Here’s hoping that those who were hypercritical about the rollout of the Affordable Care Act are reflecting on what we–and the rest of the world–have been witnessing as the Trump Administration rolled out immigration-policy changes. Donald Trump’s executive order reverberated globally and chaos, outrage and panic were the order of the day.
Ready, fire, aim. Call it a cluster Trump, even if the fan base doesn’t agree or care. Confusion and legal limbo would be an upgrade.
It’s what happens when doing something right away takes priority over doing something the right way. No one advocates sloppy vetting or naiveté about the world’s more likely incubators of terrorists. But this is what happens when a campaign-rally rant turns into carelessly drafted, democracy-defacing, presidential policy.
The Administration has frozen refugee admissions and temporarily blocked people from seven majority-Muslim nations from entering the U.S.–even with valid visas. Those countries are Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, Yemen and Syria. Notably not included: Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, whose connections with 9/11 are forever seared into the American psyche. And how about all those problematic, Muslim-majority “stans”? Or maybe Indonesia, which is only the most populous Muslim country in the world? Or how about those from France and Belgium who don’t meet our, uh, definition of “real” French or Belgians?
Among those recently impacted, if not angry, scared, alienated or moved to action: American university foreign students, State Department officers and diplomats, green card holders returning from overseas funerals or vacations, Iraqi translators for the U.S. military, religious leaders, humanitarian advocates, global high-tech executives, academics, public officials and international airport security personnel.
And this just in: Also affected was acting Attorney General Sally Yates, who was fired for not playing along with Trump’s constitutionally questionable executive order.
Among those viscerally fired up: the very radical Islamic terrorists we’re supposed to be targeting. This was worldwide, anti-Muslim, recruiting propaganda right in their infidel-hating, Koran-cherry-picking wheelhouse. “If the president wants to empower jihadists, this is the way to do it,” underscored U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Tampa.
Among those not encouraged to further help Homeland Security: American Muslims, who we count on to be the insider eyes and ears of their communities.