Trump's white-nationalist dog whistles in Warsaw - By Jonathan Capehart
By Jonathan Capehart July 6 at 2:35 PM
Okay, show of hands. How many of you watched President Trump’s speech in Warsaw? That’s the one where he finally gave full-throated support to Article 5 guaranteeing mutual defense of NATO allies. But not before a fair bit of lecturing (or hectoring depending on where you are in Europe) about defense spending.
Anyway, there was a line during Trump’s oration that sounded like an off-beat cymbal in his rhetorical sis-boom-bah in “defense of (Western) civilization itself.” See if you can pick it out.
<< Americans will never forget. The nations of Europe will never forget. We are the fastest and the greatest community. There is nothing like our community of nations. The world has never known anything like our community of nations.
We write symphonies. We pursue innovation. We celebrate our ancient heroes, embrace our timeless traditions and customs, and always seek to explore and discover brand-new frontiers.
We reward brilliance. We strive for excellence, and cherish inspiring works of art that honor God. We treasure the rule of law and protect the right to free speech and free expression. >>
“We write symphonies.” What on Earth does that have to do with anything? It’s bad enough Trump is doing the one thing his predecessors studiously avoided: engaging in the battle-of-civilizations talk that inflames anger and tensions with Muslims, particularly in the Middle East. In that one line, taken in context with everything else Trump said, what I heard was the loudest of dog whistles. A familiar boast that swells the chests of white nationalists everywhere. And Trump’s seeming non sequitur would have gone right over my head were it not for the past white-chauvinist musings of Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa).
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2017/07/06/trumps-white-nationalist-dog-whistles-in-warsaw/
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