Trumpism in small town America
by digby
If you read nothing else today, take the time to read this piece by Michelle Goldberg about a case of anti-Muslim activism in the small town of Twin Falls Idaho:
In the months to come, there was a constant hum of anti-refugee activity in Twin Falls. A group called the Committee to End the CSI Refugee Center made repeated (and repeatedly failed) attempts to put an initiative on the county ballot calling for the termination of the refugee program. In August the American Freedom Party, a California-based white nationalist organization, blanketed Idaho with robocalls urging listeners to voice their outrage over the arrival of Muslim refugees, saying that the “nonwhite invasion of their state and all white areas constitutes white genocide.” In July, local activists brought Shahram Hadian, an Iranian American pastor and ex-Muslim who travels around the country preaching about the dangers of Islam, to speak to two local churches. He returned for another lecture in September.
In October, III% of Idaho organized a demonstration against the refugee program in Twin Falls; the Idaho State Journal reported that nearly 200 protesters, flanked “by gun-toting men in flak jackets,” marched to the College of Southern Idaho. On Nov. 1, the militia organized about 100 people to protest against the refugee program on the steps of the state capitol in Boise. The Southern Poverty Law Center quoted a III% spokesman shouting into a bullhorn: “Now, refugees coming from Islamic hotbeds of terrorism, don’t you think that poses a threat to Idaho communities?” The crowd shouted back, “YEAH!”
Trumpism has always been here. But he said himself that he is their voice. And he’s giving them permission to voice theirs. It’s not pretty. I don’t know know what these people will feel empowered to do if he wins.
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