Late bloomer on the Trump-ette vine of crazy talk
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” — George Santayana
Every Democrat – and for that matter every American – should understand clearly who Laura Loomer is. What makes her history and character relevant is that this month she accompanied ex-President Trump to the debate in Philadelphia, to the memorial service at Ground Zero for the fallen from Sept. 11, 2001, and then to the 911 memorial service at Shanksville, Penn. What makes these facts especially poignant is that until Sept. 12, 2024, Ms. Loomer’s public statements have promoted the theory that the destruction on Sept. 11, 2001, was an “inside job,” meaning that our own government was responsible for instigating that destruction. She stood next to Trump and Sen. J. D. Vance at the ceremony in New York. To bring this person to a Memorial Service on the 23rd anniversary of the tragedy, a person who has spent the last 23 years diminishing the sacrifice of almost 3,000 innocent Americans who died that day, is unconscionable.
Ms. Loomer has been noted to have recently promoted the rumor that Haitians living in Springfield, Ohio, are stealing and eating household pets. Ex-President Trump picked up on this debunked rumor, and promoted it on no less a stage than the national Presidential debate. Did he hear about it on the plane? Trump Farce One? (Excuse the typo.) Ms. Loomer, in the same week, was able to descend even deeper into the gloom. Reportedly, she posted on X, regarding the dreaded result of a Harris victory, “The White House will smell like curry & White House speeches will be facilitated via a call center and the American people will only be able to convey their feedback through a customer satisfaction survey at the end of the call that nobody will understand.” In response to criticism, she maintains that these comments were just humorous jibes, and not to be taken so seriously.
Perhaps, but I find this whole scenario deeply troubling. Depicting immigrants as depraved enough to eat cats, belittling Asian Americans as having stinky homes, and feeding on the resentment we all feel when, after ten minutes on hold at a call center, we have trouble understanding the other party’s foreign accent – all these are not just innocent humor. When coupled with Trump’s portrayal of immigrants as criminals, lunatics, and rapists who in their spare time are after jobs that properly belong to Blacks and Hispanics, these characterizations take on a more somber hue. They, in sum, have the effect of allowing committed MAGA disciples to know that they are better than these other, less desirable beings, beings that are, indeed, less than them. Trump has proven that if one lies persistently enough, many come to believe the lie.
This is where remembering history becomes crucial. In the 1920’s in the aftermath of World War I, Germany entered a catastrophe of unemployment, hyperinflation, and economic collapse. People were starving and could not find work. For decades, there had been in the German people a smoldering anti-Semitism. Adolph Hitler seized on this, and through his command of new techniques of propaganda, was able to make Jews the scapegoat for all the evil that had befallen the German people. A Nazi newspaper published reports that there were ritual killings of young Christian boys perpetrated by Jews. Jews were depicted as spreading vermin. Hitler condemned the Jews for contaminating the purity of German Blood. Does this ring a bell?
The steady drip-drip-drip of racial slur and inuendo, demeaning image, or outright statements that a particular racial or ethnic group are inferior, allows the bigot to see themselves as better than, different than, other than the stigmatized group. This allows the bigot to be comfortable in mistreating members of the stigmatized group, either en masse or individually. Seeing a political movement repeatedly pursue these false claims and insinuations has only one reasonable explanation – to wit: Trump and the whole constellation of followers, politicians, and enablers are racist and complicit in the promotion of racism. This we must oppose with the facts, with every breath and with every sinew.
— Michael Nagle
