Hassan Mneimneh | IAV

It is hard to sort through the multiple “suggestions” made by the presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on the subject of banning “all Muslims” from entry to the United States.

Some of Trump’s statements indicate that the ban would exclude US citizens of Muslim faith or background.

But when Mr. Trump insists that Muslim members of the US armed forces will certainly be allowed back, the previous assumption about all US nationals with a hint of Islam being able to return home loses in turn in certainty.

And while the candidate himself has somehow backpedaled on the categorical nature of his planned ban, his electoral machine is busy touting it in many markets as an act of resolute courage and determination.

Candidate Donald Trump is not the cause of concern here. President Donald Trump, if the string of political surprises that has shaped the current political season continues, will not be the cause of concern either.

Candidates engage in polarizing rhetoric to activate sluggish bases, while presidents of the United States are not absolute potentates — this country is endowed with a constitutional system that safeguards rights, and continues to generate legions of political office holders who will keep even an inordinately reckless president in check.

The real cause of concern in the Trump phenomenon is that a political campaign has been constructed on the premise that resorting to blatantly discriminatory postures will yield positive electoral results, and that this premise — previously dismissed as out of line with the values and convictions of US society and culture — has been vindicated.

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http://americanvalues.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=9eb390003bba24efd14d23751&id=307a453559&e=c31960fde7



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