By Faisal A Roble
For about forty years, I lived in America and comfortably adjusted to the culture of the two political parties. The Democratic Party has always coexisted with its adversarial Republican Party. Until recently, they competed and complemented each other. And that positively propelled what has come to be the “American democracy.”
Although the Democratic Party has largely stayed true to its philosophy to accommodate diversity, the GOP has walked away from its compassionate conservatism.
Both Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush must be rolling over in their graves because of what the GOP became under the tutelage of Donald Trump. It became a cesspool of racism and the engine of othering immigrants and Muslim Americans.
I came to the United States in 1981. I was one of thousands of African refugees admitted under S.64 – Refugee Act. This legislation was passed during the Carter Administration. Ronald Reagan, who led a compassionate conservative administration, implemented it.
This was the first time African Refugees were admitted to the US. Housing and public assistance were given. People like me used the meager resources given to find a place to live and launched immediate job searches.
In my case, while I was working for a Hollywood-located 7/11 store as a cashier, I applied to UCLA. And there, I thrived, graduated with a professional degree, and rose in the ranks of the City of Los Angeles, Department of City Planning. I fortunately reached the highest position in the civil service rank – Principal City Planner – and became the first non-white to assume that position. After thirty-five years of dedicated service to the people of Los Angeles, I retired last year with much professional accomplishments.
The America that socialized me in the 1980s and 1990s balanced tolerance, meritocracy, and inclusivity.
America’s media was dynamic. After consuming my weekly NPR programs, I would look forward to watching the Sunday shows. A case in point is ABC’s “This Week with Divid Brinkley.” Every Sunday, I will relish and learn a lot from watching riveting debates between Sam Donaldson’s at-your-face style vs. George F. Will’s encyclopedic facts about U.S history, and Cokie Roberts’ unparalleled knowledge of the mechanics of the legislative process. The icing on the cake was David Brinkley’s even-handed, mature anchoring and his calculated mediation of different viewpoints. His book “Washington Goes to War” represents one of the finest journalistic memoirs about how America was united in purpose during World War II.
Compare this to the venom-filled insults-hurling Fox News and other trashy cable programs. Such is the main source of information for Trump and his acolytes. The lowest point of Trump’s use of low-quality media was revealed by his handling of the US-South Africa relations. He used a funeral procession of cars as a basis to sanction South Africa. His policy to declare that White South Africans were suffering genocide was based on mistaken information. Indeed, now is a low point in US-Africa policy.
Republican leaders were compassionate in their own way before Trump took over the party’s mantle. When famine hit Somalia in 1991-92 as a result of that country’s civil war, the then conservative Republican president, George Herbert Walker Bush, visited camps for the displaced Somalis and promised to help. Following his return, he authorized the current policy in place to settle Somali refugees in the US. Almost all those who arrived here since 1992 are legal residents or U.S.-born citizens. About two decades later, George W. Bush launched the Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).
President Trump gave Africa nothing but vile rants and hate speeches, which would change nothing in the status of legal residents, let alone U.S.-born Somali American citizens in Minnesota. What his words would do is give a free rein to the masked ICE soldiers to harass anyone in Minnesota who looks like a Somali. And that is illegal and a sign of America’s governance deterioration.
It is a pity that the most powerful man in the world, who was supposed to be the promoter of democratic values that America supposedly invented, would waste much political capital to harass one of the newest American communities.
Instead of doing something about the affordability issue for the millions of Americans who are burdened with economic distress, he is consumed with hate for immigrants. How these deeds of his square off with the dream to win the Nobel Prize is anyone’s guess.
What is happening in the Whitehouse and the verbal racist attack on Somalis by President Trump speaks to many issues. One such is the republic’s waning rule of law. Since he took office, he has attacked Mexican immigrants, Haitians, judges, journalists, and former government officials. Today, it is Somalis, and tomorrow would certainly be another community or individual.
So, it is not about Somalis; it is about the deteriorating conditions of the country’s governance under the new crop of the GOP.
Faisal Roble
Email: faisalroble19@gmail.com
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Faisal Roble is a prominent essayist and analyst on Horn of Africa affairs, currently authoring a book on state formation in the region. His past writings have been featured in WardheerNews—where he also served as Chief Editor—as well as in The Ethiopian Review and The Horn of Africa Journal, where he contributed as an editor.