Fox News Legal Analyst Torches Trump For Unleashing 'Torrent Of Hatred'

https://www.yahoo.com/news/andrew-napolitano-donald-trump-092821963.html

Fox News senior judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano has accused President Donald Trump of unleashing “a torrent of hatred” with his attacks on four Democratic congresswomen of color. In an op-ed published Thursday, Napolitano also said ... government workers “take an oath to support the Constitution,” which itself “not only commands of government both racial neutrality and color blindness, it generally prohibits government officials from making distinctions among people on the basis of immutable characteristics.”

“ So, when the president defies these moral and constitutional norms and tells women of color to ‘Go back,’ he raises a terrifying specter. The specter is hatred not for ideas he despises but for the people who embrace those ideas. The specter is also a dog whistle to groups around the country that hatred is back in fashion and is acceptable to articulate publicly. Hatred “must be rejected loudly in all its forms – especially when it comes from the president,” Napolitano added.

"Go back" is a rejection of the nation as a melting pot; a condemnation of one of America's founding values – E Pluribus Unum (Out of many, one). It implicates a racial or nativist superiority: We were here before you; this is our land, not yours; get out. Nativist hatred is an implication of moral or even legal superiority that has no constitutional justification in American government.

When the hate speech comes from a shameless president, we have a problem. The problem is that presidential hatred produces division among people and destroys peaceful dialogue. When thousands of people at a Trump rally in North Carolina recently chanted, "Send her back" referring to a congresswoman born in Somalia – and Trump tweeted that the four congresswomen (including three born in the U.S.) should "Go back" to where they came from – the inescapable image was of a president trying to divide rather than unite.”

This business of the hatred of people is so dangerous because to some, as Lord Byron wrote, hatred is perversely pleasing. It gives them shelter in a mob, it lets them hurl venom with anonymity, and it regenerates itself. It must be rejected loudly in all its forms – especially when it comes from the president.