I'll be the first to admit, I didn't think that Donald Trump would stick around in the Republican Presidential race. I'll also follow that up by saying under no circumstance will I vote for him when given the opportunity, either in a Republican primary, or God save us all, the Presidential election.
That being said, he's said a few things that I don't wholeheartedly disagree with, especially
in light of recent events in San Bernandino, CA. While it would be wrong to condemn an entire religion, or all persons who follow such a religion, it should give pause to our foreign policy, and those whom we trust to bring within our borders and allow the privilege of citizenship.
The reason I even mention any of this, after pointedly avoiding it for the most part
is Tom Brokaw. I don't know who let him out of his retirement pad, but he was out making remarks comparing Donald Trump's *proposal* to what FDR did during WWII. In response to the Japanese bombing Pearl Harbor, FDR decided to imprison American citizens of Japanese descent. There was likely not much of an outcry at the time (though I don't ever recall reading about German-Americans being interred, despite the fact they were attempting to destroy us, too. It must really have been the bombing that was the trigger.)
To be clear, excluding someone from *immigrating* to the U.S., for whatever reason, is not in any way, shape, or form the same as imprisoning without cause U.S. citizens and nationals. On the one hand, you have citizens of a foreign nation. On the other, you have the U.S. Constitution, which is designed to protect the rights of all citizens, regardless of race, creed, or what a person's forbears' homeland has done to us. For Brokaw to pretend to be ignorant of that fact, or to actually be ignorant of that fact suggests that he is a moron. There's enough of that going around lately, without him spewing forth such nonsense. It would have been enough to say something along the lines of "Donald Trump is an idiot, and he is proposing a plan that cannot be enforced." Of course, such a statement does not generate millions of views on the internet, nor does it bring Tom Brokaw back to the forefront of the news cycle for more than a moment. Instead, he takes a position that is at least as ignorant as he claims Trump's is, and for that is rewarded. I hate our country sometimes.
We now live in a world where anyone can get anywhere on the globe within 24 hours (or therabouts.) We have lax border security, and don't seem to care whether or not the rule of law set up in our Constitution is followed. Protecting our citizens should be every candidate's primary concern. If Brokaw actually cared, he might have asked the governments of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates why they have not taken in any *refugees* or even offered any formal aid,
according to a report by Amnesty International.
Of course, if those type of questions were asked, then we might have an entirely different debate. One where the priorities of the nation, rather than of an individual candidate or *celebrity*. Then again, we might not be the U.S.A. if we did things that way.
