A Losing Candidate and the Cry of Liberty

Bulent Kilic—AFP/Getty Images

Donald Trump's first general election ad begins: "In Hillary Clinton's America, the system stays rigged against Americans. Syrian refugees flood in."

Question 1. Which Americans? The Americans whose ancestors were massacred and driven from their lands, many of whom to this day live on reservations plagued by gambling and alcoholism? Or is it the Americans whose ancestors were kidnapped, chained and shackled, herded like wild beasts into great ships that transported them across the ocean to be sold into slavery, later to be freed only to live under decades of segregation, many of whom now live with distinct disadvantages in education, employment, and area ("the wrong side of the tracks") and get lured into crime to make ends meet? The system is rigged against them to be sure, and while Hillary Clinton and the Democrats certainly aren't the answer to their problems, neither is Trump.

Let's take the (white) Americans that Trump is appealing to though. Would those be the descendants of refugees from 17th Century religious state persecution in England? Or maybe of the refugees from 18th Century war, famine, and religious persecution in Palatine (Germany)? Or could it be those of the 19th Century refugees fleeing famine and abject poverty in Ireland, or the wars of the Risorgimento in Italy? 20th Century refugees from Hitler's Western Europe, Stalin's Eastern Europe, Franco's Spain? basically I'm wondering which group of people descended from refugees Trump has in mind when he says "Americans".

Question 2. Which Syrians does Trump fear will "flood in"? Syrians affiliated with ISIS (the Islamic State in Syria)? Syrians linked to the al-Nusra Front (sometimes called al-Qaeda in Syria)? Or maybe the Islamic Front Syria (Saudi-backed Sunni Islamists)? Possibly jihadists linked to Jaish al-Islam (Islam Army) or Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar? Or people connected to the secular, ideologically Marxist PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party)? The brutal Ba'athist Assad regime? Surely it is not people tied to the US and UK backed but thus far rather ineffective Syrian Free Army, is it?

In the second half of the video we are told that "Donald Trump's America is secure. Terrorists...are kept out." Clears that up! Or does it? It is not Syrian "terrorists" that we are apocalyptically warned will flood in. Rather, "refugees." That is, not those who belong to the aforementioned jihadist groups nor even those other secular governmental and rebel  factions, but those everyday Syrians not too different from you and me who are tired of the fighting and bloodshed, and don't even have a side they can fight on, but have survived the crossfire and are fleeing for their lives from the pain and sorrow of the present, in pursuit of a more peaceful and successful future. Not the terrorists, but the people running from the terrorists. Trump does not see the distinction - he sees only the people's region and religion, and they are not welcome to the human pursuit of happiness of American soil.

Trump says "Give me your vote. I'll keep them out. Let's make America great again". He forgets that, if it is appropriate to say that America really was "great", a key ingredient to any greatness was when it acted consistently with the invitation of Liberty: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."