The biggest political news of the past few days, with one important caveat that I'll get to in a minute, is President Trump's issuance of restrictions on immigrants from seven predominantly Muslim countries. Under the pretense of protecting the United States from terrorists, the president has made overt the anti-Muslim prejudice of the G.O.P. There is a reason no president of either party has implemented such a ban in the post-war era - it's because no president, and no party, have been so ignorant, so inclined to self-defeating policies, as President Trump and the current Republican Party. This ban has nothing to do with stopping terrorism, and everything to do with expressing a vengeful, petty attitude towards the larger Muslim community, and to offering what seems like an easy way to make his supporters feel safe, even while it confirms that they have reason to be fearful of people of Muslim faith.
In the restrictions against taking in refugees from Syria and other Muslim countries, Trump is targeting terrorism's victims, not its perpetrators. We can look at this from another perspective, too: unable to determine a policy that would actually combat terrorism by draining away its social, economic, and political roots, Donald Trump is embarking on a superficial, counterproductive approach that literally blames the victims.
Another thing to note - the partial nature of the ban. If Trump is serious, why not ban immigration from all Muslim nations with terrorist activity? As this NYT article notes, "There was a random quality to the list of countries: It excluded Saudi Arabia and Egypt, where the founders of Al Qaeda and many other jihadist groups have originated. Also excluded are Pakistan and Afghanistan, where persistent extremism and decades of war have produced militants who have occasionally reached the United States. Notably, perhaps, the list avoided Muslim countries where Mr. Trump has major business ventures.”
Substantively, this act will do almost nothing to fight terrorism. Symbolically, it seems far more likely to feed the fever swamps that give rise to Islamic extremism, providing more evidence to recruiters that the United States is engaged on a crusade against the Muslim world. This is an overreaction that betrays American values and suggests that Muslims are both inherently violent and less worthy of being saved; and so far-right thinking pursues its symbiotic relationship with Islamic extremism, providing still more fuel for their propaganda. It's not just that what Trump has done can be interepreted or twisted: it IS an overt declaration of contempt for Muslims around the world. This a hideous introduction of religious prejudice into American foreign policy and into the U.S. body politic more generally.
The other big news of the last few days that I want to highlight is Trump’s revisiting of the lie that he would have won the popular vote were it not for millions of illegal votes. Tellingly, the Republican party is remaining mostly mum on this point, and I fear that talk of an investigation presages a full-court press to restrict voting rights on the basis of these phantom illegals (who were smart enough to vote en masse without their conspiracy being revealed, yet inept enough not to vote enough in the right states - even in his lies, we see, Trump manages to mix in an extra dose of racism!).