. “We’re a nation built on immigrants!” liberals and politicking Democrats intone haughtily, and informed conservatives respond as one, “Legal immigrants!…Stop lying!”

A perfectly reasonable policy would be to first secure the southern border and visa overstays. No conservatives (not always sure about Republicans) will accept deals like Democrats reneged on with Ronald Reagan in the 1980s where everyone is legalized and then we secure the borders but the secure-the-borders part never happens.

It would be terrific to have a conversation on which immigrants are good for America — PhDs, engineers, entrepreneurs, techies, etc. — which is a really reasonable and productive conversation. Such immigrants are an important part of the mix so that we can maintain the powerful capitalistic dynamic that can then also give opportunities to the low-skilled citizens already here and the low-skilled who are immigrating here. But all must legal. Democrats and some Chamber Republicans don’t want to have that conversation.

The political reality is the Democrats like having the issue to run on to try to whip up higher percentages of Hispanic voters — remember, their strategies always rely on dividing Americans and pitting us against each other. So they are only willing to give up the issue if they get full legalization of 12 million new residents who will vote 65 percent for Democrats. Otherwise, they want to keep the issue for election and fundraising.

Republicans are the obstructionists. And racists.

5) Opposing NFL Protests racist

This issue has been covered to death, including on this site here on why the NFL is wrong to allow the disrespect, and here on how taxpayers inadvertently subsidize the protests and here asking if it is time to tune out the NFL. But regarding the charges of racism, again it is pretty easy to disprove.

The charge is leveled because the NFL is about 70 percent black, ipso facto Trump is only criticizing the protestors of the National Anthem because they are black, or mostly black.

But he had not criticized them for anything else. And he has not criticized the NBA, which is nearly 80 percent black. But he has criticized the owners of the NFL teams — who could respond to the anti-police, anti-flag, anti-Americanism of the protest. And they are all rich white males, just like him. That does not sound like someone who is racist or prefers only people like himself.

It just sounds like someone who loves both the country and its primary symbols. Kind of refreshing.

6) Response to Hurricane Maria and Puerto Rico racist

Lest you think all of this craziness is not really happening, all the time, here’s what a CNN columnist said about the problems afflicting Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. Naturally, Trump was blamed for a slow federal response because he doesn’t like “brown people.”

“Nothing in the tweets President Donald Trump sent out Saturday morning criticizing the people of Puerto Rico and the commonwealth’s female mayor revealed anything new about his character. But his supporters’ continued defense of him in the face of such behavior revealed theirs. That’s a bigger threat to our democracy than anything Trump could do, except start WWIII. Trump is a small man who has been given a big job for which he has no real qualifications because he is a rich white man in a country that has long believed rich white men are, by default, always the most qualified candidates.”

(Note, both “brown” people and the “female” mayor are part of this narrative — because he’s a misogynist, too, of course. The fact that Trump similarly savaged every white male opponent in the Republican Primary — little Marco, low-energy Jeb, lying Ted — seems to have escaped the tunnel vision of another liberal blinded by Trump hatred. Naturally, the author, who goes on to call all Trump supporters racist, is a public policy college professor. Wonderful.)

So again, for the Left, whenever anything goes wrong, there is never personal responsibility or the attempt to learn from it. Hurricane Katrina devastated the most corrupt city in America, which had siphoned hundreds of millions of dollars away from the dykes meant to protect residents. The mayor told people not to evacuate. But this all became the fault of George W. Bush.

In like fashion, Puerto Rico is more recklessly run than Illinois, verging on insolvency long before Hurricane Maria. It never upgraded its power grid like it should have in Hurricane Alley (and like Florida has done); it did not mandate better building codes (like Florida has done); and had almost no post-catastrophe plan in place (like Florida does).

When federal aid after Hurricane Sandy in New Jersey was delayed for months and even years, Obama got very little criticism. And it was a weaker storm than any of these others.

Yes, it was a terrible strike over the Puerto Rican island by Maria, but it was also inevitable. Puerto Rico leaders lived in an area of the world with one, huge danger every year, and yet did almost nothing to prepare for it. Therefore, it had to be Trump’s fault — like Katrina was Bush’s — and just like Bush was charged with not caring about black people in New Orleans, Trump is charged with not caring about brown people in Puerto Rico.

Really, just pathetic.

7) Black Gold Star mom phone call racist

A race-baiting Congresswoman no one had ever heard of was part of a setup phone call from President Trump to the wife of an American soldier killed in Niger. Trump called to console the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson and the woman put it on speaker phone when the Congresswoman was in the car with her. Obviously pre-arranged because the White House usually gives a window of time for a call from the President.

Then the unremarkable and little-known Congresswoman sprinted to the media to claim Trump had disrespected the mom. His wording was precisely what Chief of Staff Gen. John Kelly had coached him on. Kelly has made these calls and is himself a Gold Star father.

This Congresswoman, who we are not naming because it was clearly a self-publicity stunt, was taken down firmly and cooly by Gen. Kelly. He called her an “empty barrel” and called her out on previous self-aggrandizements of hers that were highly inappropriate. This Congresswoman again sprinted to the media to attack Kelly for using a racist term. The problem, of course, is that it is not racist and no one has ever said so and Kelly has used it publicly before referring to white critics. Even Google doesn’t consider it racist in any sense. It comes from the phrase that “an empty barrel makes the most noise.” It means to minimize the impact of a very loud critic who you think has nothing to say. Pretty good phrase.

Anyone who knows history, military history or guns has probably heard that phrase. But the Congresswoman, who is black, only knows racism! She used it on Trump and on Kelly. The media loved the Trump angle and for days every story was couched “against a backdrop of controversy over the President’s call to a Gold Star mom…” The Congresswoman later said she was a “rock star now.” That’s what she was looking for and the media was only to quick to oblige.

Interestingly, another Gold Star widow, who is also black, had heard enough and released a video recording of Trump’s call to her several months ago. It was actually quite amazing. Trump told the children repeatedly that their father was a hero, explaining how others in his troop looked to him for leadership and stability, and they should be very proud. They were beautifully respectful back and forth.

Interestingly, there is no recording of the call with the Congresswoman. Bet we know why. Also bet you can guess which one got all the news coverage.

There’s just nothing there

Just like with the empty Russian collusion narrative, there is just no evidence that Trump is racist. He was given an award by the NAACP with Muhammad Ali present.

But facts, data, recordings, are not the point.

For the mainstream media, it’s not millions of Mexicans and others illegally crossing our border and taking jobs and benefits; it’s not blacks committing violent crimes at six times the rate of whites; it’s not millionaire football players protesting the nation that made them millionaires — and free; it’s not Puerto Rico’s corruption and incompetence; it’s not a politician’s deceitful attempt to hurt Trump and get 15 minutes of fame; it’s President Trump’s supposedly indisputable racism and, according to CNN, that of the 63 million Americans who voted for him.

It’s truly a pathetic case.

Rod Thomson is an author, TV talking head and former journalist, and is Founder of The Revolutionary Act.