Sure, there’s mudslinging and hyperbole in politics, and you don’t want to go overboard in taking it seriously.
But you’re entitled to take people at their word, and sometimes should. That certainly was the case with Hitler’s threats in Mein Kampf to kill the Jews.
Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX; photo at left) is known for inflammatory remarks. A San Antonio newspaper calls it “part of his political brand” (see story here). So the tweet below isn’t exactly a surprise.
For context, Trump is campaigning for president on a promise to deport millions of illegal immigrants. The number “20 million” is kicked around, which is problematical because there are only about 11 million illegals in the U.S. by various estimates.
In any case, when a Minnesota critic called Trump’s deportation plans “ethnic cleansing,” a triggered Chip Roy replied as shown below:
Is he joking? Have you ever met a Republican with a sense of humor? Is it hyperbole? It’s tempting to write off Chip Roy as a blowhard, and you could argue he’s a lawyer and knows what he’s suggesting violates constitutional rights. So he’s not serious, right? Well, not so fast.
Trump talks about suspending the Constitution and being a “dictator.” Republican lawyers frequently challenge constitutional limits. GOP legislators regularly pass unconstitutional legislation. Grassroots Republicans have millions of guns and talk about “civil war.” It doesn’t sound like they’re joking or engaging in hyperbole. I think they deserve to be taken seriously.
No sane person jokes about ethnic cleansing. It’s not a funny subject. Chip Roy hedged by only saying he wants to “deport” progressive Democrats. But the Nazis used very similar language to disguise the mass murder of Jews. They spoke of “resettling” Jews, which meant shipping them to extermination camps in Poland. Chip Roy is using resettling language, too.
When someone uses “ethnic cleansing” language and talks of “deporting” U.S. citizens, we’re entitled to believe he means it, and his intent is malicious. When Trump speaks of immigrants “poisoning the blood,” that’s Nazi-speak. We’ve already seen Trump incite, his supporters commit, and GOP congressmen defend actual political violence.
The lesson of Hitler and Mein Kampf is listen to what sick people are saying, and believe they mean it, before it’s too late to stop them. Our best chance to stop these sick-in-the-head Republicans is at the ballot box on November 5, 2024.