Forget the Assault Weapons Ban: How About A Muslim Ban?

SCOOP from The Omnivore's Twitter Feed!

Donald Trump announced the need for a complete ban on Muslims entering the United States. He means any-and-all (an exception was later made for Muslim service-men returning from overseas). While the left mostly stared, agape, the right was in a fury over (a) the stupidity / unconstitutionality of the suggestion and (b) the potential weapon it hands Democrats.

It was noted that:

1. Marco Rubio had said--just the night before--that there really wasn't evidence of widespread bias against Muslims. He might just as well have said "Donald Trump is contained," Right?
2. Obama had just given what conservatives thought was a very weak speech on keeping America safe (Erick Erickson describes Obama as "the mom jeans wearing squat to pee President"--one wonders how he would describe a potential President Fiorina!).
3. Trump had just lost an Iowa poll to Ted Cruz so, hey, time to shake things up?

WHO COULD HAVE SEEN THIS COMING??

It's pretty clear this move by Trump was a shocker for most conservative viewers. In fact, The Omnivore was "pretty surprised*." It took a careful, painstaking examination of the past--going DEEP into the Google-Archives to find the nefarious roots of this position. After hours and hours of research, The Omnivore has unearthed the hidden precursors to this position. Here are some of them--note: they are very obscure.

• While Trump's data is, in fact, based on a dodgy poll, the more reasonable Public Policy Polling finds that 40% of North Carolina Republicans think that Islam should be illegal.
• Republican spokes-persons / candidates have a pretty solid history of coming down hard on Muslims without the 'radical' modifier being attached.
• Stories about "creeping Sharia law" have been part of the conversation on alt-right media for some time.

The Omnivore doesn't blame the various appalled pundits for not putting the pieces together. They mostly don't read The Political Omnivore!

Obama and 'Radical Islam'

This also casts Obama's unwillingness to "name and shame" (radical) Islam in, erm, a different light. Suppose--just suppose--that a canny observer could see the sentiment behind Trump's maneuver boiling out there in America. And suppose--just suppose--that the realization was thus: If we open the door to slamming any kind of Islam by name we will empower the forces who basically believe all Islam is 'radical Islam.'

IF that were the case, then one might want to exercise strategic ambiguity on the use of language coming out of the oval office.

It's quite a stretch, The Omnivore knows--especially to the conservative pundits who were shocked--shocked--to find gambling in their establishment.

Donald Trump has responded to the outcry over his call to ban Muslims from the U.S. https://t.co/DTzQalNeWw pic.twitter.com/9L47AvMUkS

— The New York Times (@nytimes) December 8, 2015