[Edgewise] God did not save Trump from the bullet, immigrants did

Trump momentarily turned his head to level to a projected chart displaying a spike in unlawful immigration, his favourite bugaboo

Based on Donald Trump and his followers, God saved him from a would-be  murderer’s bullet. “It was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from occurring,” he posted on social media. 

It’s not sufficient that the conservative Supreme Court docket majority virtually anointed him king by giving him nearly blanket immunity, he’s additionally implying a divine proper to be one.

It’s typical of the MAGA flock to not give credit score the place it’s due. Fact be instructed, it was immigrants, not God, who saved Trump from a getting a gap within the head. Inadvertently. 

Trump dodged a dangerous look earlier than St. Peter ­— who’s absolutely not considered one of his beholden judicial appointees ­– when he momentarily turned his head to level to a projected chart displaying a spike in unlawful immigration, his favourite bugaboo.

Not solely has pandering to resentment of immigrants saved Trump’s life, it additionally helped catapult him to the top of the Republican Celebration, which marches lock-step to his each command. The unique US two-party system’s conservative wing is now a blatantly authoritarian one. 

Trump’s xenophobic messaging had began along with his “birther” declare that President Barack Obama wasn’t born within the U.S. He’s waxing Hitlerian as we speak, claiming immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our nation.” 

That’s pink meat for his offended, purportedly white working class MAGA diehards, practically half of whom earn no less than $50,000 a 12 months and a 3rd have no less than a university diploma.

These loyal supporters are  pushed by an existential concern that immigrants and non-white minorities are displacing them and diluting America’s “identification” as a white, Christian nation and eroding their presumed white privilege. Some MAGA influencers are even livid at Trump’s alternative of operating mate as a result of J.D. Vance’s spouse, Usha, is the daughter of Indian immigrants. 

They are going to hold feeling victimized by the altering demographics as a result of the US inhabitants is inexorably diversifying. Non-white minorities already make up 42% of the inhabitants and the foreign-born, 13 p.c. With falling beginning charges amongst whites, the US Census initiatives that they may represent lower than 50% of the inhabitants by 2045.

What lies forward?

And since the state should inevitably face rising calls for for inclusivity and equal rights for all no matter race, faith, gender, and nationwide origin, they may hold feeling menaced by liberal values and persecuted by constitutional restraints. They’re decided to intimidate again, and Trump who amplifies bigoted tropes, is their designated bully.

What lies forward is bitter political strife that guarantees  to worsen, particularly if Trump returns to the White Home. The chilly civil battle might doubtlessly flip scorching, what with the unabated proliferation of weapons.

The burgeoning MAGAverse shares hostility to immigrants with the surging Far Proper in Europe. There, too, xenophobic politics will persist or get even worse as a result of mass immigration from poor to developed international locations is an inescapable upshot of world wealth and earnings inequality. 

The poorest half of the world’s inhabitants owns merely two p.c of all wealth whereas the richest ten p.c owns 76% of it. This ten p.c rakes in 52% of all earnings whereas the poorest half earns simply 8.5%. 

No marvel the variety of worldwide immigrants grew to 281 million by 2020, with 3.6% of the world’s folks dwelling exterior their nation of beginning, in keeping with the United Nations’ Worldwide Group for Migration (IOM).

Widening financial disparity is a stronger driver of world mass immigration than political crises. No stopgaps are in sight if governments should not ready or prepared to ensure public companies, job safety, well being care, schooling, and different socially ameliorative measures.  

If the wealth and earnings hole doesn’t slim, the exodus of immigrants to prosperous international locations will continue to grow, heedless of borders in addition to oceans, deserts, mountains, and cultural obstacles. So will the enchantment of maximum nationalism, racism, and isolationism in vacation spot international locations.

It’s going to be a protracted, bitter period of ideological battle the world over. – Rappler.com

Rene Ciria Cruz is an editor at PositivelyFilipino.com. He edited the guide A Time to Rise: Collective Memoirs of the Union of Democratic Filipinos (KDP), (UP Press), and was Inquirer.web’s US Bureau Chief 2013-2023. He has written for the San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco Chronicle, Pacific Information Service, and California Lawyer Journal