Jeanine Pirro

Even Dick Cheney criticized Donald Trump. The Republican presidential candidate’s call to ban Muslims from entering the United States went too far, even for far right ideologues.

Despite the general atmosphere of xenophobia and skepticism of immigrants, Americans from both sides of the political spectrum came out  to condemn the real estate mogul.

However, Trump himself is not a phenomenon. The Republican Party and its backers have transitioned from conservatism to xenophobia; and now they are moving towards fascism.

What the Republican frontrunner proposed is outrageous. But right wing ideologues, including candidates for office, have made more bigoted, un-American statements than Trump’s and received nothing but silence that implies approval from their fellow Republicans.

As a matter of fact, Rand Paul beat Trump to suggesting halting the entry of Arabs and Muslims into the country.

“We have to have a pause on immigration from the Middle East till we can get a handle on ‘are we admitting people who want to attack and kill us?'” Paul told CNN on Monday.

Paul was not criticized by any major figure in the Republican Party, although he was suggesting the same policy as Trump’s.

As it turns out, both candidates were exploiting Republican voters’ weariness of immigration. An Associated Press poll found three-quarters of Republicans think the U.S. lets in too many immigrants from the Middle East.

“These people”

On Sunday, a Fox News pundit, who is a former judge and candidate for N.Y. attorney general, suggested shutting down our borders and halting the issuance of visas.

“I don’t care if it’s a business visa or a vacation visa, an education visa, a fiancée visa, a 90-day visa. Stop,” Jeanine Pirro said on her show. “These people do not have a right to be here.”

Pirro presented an apocalyptic view of the country, urging Americans to buy guns and fight for their survival. She called for ending the refugee resettlement nation, accusing immigration advocates of aiming to change the political demographics of the nation, which is found on “Judeo-Christian ethics.”

Trump’s fellow Republicans largely condemned him for the Muslim immigration remarks. But right wingers all but ignored Pirro’s implied call for violence against Muslims.

The same day that Pirro spewed her venomous Islamophobia on national TV, S.C. Republican Sen. Lindsay Graham appeared on her show. A day later, Graham strongly denounced Trump’s remarks.

This lead us to believe that some Republicans who are denouncing Trump are just playing politics.

Many pundits have called Trump a fascist after his latest remarks against Muslim immigrants. If Trump is a fascist, then Fox News is the Ministry of Popular Culture, which promoted state propaganda in Mussolini’s Italy.

Trump is not leading public opinion toward xenophobia; he is following the trend to keep his numbers up in the polls, which seems to be his obsession.

Trump is a symptom of the sad state of our country; he is not the disease. If we lived in a more tolerant society, Trump would go away on his own.

Politics aside, the vocal reaction that Trump received after his comments is what needs to happen every time national figures profile a group of people based on race or religion.

We appreciate the sincere statements in defense of our community, including those of the Detroit Free Press, presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan.

As for Trump, we second the White House’s sentiment— his rhetoric disqualifies him from being president. We call on the American people, Republican Party and mainstream media to do all they can to make sure that he does not win.