Cold, cold take: Paul Ryan says Donald Trump’s attack on Gonzalo Curiel, the federal judge hearing the Trump University lawsuit, is “the textbook definition of a racist comment.” Ben Sasse tweeted that “Saying someone can’t do a specific job because of his or her race is the literal definition of racism.”The footnote goes Sonia Sotomayor's views on race:Literal definition? Isn’t the literal definition of racism claiming that someone is inferior because of their race? That wasn’t what Trump seemed to be saying at all. He was accusing Judge Curiel of something else, namely frailty, a universal human condition.
We all have biases and conflicts. We usually struggle to overcome them. Sometimes we succeed, sometimes we don’t. Judges, who are supposed to be “impartial,” have a special mandate to engage in that struggle. Trump’s saying that Curiel, in this lawsuit, has failed to overcome them and is biased against him. (Certainly the media, as Ann Coulter notes, has said it’s practically Curiel’s duty to be biased against Trump.)**
** — Justice Sotomayor, when wising Latina, seemed to go even further (Coulter and others note) suggestingTrump is talking about Curiel's possible Mexican nationalist bias, something a lot of Mexican-Americans have. Not only did Senator Sasse and Representative Ryan think that attacking Judge Curiel's presumed bias was the "definition" of racism, Jake Tapper did, too.“Whether born from experience or inherent physiological [yikes!] or cultural differences, our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging.”
It’s not fair to impute these controversial views — she talks of “basic differences in logic and reasoning” — to Trump.
Let's ask ourselves if these attacks on the Republican frontrunner—by fellow Republicans—are actually the result of underground coordination. In his 2015 speech to the American Renaissance conference, VDARE.com Editor Peter Brimelow said
When I was younger, I used to believe elaborate socio-psychological theories of how this happened—Joe Sobran, who I’m sure many of you remember, used to have this concept of the “Hive,” that all liberals do the same thing at the same time because they have this collective mindset. But now I think it’s all a damn conspiracy.So is this "textbook definition" meme a "textbook" example of the GOP Donorist wing conspiring against Trump? Mickey Kaus writes:And I think that the discovery of that JournoList listserv group, where MSM Leftists were actually conspiring during Obama’s 2008 election campaign, to beat up on conservatives and accuse them of racism, proves it.
It’s pretty clear something else is behind the hyperbolic righteousness of the GOP outrage: either a desire of pols like Ryan toWhat it is is sabotaging the GOP's chance of beating Hillary, but that apparently doesn't matter to these guys. Oh, as for the actual "textbook definition" of racism, here it is:posturedistance themselves from Trump politically, or to actively undermine him — maybe in the hard-to-kill hope for a last-minute-sneak convention substitution. Or to simply find what Lindsey Graham called an “off ramp” from participating in his campaign. Fine. They’re allowed. But let’s recognize it for what it is.
“Because the term “racist” is now so debased, I usually shrug such smears off by pointing to its new definition: anyone who is winning an argument with a liberal.Or, too often, a libertarian. And, on the immigration issue, even some confused conservatives.”Peter Brimelow, Alien Nation, 1995 [p. 10 ]