Inside Donald Trump’s Selective Islamophobic Fear Machine

Of the many dumbfounding things I observed on the campaign trail in 2016, one of the top head-scratchers was Republican voters’ selective fear and outrage toward what they call “Islamic terrorists.”

After I would follow up and ask if they’re equally concerned about the epidemic of disturbed, white Americans shooting up schools, movie theaters, malls, or spree-shooting while driving an Uber, I’d get a blank stare and an inability to speak coherent words.

This selective fear machine is what President Trump is preying on now: the fear that the “other” is a threat to our families, culture, and very existence.

Make no mistake: there is and will most likely always be a threat of foreign terrorists actively plotting to inflict maximum damage on the U.S. The president is not wrong to want to find ways to improve our border, cyber, and airport security within the bounds of the law, rights to privacy, and human rights.

But this is where he and the chorus line of neocons trying to manipulate him into another war are exposed as simple-minded bigots: in reality, Trump’s travel ban measure and “extreme vetting” philosophy aren’t aimed at keeping the country safe.

Instead they’re aimed at keeping the country safe from Muslims and other folks who might raise eyebrows at a Fourth of July barbecue in Sarah Palin‘s “real America.”

His Great Trump wall on the southern border is no different; it’s not really an effort to keep America safe. It’s one to keep us safe from those “bad hombres,” as Trump reportedly calls them.

But it’s not Muslims or Mexicans who pose the biggest threat: a 2015 New America Foundation study found that white Americans killed more people since 9/11 than Muslims (19 out of 26 attacks defined as terror were perpetrated by non-Muslims).

And that’s not even to mention the events that are terrorism—like school shootings, movie theater massacres, mall shooting sprees—predominately carried out by white males, but conservative politicians and pundits chalk up to disturbed dudes who didn’t pray enough.

For these threats that data show are more grave, Trump’s got a message for you:

Nothing to see here.

This Trumpian-cognitive dissonance is astounding to foreigners who can’t fathom how American politicians have allowed the country to morph into a Wild Wild West shootout.

Of course, the NRA and gun rights activists are already chomping at the bit, ready to dismiss the data as “fake news” from those “far-left” loons Bill O’Reilly is always race-baiting about.

I’m sure O’Reilly just missed the fact that, as sociology professor Charles Kurzman pointed out, the number of Muslim-Americans linked to violent extremism dropped 40 percent in 2016 (a number made moot after the horrifying Orlando nightclub massacre).

Kurzman illustrated an even larger point—over the last 16 years, Islamic extremism accounted for a small portion of America’s murders.

But, let’s say for a moment, we take away the issues of gun rights vs gun control and just look at mentality.

Why is it that these conservatives are more afraid of Muslims and Mexicans than, say, a despondent-looking white guy pacing up and down a mall parking lot, donning camouflage, a hoodie, and large back pack?

Or a bunch of white dudes tailgating for hours outside a football stadium—many strapped with guns at their waist.

Or sitting down in the movie theater—one of the thousands with laughable security—as the lights go dark and there’s no way of knowing if there’s a disturbed person nearby, readying to unleash their own darkness.

And why is it that the president is more worried about seven countries that haven’t inflicted one terrorist attack on America since 9/11, nor was the home of any of the 9/11 hijackers?

The answer is obvious. What’s even more troublingly obvious: Trump and his minions don’t want to find it.

If they did, they’d have to admit their subconscious—and in Trump’s case, conscious—bigotry toward people he deems as less than or up to no good.

And you can’t “Make American Great Again” if you don’t acknowledge the unpopular, dirty truth.

America was never great in the first place.

Maybe for Trump and the Upper West Side plutocrats he plays golf with.

But for women, African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, LGBT, and all other groups Trump views as the “other,” America will only be great when he and others stop their charade of pretending all people are exposed to the same “opportunity” and rights as him.

Most of all, the right to carry out your day and expect a reasonable level of safety for you and your loved ones.

Unfortunately, Trump’s selective fear-mongering machine is aimed at the wrong groups, which have gift wrapped terrorists with strong recruitment to impressionable young foreigners—who now have it on record that the American president doesn’t want their kind on our soil.

So, next time you hear President Trump rail out a Judge for making the country “less safe,” know that he has been making us less safe for a year-and-a-half.

By meeting facts, data, and common sense with vile xenophobia, racism, and bigotry.

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Jordan Chariton is a Politics Reporter for The Young Turks, covering the presidential campaign trail, where he’s interviewing voters on both sides. He’s also a columnist for Mediaite and here’s his latest column. Follow him @JordanChariton and watch videos at YouTube.com/tytpolitics.
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This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.