Keller @ Large: Trump's Muslim Bombshell
BOSTON (CBS) - Donald Trump says he has the answer to our terrorism fears: "A total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the US until our country's representatives can figure out what the hell is going on."
Quoting a poll by a right-wing group widely panned for promoting conspiracy theories, Trump claims vast numbers of American Muslims support violent jihad, and endorse "murder against non-believers who won't convert, beheadings and more unthinkable acts that pose great harm to Americans.... They want to change your religion, I don't think so, not gonna happen."
In a touch of historical irony, Trump's move came on the 74th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that led to mass incarceration of innocent Japanese-Americans in internment camps. But unlike back then, the backlash today was immediate and bi-partisan.
Jeb Bush wrote: "Donald Trump is unhinged. His 'policy' proposals are not serious."
Former Vice-President Dick Cheney said a ban on people based strictly on their religion "goes against everything we stand for."
Hillary Clinton called his statement "…reprehensible, prejudiced and divisive."
And on Beacon Hill, Governor Charlie Baker called it "…ridiculous [and] inappropriate."
It was an extreme act of political grandstanding, based on the highly-questionable poll numbers of a right-wing group notorious for fomenting conspiracy theories, and tossed like a Molotov cocktail into a moment of serious public anxiety over Islamic terrorism.
You can go broke trying to guess when Trump's excesses will start to erode his lead in the polls, but this feels like a new level of irresponsibility that could come back to bite his campaign. President Obama's speech Sunday night may have seemed weak to many Americans, but after this display, Obama's remarks seem positively statesmanlike by comparison.