Since voters spoke Nov. 8, the mainstream press continues to hammer 70-year-old President-Elect Donald Trump for putting together a transition team consistent with his promises to voters. Announcing Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus as Chief of Staff and Campaign Chairman Stephen Bannon as chief strategist, the media finds only criticism, accusing Bannon of backing Alt-Right white supremacist groups. Citing his management of right wing Web site Breibart as proof of xenophobia, racism and support for racist groups, the mainstream media once again exposes its left wing bias. No presidential candidate in U.S. history was treated more poorly than Trump during the 2016 campaign. Shocked after 69-year-old Democratic nominee former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton lost on Election Day, the mainstream media has gone wild.
Watching sympathetic broadcast and print reports of protests around the country, the mainstream press continues Hillary’s campaign talking points that everyone connected with Trump’s campaign are racists, misogynists and sexists. Calling Bannon’s Breitbart Web site “the platform for the Alt-Right,” the Council on American-Islamic Relations [CAIR] denounced Bannon’s White House appointment. Calling the appointment “Islamophobia, White nationalist Bannon,” CAIR exposes its extreme leftist views but, more importantly, a repudiation of a free-and-fair U.S. election. After losing the election, left wing groups have gone crazy opposing the election. CAIR accused Bannon of spreading a “dark and paranoid picture” of Muslims. CAIR ignores completely massacres in Fort Hood, Texas, Orlando, Fl., San Bernardino, Calif., etc., where Islamic extremists massacred U.S. citizens.
Today’s mainstream press doesn’t have the sense to remind Muslim civil rights groups about real acts of mayhem that influence public opinion. Whatever Bannon published on Breitbart, it mirrored the dismal reality of Islamic terrorism washing up on American shores. “The Appointment of Stephen Bannon as a top Trump administration strategist sends a disturbing message that anti-Muslim conspiracy theories and white nationalist ideology will be welcome in the White House,” said Nihad Awad, CAIR’s national executive director. What sends a disturbing message about Muslims in America are real acts of terrorism. Tell the 58 Orlando victims what to think about Islamic extremists. Muslims leaders in America have done too little to denounce Islamic extremism on U.S. streets. Awad should be busy explaining what his group does to stop more Islamic terrorism in America.
Whether White supremacists or the Alt-Right groups preferred Trump over Hillary is irrelevant, completely meaningless. People back candidates that resonate with their values and political ambitions. Trump’s campaign rhetoric or, for that matter, content of Breitbart’s site, mirror the views of voters concerned about terrorist infiltration on American soil. When the Tsarnaev brothers detonated pressure cooker bombs at the Boston Marathon April 15, 2013, they wanted to punish citizens for U.S. Mideat policy. U.S. Islamic groups worry more about PR than about protecting U.S. citizens from more acts of terrorism. Bannon’s role in fashioning Trump’s winning campaign message defied all odds, certainly the coordinated efforts by the mainstream media to get Hillary elected. Since protests erupted after the election, no one’s heard a word from Hillary or President Barack Obama.
Whether the media or civil rights groups like it or not, Alt-Right or white supremacist groups have just as much right under the First Amendment to express their views or vote for candidates of their choice. Trump has made it clear he doesn’t support racist or bigoted groups or organizations, telling his followers Nov. 13 to stop criticizing minorities. At the same time, civil rights groups can’t have it both ways: Condemning the free speech of others while only accepting their point-of-view. Trump picked Bannon not because he’s racist but because he fashioned a winning campaign strategy. Picking Priebus as Chief-of-Staff should tell civil rights groups that he intends work toward the center, not the extremes. While there’s nothing wrong with criticizing Trump’s appointments, there’s something very wrong with liberal groups not accepting the outcome of the election.
Today’s post-election onslaught by the press and certain groups mirrors Hillary’s talking points that Trump’s a racist, misogynist and sexist. Voters evidently didn’t buy her argument, sending her packing for early retirement Nov. 8. Civil rights groups branding Trump or his appointees as racists or bigots need to look at themselves before blaming Trump. When voters spoke Nov. 8, they agreed with Trump’s views on borders-and-immigration, believing that Hillary’s plan to grant a massive increase of visas for Syrian immigrants threatened U.S. national security. Hillary pandered to minorities and immigrants and got burned by America’s silent majority. If Muslim groups have a PR problem in America, it’s not due to Trump or his chief strategist Stephen Bannon. Protecting civil rights in America doesn’t start-and-end with only immigrants and minorities.
