Trump: Dragging The Overton Window Our Way

A year ago, the great frustration of the Dissident Right was that the “I” word was pretty close to being the “N” word in politics. The only time members of either party discussed the issue was when they were preaching the glories of open borders and flooding your neighborhood with foreigners. Mitt Romney actually said he wanted to throw you out of your job in order to make room for a foreigner.

Then Trump came along talking about building a big beautiful wall along the southern border. The political class howled, but the public applauded. The interesting thing about the last six months is that the Republican Party has avoided going after Trump on immigration, instead attacking him in crude personal ways. Even the insulated elites felt the ground shifting on the issue.

The thing about Trump is he is the ultimate opportunist so he has drifted from the immigration issue of late, taking shots at the other candidates as the opportunity presented itself. I called him the Leverage Candidate back in the summer, because he invests everything into the next deal he thinks he can win.  It’s his mentality so he is going to meander from topic to topic.

The other thing about Trump is he is a risk taker, but he is not foolish. He saw how Carson picked up support after he said honest things about Islam. I suspect he saw that and wondered how he could use it. Then the muzzies went bonkers and shot up Paris and then California soTrump is about to drag the Overton Window a few clicks in the right direction.

Donald J. Trump called on Monday for the United States to bar all Muslims from entering the country until the nation’s leaders can “figure out what is going on” after the terrorist attacks in San Bernardino, Calif., an extraordinary escalation of rhetoric aimed at voters’ fears about members of the Islamic faith.

A prohibition of Muslims – an unprecedented proposal by a leading American presidential candidate, and an idea more typically associated with hate groups – reflects a progression of mistrust that is rooted in ideology as much as politics.

Mr. Trump, who in September declared “I love the Muslims,” turned sharply against them after the Paris terrorist attacks, calling for a database to track Muslims in America and repeating discredited rumors that thousands of Muslims celebrated in New Jersey on 9/11. His poll numbers rose largely as a result, until a setback in Iowa on Monday morning. Hours later Mr. Trump called for the ban, fitting his pattern of making stunning comments when his lead in the Republican presidential field appears in jeopardy.

Saying that “hatred” among many Muslims for Americans is “beyond comprehension,” Mr. Trump said in a statement that the United States needed to confront “where this hatred comes from and why.”

“Until we are able to determine and understand this problem and the dangerous threat it poses, our country cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in jihad, and have no sense of reason or respect for human life,” Mr. Trump said.

This is horrifying, of course, to the ruling class, but most Americans will think it blazingly obvious. We can’t seem to figure out which Muslims are going to blow, so why import millions of them into the country? Again, the number of people walking around saying “We need more Muslims” rounds to zero.

The beauty of this move is it not only shifts the conversation, it will flushes out the lunatics in the GOP. Trump is not just moving the window of acceptable discourse, he is trolling the meatheads and nitwits that pose as statesmen.

Repudiation of Mr. Trump’s remarks was swift and severe among religious groups and politicians from both parties. Mr. Trump is “unhinged,” said one Republican rival, former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida, while another, while another, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, called the ban “offensive and outlandish.” Hillary Clinton said the idea was “reprehensible, prejudiced and divisive.” Organizations representing Jews, Christians and those of other faiths quickly joined Muslims in denouncing Mr. Trump’s proposal.

The thing we’re seeing with Trump is that there is no benefit in playing along with these people. The better course is to keep pushing the boundary and force the Social Justice League of America to defend their position. In a weird way, Trump is doing to the ruling class what Progressives have done to traditional Americans for fifty years. He swings the wrecking ball and says, “Tell me why I shouldn’t do it.”

Experts on immigration law and policy expressed shock at the proposal Monday afternoon.

“This is just so antithetical to the history of the United States,” said Nancy Morawetz, a professor of clinical law at New York University School of Law, who specializes in immigration. “It’s unbelievable to have a religious test for admission into the country.”

She added: “I cannot recall any historical precedent for denying immigration based on religion.”

Times change Nancy, times change.

21 thoughts on “Trump: Dragging The Overton Window Our Way

  1. Pingback: Wednesday morning links - Maggie's Farm

  2. The Overton Window is splitting in two. One window is on the right… the other on the left. There is no acceptable middle ground in which to make policy and law.

    • Could be. The gulf between me and people I used to think were generally on my side is getting wider. But, my descent into madness is probably the answer.

      • Well, the guys down the hall are buying bullion coins in various denominations, I’m thinking about stockpiling food, and gun sales are through the roof. Madness abounds.

  3. The three things everyone needs to know about the Cult (credit to my learned friend TC):
    1. The left is wrong about everything.
    2. The left lies about everything.
    3. Whatever they’re accusing their enemies of, rest assured it is something they themselves are most guilty of.

    • Number 1 I can’t agree with because it was a few past successes that have led the Cult to believe they must be correct about EVERYTHING.

      Numbers 2 and 3 are absolutely correct. That’s how to beat them, they are always telling lies and always projecting their insecurities.

  4. She added: “I cannot recall any historical precedent for denying immigration based on religion.”

    Really? No, seriously — really? I would invite Nancy Morawetz to read up on the history of the Know Nothing Party. They were kind of a big deal in the 1840s and 50s – got a bunch of people elected, changed the whole conversation, folded into the Republican Party and helped it start the Civil War. Important stuff, that we used to learn about back in junior high when this country had an education system.

    Or you can just watch Gangs of New York for the tendentious Scorsese take on all of it. Banning Catholics was the cornerstone issue of immigration reform for about 100 years, Nancy. That they didn’t succeed doesn’t mean the didn’t try, election after election after election.

  5. No doubt in my mind Trump is watching what Cernovich, Milo and Heartiste are doing to the Cult and the Cucks. It is quite a spectacle to behold. They throw out silly exaggerations of real hate truths and wait for the ferals to jump in with the actual (but still shocking) numbers. Basically getting them to punch themselves in the face. They treat the cult like the spoilt bully-children they are, dragging them into the centre of attention, thrashing them and kicking them while they are down. All of the cult are liars and most are secret degenerates too. That all gets exposed and they have no idea how to reframe the wreckage. It’s beautiful.

  6. I should hate to see religion being the factor in sorting out immigration. Much better to ask the questions: “Are you a liar? Can we trust you to behave?”

    Of course, the answers would be, inevitably, no and yes (though all death cult adherents would be stopped from entering after answering, purely on the basis of the first question obviously being an outright lie)

    • Trump is being provocative. A religious test would be impractical, but unnecessary. Just end all immigration from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Iran, etc. Combined with the end of birth right citizenship, burden of proof for employment and welfare benefits and 90% of the immigration issues are addressed. We would still have some Muslims trying to sneak in through Mexico and Canada, but perfection is the enemy of the good enough.

      The inevitable hooting and hollering from the establishment should eventually be answered with a call to halt all immigration. That should be the compromise. “OK, we won’t put a religious or ethnic test, we’ll stop all immigration in order to safeguard the country.”

      • Yeah. Trump is a wheeler-dealer. He makes a laughable opening offer, then negotiates down to 125-150% of what he wanted in the first place. Old time wheeling and dealing. See: Used Car Salesman”.

      • Trump is not being merely provocative. He is suggesting that we profile the people coming to live among us. That was the way it was done up until the ‘diversity and multicultural’ era. Besides Islam is a dangerous cult and does not qualify for religious protection under the 1st amendment. Close the darned mosques and let the ‘religious’ cultists go to one of their 57 states.

      • I was attempting to be somewhat sarcastic when I suggested that I would hate to see religion being a factor in immigration. But I wasn’t being at all sarcastic when I suggested the death cult adherents are encouraged to be liars, so getting the truth out of them would be impossible.

  7. “In a weird way, Trump is doing to the ruling class what Progressives have done to traditional Americans for fifty years. ”

    This is the most important lesson from Trump. He is using their tactics and they don’t have an appropriate counter attack either.

  8. “I cannot recall any precedent…”

    Well, you damn fool, if you keep doing what you were doing, you’re going to keep getting what you got.

    Blazingly obvious, indeed.

  9. Ol’ Donald is making this stuff look easy. There are so many things “you just shouldn’t say”, which actually are obvious truths or perfectly logical assumptions. Trump is operating in a target-rich environment these days.

  10. Could be wrong, but didn’t the gomt restrict people of the Hebraic faith from entering the country, at least in the 30s. That’s without mentioning the many peoples of the Orient, banned by race rather than religion. From the 1870s on, various prohibitions have occurred periodically. Thank goodness, they allowed my Irish Catholic grandfather to immigrate.

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