{"id":6400,"date":"2016-06-01T16:05:23","date_gmt":"2016-06-01T16:05:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2016\/06\/01\/richard-cohen-on-donald-trump\/"},"modified":"2016-06-01T16:05:23","modified_gmt":"2016-06-01T16:05:23","slug":"richard-cohen-on-donald-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2016\/06\/01\/richard-cohen-on-donald-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"Richard Cohen on Donald Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\">Mr. Cohen <a href=\"http:\/\/www.realclearpolitics.com\/articles\/2016\/05\/31\/trump_has_taught_me_to_fear_my_fellow_americans_130700.html\">feels<\/a> that Trump is betraying the principles that America stands for:&#0160;<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\">It [&#39;betrayal&#39;] is the word that comes to mind almost on a nightly basis when I see some Trump surrogate defend his position on one of the cable news shows. How can you? I want to ask. Do you believe that the government should apply a religious test to let people into this country? Christians? Yes. Jews? Sure. Buddhists, Hindus and Zoroastrians, step this way. Muslims? Not so fast.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\">Do the people who support Trump realize that they are betraying not merely Muslims but the principles that America stands for? We don&#39;t apply religious tests to anything. In that way, we are different than some other countries. In that way, we are better.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\">How foolish can a liberal be? &#0160;There is no right to immigrate and the &#0160;U.S. has no obligation to allow subversives into the country. Now sharia-supporting Muslims are subversives. &#0160;The values of sharia are antithetical to American values. &#0160; So it makes perfect sense to carefully vet Muslims who seek to come here. &#0160;Only those who renounce sharia and show a willingness to assimilate should be allowed in. &#0160;We have every right to preserve and protect our culture and values.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\">The U.S. Constitution is not a suicide pact, and it obviously needs to be interpreted in such a way that it is not made into one. Article VI ends as follows: &quot;. . . no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.&quot;<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\">Whether a test is religious depends on what counts as a religion. &#0160;Is Islam a religion? &#0160;There are those who maintain that it is a political ideology masquerading as a religion. &#0160;If this is right, &#39;no religious test&#39; does not apply to Islam. &#0160;On a more moderate view, Islam is a&#0160;hybrid ideology: both a religion and a political ideology incompatible with American values. &#0160;But then my point about subversive elements kicks in. &#0160;<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\">Only if a Muslim renounces sharia, embraces American values, and shows a willingness to assimilate should he be allowed into our country. &#0160;Isn&#39;t this just common sense? &#0160;Of course it is, and it is precisely what liberal idiots like Cohen lack. &#0160;These same idiots typically label &#39;xenophobic&#39; those who express such rational concerns as I am now expressing. &#0160;A phobia is an irrational fear, but there is nothing irrational about fear of Muslim subversives. &#0160;Typical liberal behavior: misuse language and slander your opponent.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\">With fools there can be no productive dialogue. &#0160;We are left with condemning them for their willful stupidity.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\">So while Trump&#39;s rhetoric is incendiary and irresponsible, the essential content of his message about Muslim immigration and Mexican illegal immigration is sound and easily defended.&#0160;<\/span><\/p>\n<fieldset class=\"zemanta-related\">\n<legend class=\"zemanta-related-title\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\">Related articles<\/span><\/legend>\n<div class=\"zemanta-article-ul zemanta-article-ul-image\" style=\"margin: 0; 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width: 84px; font-size: 11px; margin: 2px 10px 10px 2px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/maverickphilosopher.typepad.com\/maverick_philosopher\/2015\/07\/a-case-against-withdrawal.html\" style=\"box-shadow: 0px 0px 4px #999; padding: 2px; display: block; border-radius: 2px; text-decoration: none;\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/i.zemanta.com\/351295979_80_80.jpg\" style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; border: 0; display: block; width: 80px; max-width: 100%;\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/maverickphilosopher.typepad.com\/maverick_philosopher\/2015\/07\/a-case-against-withdrawal.html\" style=\"display: block; overflow: hidden; text-decoration: none; line-height: 12pt; height: 80px; padding: 5px 2px 0 2px;\" target=\"_blank\">A Case Against Withdrawal<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/fieldset>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mr. Cohen feels that Trump is betraying the principles that America stands for:&#0160; It [&#39;betrayal&#39;] is the word that comes to mind almost on a nightly basis when I see some Trump surrogate defend his position on one of the cable news shows. How can you? I want to ask. Do you believe that the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2016\/06\/01\/richard-cohen-on-donald-trump\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Richard Cohen on Donald Trump&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,119],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-immigration","category-islamism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6400\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}