Who knew the “Archie Bunker for President” bumper stickers of the 1970s would ever prove so prescient? Donald Trump might be as close to that “All in the Family” character as any Hollywood casting director could ever imagine. His latest attacks on Indiana-born U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel of California — that he is incapable of deciding a case involving Trump University fairly because “he’s a Mexican” — could have been lifted from the sitcom’s script.
Who knew the “Archie Bunker for President” bumper stickers of the 1970s would ever prove so prescient? Donald Trump might be as close to that “All in the Family” character as any Hollywood casting director could ever imagine. His latest attacks on Indiana-born U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel of California — that he is incapable of deciding a case involving Trump University fairly because “he’s a Mexican” — could have been lifted from the sitcom’s script.
Forty-five years ago, Norman Lear created the opinionated loading dock worker from Queens who soon became a TV icon with a multitude of flaws — deeply bigoted and full of malapropisms and ignorance. Was he supposed to be a working class hero or a racist, misogynistic villain? What was intended as parody might have hit too close to home for those who identified with him, yet, in every episode, the character’s views were proven wrong — his bigotry exposed, his preconceptions shown to be unfounded, his anger or hatred misplaced and self-destructive.
We’re still waiting for Trump’s audience to recognize and condemn the biases of the likely GOP presidential nominee. As if to ensure his fans don’t mistakenly believe his views about judicial diversity were a slip of the tongue, Trump on Sunday told CBS-TV’s John Dickerson on “Face The Nation” that a Muslim judge couldn’t decide a case involving him either. Trump’s logic is, in classic narcissistic fashion, self-interested in the extreme: A judge of Mexican heritage must recuse himself because of the candidate’s views on building a wall along the U.S. border, while a Muslim judge couldn’t possibly decide a Trump-involved case fairly because the candidate has proposed banning Muslims who aren’t U.S. citizens from entering the country.
In other words, Trump looks at a person’s race or ethnicity or religion and that’s all he sees.
On how many levels is this insane? How exactly can we assign cases to the federal courts if every judge is regarded as biased based on his or her skin color or religion? It’s an argument that’s not merely bigoted, it delegitimizes the judiciary. It is, as Trump’s fellow iconoclast Newt Gingrich pointed out, “inexcusable” and behavior unworthy of a presidential candidate.
It’s time Trump apologizers and enablers stopped applauding him as “telling it like it is” or immune to “political correctness.” This isn’t some campus debate turned imbroglio because the commencement speaker once invested in large oil companies. This is the Republican Party’s presumed nominee for the highest office in the land channeling Archie Bunker without the laugh track.
Some Republicans, such as former House Speaker Gingrich, started speaking out and condemning this outrageous view. More need to — and forcefully. Otherwise, too many people are getting the message that this kind of thinking is not only acceptable but enlightened.
Enough is enough. Racism is racism. Judge Curiel, a former prosecutor who famously targeted Mexican drug lords, deserves a public apology from a candidate who has embarrassed himself, his party and his country.
In the hands of Norman Lear, Archie Bunker always got his comeuppance, Trump’s will have to wait until Nov. 8 with voters filling in the punch line.
— The Baltimore Sun