He didn't mock any disabled people or toss many scandalous one-liners around, but his War on Terror speech is long on retreaded ideas and short on recognition of practical application.
So, for example, he wants to have "extreme vetting" of immigrants from problematic areas of the world. This is to stop Evil Terroristic Muslims from getting into the country and shooting it up — he noted attacks that were done by immigrants or by immigrants' children.
Yes, we have to stop immigrants from trouble areas because their children might turn out to be terrorists. Or maybe their children after them. In fact, if you go out far enough, you can probably find a criminal or terrorist somewhere in the next several generations.
How does he propose keeping Evil Terrorist Immigrants at bay? Well, with a test to see whether they share Western liberal values and tolerance. Golly, I can't imagine how any crafty ISIL member could get past a questionnaire.
And, for that matter, what are the Western liberal values and tolerances that we want to test for? Trump mentions the insidious oppression and violence against gays in some majority-Islam countries … but ignores violence against gays in, say, Russia. Or, for that matter, he ignores his own opposition to gay rights in the US, or the anti-LGBT laws in his running mate's state. Sure, that falls short of stoning, absolutely. But unless the ideological test is going to be whether gays should be fired from jobs but not executed, it's not quite the Shining City on a Hill that Trump paints it to be.
We'll leave aside other little bits and bobs, like the idea that if the US invades someone it should pay for the cost through rapine and confiscation — there is, after all, little difference between saying, "Hey, we're going to seize that oil field and use its proceeds to pay for American veterans" and "Hey, we're going to steal all the art in the museums and all the gold jewelry from the citizenry and use its proceeds to pay for American veterans," is there?
I'll just close by noting that I'll be damned if I've heard any of those yahoos who were constantly ragging on President Obama for using a teleprompter criticize Donald Trump for — as the picture shows — doing the very same thing.
Donald Trump’s Terrorism Plan Mixes Cold War Concepts and Limits on Immigrants
Mr. Trump, in a foreign policy address, called for “extreme vetting” of prospective new arrivals that would include an “ideological test.”
