Extreme Vetting of Immigrants

In one of the sillier attempts to disguise the bigotry of his ban on Muslims, Trump unveiled the 5^th or 6^th version of the Muslim ban. “Extreme, extreme vetting of immigrants” is the current proposal. What this means is up to anyone to guess. Like most of Trump’s policy proposals there are no details, not even an outline. It could be similar to extreme snowboarding for all we know. Maybe extreme vetting will look something like this:

Government agent: Are you a terrorist?

Immigrant: No

Government agent: Are you sure?

Immigrant: I am sure. I am not a terrorist. I want to live in a free society. One without a hostile government.

Government agent: Are you really, really sure you are not a terrorist?

Immigrant: I am really, really sure.

Government agent: Because if you really are a terrorist then you could get in serious trouble here. President Trump does not like terrorists. That’s why we are doing this extreme vetting.

Immigrant: I am not a terrorist.

Government agent: Do you believe in the Constitution or Sharia law?

Immigrant: I want to live under the Constitution. I am trying to escape Sharia Law.

Government agent: Well that was our trick question and you passed.

Anyone who buys the “extreme vetting” line is simply … stupid (I’ve never been politically correct). But Trump is not stupid. He is ignorant, unfocused and uninterested in facts, but not stupid. He is simply blowing into the “dog whistles” to get the GOP base up (and “base” is the right label). Just like when he claims that all of the media are “the lowest form of life on Earth” — another dog whistle. Meanwhile “crooked” Hillary is just laying low in the weeds, perhaps the luckiest candidate ever.