Give a man a reputation as an early riser, as the old saw goes, and he can sleep until noon everyday. The same phenomenon evidently applies to bad reputations as well. Brand Donald Trump a bigot, and suddenly every policy he endorses, no matter how innocuous or mainstream, becomes repugnant.
Consider the current furor over the GOP frontrunner’s remarks on Monday concerning radical mosques. In a television interview, Trump was asked whether he would consider shuttering certain mosques that appear to promote terrorism. Here is Trump’s response:
Make of Trump’s suggestion what you will (and there are serious constitutional reasons to doubt that such a policy is workable in the United States), but it puts him firmly in the mainstream of political opinion, particularly in social democratic Europe, which has been grappling with the problem of radical mosques for quite some time.
Germany has established precedent, by shutting down the mosque where some of the 9/11 hijackers worshiped. Now, other European countries are considering following in Berlin’s footsteps. Great Britain’s home secretary Theresa May has proposed issuing “closure orders” that would shut down pro-jihadi mosques. Belgium’s prime minister has also vowed to shut “certain radical mosques.” And in the wake of the Paris atrocities, France’s interior minister has argued in favor of closing “mosques where hate is preached.”
Stateside, when Mr. Trump merely suggested considering following in the footsteps of tolerant, democratic Germany, he was flayed for it. In a characteristic example, a blogger at the Washington Post bemoaned Trump’s appeal to the “massive political power of fear.” (Naturally, the remarkably parochial article mentioned none of the European examples.) Other publications filed similarly context-free denunciations of Mr. Trump.
Others simply lied about what the real estate mogul had said. Slate magazine premised an entire column on a blatant mischaracterization of what Trump suggested. Jamelle Bouie omitted all of the qualifications in Trump’s statement, and instead asserted that Trump wants to “shut down mosques.” That’s tantamount to saying the health department wants to “shut down restaurants” if it shutters a place that has an E. coli outbreak. The Daily Beast was similarly dishonest.
None of this is to endorse Trump’s suggestion, by the way. But the media may wish to keep in mind that he’s merely proposing a policy that’s been endorsed by such famous right-wing extremists as France’s socialist interior minister.
