On August 3d a 21 year old white supremacist, named Patrick Crusius, opened fire with his civilian version of an AK-47 assault rifle and slaughtered 20 people while wounding 26 more. Moments before the shooting he posted a manifesto online that opens with the following chilling words.
“In general, I support the Christchurch shooter and his manifesto. This attack is a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas. They are the instigators, not me. I am simply defending my country from cultural and ethnic replacement brought on by an invasion.”
If the term “invasion” and invaders to describe Hispanics sounds familiar, it should.
Trump shares Crusius’ view that this “invasion” imperils the nation.
It’s an invasion so dangerous that an armed military response is justified.
I’ve previously written about how Trump’s supporters are so despicable as to support indiscriminate shooting and bombing of immigrants attempting to cross the border. In that article, written nearly a year ago, I prophetically concluded:
“The sad truth is that people posting this stuff on Twitter are so morally bankrupt that they just don’t think of these people as real human beings. Encouraged by their President, they have dehumanized these refugees as “invaders” engaged in war against our nation. Accordingly, they support using weapons of war against a depersonalized enemy stripped of their humanity, as is often done with enemies in war.”
Those weapons of war have now been used by a white supremacist in his efforts to cleanse our society of Hispanics our President characterizes as “invaders.” The warlike characterization of Hispanic immigration, endorsed by the President of the United States and the El Paso shooter, unsurprisingly results in some taking up arms against this “enemy.”
Crusius had a clear objective in his attack. His objective, in a nutshell, was to inspire others to similar attacks in the belief that this will make Hispanics go back to where they came from.
“It is an encouraging sign that the Hispanic population is willing to return to their home countries if given the right incentive. An incentive that myself and many other patriotic Americans will provide . . . I am honored to the lead the fight to reclaim my country from destruction.” — Patrick Crusius.
Trump has similarly suggested that minorities should go back to where they came from.
Trump inspired a mob at a rally to chant “send her back” about a minority member of Congress. Trump basked in it.
Patrick Crusius (as quoted above) cited the Christchurch shooter, and his manifesto, as his own inspiration. The Christchurch shooting was of a mosque in New Zealand five months earlier that killed 51 people. The shooter in that case left a 51 page manifesto entitled “The Great Replacement” advancing anti-Islamic and white supremacist theories rooted in white genocide conspiracy theories. That manifesto complimented Donald Trump as “a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose.”
The linchpin of this “replacement theory,” often advocated by white supremacists, is that minority immigrants out breed whites, slowly replacing white/European culture with their own ethnic, racial, and religious cultures. The “cultural and ethnic replacement brought on by an invasion” referenced in my first quote from Crusius above.
The Christchurch shooter obviously focused on Muslims, and the El Paso shooter endorsed his manifesto. Both sought to completely ban the immigration of those they deemed undesirable, be they Hispanics, or Muslims or both. Donald Trump campaigned on “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.”
The message from Trump and the message from the El Paso and Christchurch shooters is consistent. Keep these undesirables from the South, and Muslims out, and if they come here, they should go home. The El Paso shooter took matters into his own hands, with beliefs validated by the highest office in the land.
The President’s steady drumbeat of hate has soldiers marching in step to his cadence.
