Trump Echoes 'Every
U.S. President' Since James Monroe (Semana, Colombia)
"Either
openly or in whispers, every one of them has conducted himself in accord with
such thinking. James Monroe established his doctrine defining Latin America as
the 'backyard' of the United States. From the 18th century to Obama today, every
president has treated Latin America as if it were. … Fearing the spread of
freedom, Washington backed French planters in Haiti with arms and money against
a revolt by Black slaves. Lincoln wanted, but could not arrange, to rid the
country of emancipated slaves by sending them to colonize Central America.
Obama continues to use its Guantanamo base in Cuba as an illegal dumping ground
for holding prisoners without trial. As far as Trump's proposed wall, this idea
was lifted largely from President Bush (the son)."
Multi-billionaire Donald Trump, Republican candidate for the
presidency of the United States, has insulted Mexican immigrants: "Mexico
sends us drugs, crime and rapists," he says. He announced that as
president, he will not only build a wall along the border to stop the flow of
these unwanted people, but oblige them to pay for it. The response from our
side has been mockery of Trump by cartoonists, indignant editorialists, complaints
from singers, astonishment from diplomats, threatens of retaliation from beauty
queens. All Latin Americans feel collectively humiliated and offended by Trump
as if his intolerance were novel.
Perhaps it should be intolerable, but it has always been
tolerated before and it's nothing new. What Donald Trump says today are things
that almost all presidents of the United States have said before. Either openly
or in whispers, every one of them has conducted himself in accord with such
thinking. James Monroe established his doctrine [the Monroe Doctrine] defining
Latin America as the "backyard" of the United States [1823]. From the
18th century to Obama today, every president has treated Latin America as if it
were.
Fearing the spread of freedom, Washington backed French
planters in Haiti with arms and money against a revolt by Black slaves. Lincoln
wanted, but could not arrange, to rid the country of emancipated slaves by
sending them to colonize Central America [aka/Linconia]. Obama continues to
use its Guantanamo base in Cuba as an illegal dumping ground for holding prisoners
without trial. Why don’t the same things happen on other continents in which the
U.S. has military bases - In Japan, for example, or Britain? As far as Trump's proposed
wall, this idea was lifted largely from President Bush (the son).
Posted By Worldmeets.US
In this secular contempt for their southern neighbors, U.S. presidents
are not alone: they are joined by their entire nation. That is because, yes - the
United States is a country of immigrants, but they are rapidly-assimilated
immigrants (which is, like all things, both good and bad). They are assimilated
to the point that they are considered, by way of the "American dream,"
real "WASPs" (White Anglo-Saxon Protestants) just one generation
after arrival. Whether Irish or Polish, Italian or Russian, they are yes - Whites
in every respect: neither Negro nor Indian. By way of example, two of the candidates
competing with Trump for the Republican nomination are Cuban-Americans Ted Cruz
and Marco Rubio, the immigration policies of which consist of, as usual, taking
away the ladder used by those who arrive to gain access to "the American
dream." Xenophobia is the first patriotic sentiment of the newly-assimilated
immigrant.
Three of a Kind: Trump, Coulter and Dylann Roof (La Jornada, Mexico)
However, passing from sentiment to reality, what Donald
Trump says in only marginally true: there are indeed in the United States Latino
drug traffickers. However, they are there because of U.S. demands that they be
extradited; and after rendering part of their fortunes to the U.S. Treasury, they
settled there permanently. The opposite is much more widely know: our "good"
neighbors to the north have historically sent their own pirates and bandits to
their 'bad' southern neighbors – and not only drug traffickers, but the entire drug
enterprise which was created by their drug addictions and prohibitions - without
which there would be no such enterprise.
But even if true - to say such things would be unpopular. Yet
Trump's xenophobic insults are no more than an echo of the past, despite having
aroused the vocal protests of Puerto
Rican singer Ricky Martin or Mexican
magnate Carlos Slim. So it is indeed possible that the next president of the
United States will be Donald Trump, who will make us pay for their Cordon sanitaire [sanitary cordon]. Nor would that be anything
new.
