Trump’s Bad Ideas Aren’t Un-American After All

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/04/20/trumps-bad-ideas-arent-un-american-after-all

In other words, Trump’s vision isn’t so much “un-American” as it is America on steroids.

For example, the Obama administration has deported more than 2.5 million immigrants, leading the National Council of La Raza to dub him “deporter-in-chief.” Civil rights advocates have repeatedly criticized U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, for launching aggressive home raids and running prison-like detention centers.

And lamentably, the U.S. military has in fact attacked the innocent families of its adversaries. According to one estimate revealed by The Intercept in 2015, over 90 percent of the people killed in drone strikes during a one-month period in Afghanistan were not the “intended target.”

Some of those victims were almost certainly family members, particularly when you consider the practice of “double tap” drone strikes. That’s where an attack on a suspected militant is followed by a second strike targeting rescue workers — or, in some cases, the first target’s funeral.

The Globe is far from alone in giving the novelty of Trump’s dystopian ideas too much credit.

For instance, media blanched at Trump’s claim that there should be “some form of punishment” for women who have abortions. A New York Times writer called the remarks “incoherent” while other pundits identified them as a key factor in Trump’s Wisconsin loss.

That show of outrage sat poorly with Jodi Jacobsen of the website Rewire. She pointed out that women are already punished for seeking abortions — from untenable waiting periods and distance restrictions to limits on access to abortion medications. Some even go to jail for allegedly attempting to induce miscarriages when safe and legal abortions are unavailable.