Editorial: Trump's Muslim ban contrasts with Reagan's 'American way'
For those of you who may be inclined toward sympathy for presidential candidate Donald Trump's declaration Monday that we should have a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States," we ask you to reflect on these words of President Ronald Reagan: "America stands unique in the world: the only country not founded on race but on a way, an ideal. Not in spite of but because of our polyglot background, we have had all the strength in the world. That is the American way."
On Aug. 10, 1988, as he signed a bill apologizing for the "mistake" of interning 120,000 Japanese Americans in the tense days following the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Reagan recalled that statement by a "young actor" paying tribute in the 1940s to the once-interned family of a Japanese-American soldier who died heroically in World War II.
Trump, the irony bears noting, issued his unfortunate call from the deck of an aircraft carrier at an event commemorating the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
As Ronald Reagan acknowledged for himself in the 1940s and again in 1988 on behalf of his country, America's blanket policy of shuffling tens of thousands of its citizens into makeshift camps was "a grave wrong," even amid the confusion of a pitched world war. In the aftermath of Trump's remarks, we are moved to remind Americans in the increasingly polyglot suburbs that what he has suggested would again be, would still be, a grave wrong.
Trump, to be sure, was not talking about rounding up all Muslims as America rounded up the Japanese in the 1940s, but his call to close our borders to all Muslims stems from the same irrational bigotry. All Muslims cannot be potential terrorists because of the actions of a few or because of isolated lines taken from the Quran, any more than all Christians should be judged by one person's murderous assault on an abortion clinic or by isolated lines from the Book of Leviticus.
Trump has shot to the top of the polls in the Republican presidential primary with a style of brash and unrepentant candor. Along the way, picking apart his inconsistencies, inaccuracies, hypocrisies and absurdities has become a virtual cottage industry, offering the mistaken impression that he is not to be taken seriously. His poll numbers say otherwise. And, more to the point, among all his absurd pronouncements, this one especially cries out for denunciation; for, it drips both with reckless paranoia and with a depth of xenophobia that insults our most basic American values of equality and justice. Moreover, it hands ISIS a perfect recruiting tool by effectively pitting the West against an entire religion.
Not that long ago, a series of reports in the Daily Herald demonstrated how the suburbs have been strengthened through the forceful blend of cultures they comprise. Over the course of five years, our "Stories of Suburban Immigrants" profiled families with roots in India, Mexico, China, Poland and the Philippines, just a few of the many nations, religions and cultures that combine to define our region.
That blend is just as powerful and just as enriching nationwide. Might there be elements within any of these cultures that could do some physical harm? Of course. But it is almost as ludicrous to think that quarantining all the followers of a major religion would protect against such minorities as to think that it would be humanly possible. Or, as to think that it would be morally defensible.
In 2015, we ought to recognize what Ronald Reagan acknowledged in 1988. That letting fear dictate our attitudes toward a entire body of citizens is a grave wrong. We will hear all sorts of outrageous claims, promises, theories and strategies from candidates as the campaign for president proceeds. But when those claims become dangerous, when they insult who we are as a people and a nation, when they divide and weaken us rather than unite and strengthen us, we have to take them seriously. We have to stand up for the American way.