In clash between Trump and the Khans, new signs of a cultural and political divide

[DonViejo]

By Marc Fisher

The mash-up of symbols couldn’t have been more stark: a Muslim immigrant extolling the virtues of American liberty while holding his pocket copy of the Constitution, and his wife, struggling to contain her emotions, standing silently by his side, wearing a soft-blue hijab.

The moment at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday night upstaged the debut speech by the first woman to be a major party’s nominee for president and confronted a vast television audience with a riveting and, for some, jarring blend of messages. Here were the parents of a fallen U.S. Army captain, still deep in mourning and palpably proud to be Americans; and here were Muslim immigrants from Pakistan, keenly aware of their uncomfortable place at the center of this year’s presidential campaign; and here was a pocket Constitution, in recent years a popular giveaway for conservative and evangelical groups; and here was a hijab, the Muslim head covering that has become a shorthand for the debate over Islam’s place in the Western world.

The overwhelming response to the appearance by Khizr and Ghazala Khan reflected the cultural and political divide that has dominated American discourse since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Many people took Khizr Khan’s lecture to Donald Trump about liberty and xenophobia as a statement about what patriotism and American identity really mean. Many others took the speech as a partisan blast but nonetheless a powerful plea from parents mourning the death of an American soldier. Trump took it as a personal affront.

Throughout the weekend, the Republican nominee used Twitter and TV interviews to extend his criticism of the immigrant couple from Charlottesville. Trump accused the father of being a tool of Hillary Clinton’s campaign, and Trump said of the mother: “She probably — maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say. .?.?. It looked like she had nothing to say.”

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/in-clash-between-trump-and-the-khans-new-signs-of-a-cultural-and-political-divide/2016/07/31/806e490c-5722-11e6-9aee-8075993d73a2_story.html

[Cosmocat]

1. The divide is pretty simple

the stupid and scared vs idealism of a better world.

Any other "frame" of it only serves to enable the stupid and scared.

[bettyellen]

2. I don't understand why the racist aspect is not your focus

[treestar]

3. Is it interesting that she stood by her husband

for his speech. Whoever decided that was good. They could have just had him give the speech - it was his speech.

[geek tragedy]

4. I imagine the Khans decided that nt

[treestar]

7. Yes he is her son too

Maybe she could have said some words, but she couldn't, she said. It gave Trump an opening for bringing up the role of Muslim women within Islam, but then again, he used it in such a way that he looked bad. And anyway we know Donald's views of women are probably more caveman like than any Muslim's.

[geek tragedy]

5. the divide is between the worst of humanity in the USA and everyone else nt

[KingCharlemagne]

6. +Infinity! And thank you for snashing that headline writer's inplied

false equivalence -- as if th two sides are somehow equal -- into a thousand million shards.

It's a bit like saying Joe McCarthy has a point.

[Democat]

8. Trump: America Sucks! Khan: America is Great!

That is the new divide in America.

Republicans openly stating their hate for America while a Muslim immigrant defends America.