Donald Trump’s public feud with the Khan family has drawn criticism from both Republicans and Democrats alike. There’s always been a staunch bipartisan consensus, or better yet unspoken code of honor, against throwing verbal daggers at the families of decorated war veterans. In more ways than one, Trump is an anomaly. On Monday, the Republican presidential nominee continued his uninterrupted vitriol against the Khans in an interview with a local Ohio television station.
Rather than laying out a comprehensive presidential plan to alleviate the financial pain of Ohio’s manufacturing sector, Trump used the bully pulpit at campaign stop in the swing state to suggest that Khizr Khan, the father of slain US Army Captain and Purple Heart recipient Humayun Khan, was actually bothered by the fact that under Trump’s supposed plan radical Islamic terrorists would be prevented from entering the country.
“It’s a very big subject for me. And border security’s very big,” Trump stated in vintage braggadocio fashion. “And when you have radical Islamic terrorists probably all over the place, we’re allowing them to come in by the thousands and thousands. And I think that’s what bothered Mr. Khan more than anything else.”
Trump is implying here that Khan, a well-educated attorney whose son literally sacrificed his life for his brothers-in-arms (effectively using his own body as a shield against a car-bomb headed for an army mess hall full of US troops) secretly wants jihadists, the same kind of men that killed Humayun, to infiltrate the United States, the same country Humayun died protecting.
Falling back on the cudgel of fear-mongering, the billionaire Manhattan businessman qualified his remarks with pseudo-strongman rhetoric about terrorism.
“And, you know, I’m not going to change my views on that. We have radical Islamic terrorists coming in that have to be stopped,” said Trump. “We’re taking them in by the thousands.”
As The Washington Post editorial board notes, Trump’s penchant for unfiltered personal attacks is unprecedented in modern American politics. “What the candidate does offer is a series of prejudices and gut feelings, most of them erroneous,” asserts the Post, adding:
Mr. Trump campaigns by insult and denigration, insinuation and wild accusation: Ted Cruz’s father was involved in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy; Hillary Clinton may be guilty of murder; Mr. Obama is a traitor who wants Muslims to attack.
Donald Trump is everything the Left has accused Republicans of being since Reagan first gave his inspirational his “Morning in America” speech. After years of hyperbole and demonization, hurling invective at good, decent men, the Left no longer has the lexicon to effectively capture a true demagogue. There’s only so many times you can call your political opponent “Hitler” or “bigot” before language ceases to convey meaning and falls on deaf ears.