Aside from the blatant and vulgar racism of President Trump’s latest remarks about four freshman congresswomen of color, there is a sad irony to the situation.
The president accuses these duly elected women of “hating this country” solely because they are representing their constituents and criticizing his policies.
Yet Trump seems to forget that his campaign slogan was “Make America Great Again,” implying that America under his predecessors was not so great. In fact, in decrying the problems our country faced in brutal terms, Trump declared that “he alone” could fix them.
The freedom to criticize our government is fundamentally what sets the United States apart from the autocracies that Trump seems to admire. Now that he is president, he views any dissent as disloyal, unpatriotic and treasonous.
It seems that he, and not the congresswomen he tries to smear, is the one who hates the ideals this country was founded upon.
Ira Rubinfeld, Salt Lake City