Whoa! Beto Straight Up: Stay Out of El Paso, Trump

Beto O’Rourke did not mince words passing along his feelings about Trump’s planned trip to El Paso Wednesday. The former Congressman from the El Paso area won’t allow Trump to visit the area, at least not without hearing it from a local:

From the Texas Tribune:

“He’s helped to create what we saw in El Paso on Saturday,” O’Rourke said. “He’s helped to produce the suffering that we are experiencing right now. This community needs to heal.”

Yeah, ten-four. I am still not voting for you Beto, unless you’re the under-study of Elizabeth Warren, but I got your back on this one, Congressman.

Except I do have some reservations. Trump, despise him as much as I do, is the president. As such, he represents the people of this country, even with his noxiousness. If he were a normal obnoxious Republican, I wouldn’t have a problem. Indeed, I would have had a problem had George W. Bush not shown up at a scene like this, *ahem, cough, flying over my beloved New Orleans.

And I definitely have a problem with Republican Obama haters who didn’t like Obama showing up at the White House, never mind going out of it, on any occasion.  I fight it, I try not to lower myself to that level. I attempt to concentrate on the office. I am not even trying here.

Far too often, Trump goes out of his way to be clear that he doesn’t want to represent the entire American public. He didn’t speak for me or the American public when he slammed immigrants wholesale, using words like invasion and infestation, “rapists, bringing drugs,” and definitely not when he separated brown children from parents in the name of the American people, etc. etc. You are well aware of the problems.

It is not like this is unusual situation. It is abnormal to invite a co-conspirator to a crime scene, or grieving community. Beto inferred the same. From Betos’ Twitter feed: “President Trump had a lot to do with what happened in El Paso [Saturday].”

So, it is true that people who “have a lot to do” with murders do not ordinarily get invited to the area, representative or not.

Trump and his supporters are in desperate need of a “come to Jesus moment (Oops, I did it again, sing it, Britt), that moment may be happening before our eyes. The Republican “awakening, should Jesus intervene (highly unlikely), is not worth the thirty-one lives lost. I would have rather tackled it on policy alone.

Given that lives were sacrificed to appease both racists, xenophobes and ammo-sexuals, we best honor those deaths by demanding changes, and starting now, while the grief hurts the most.

We need to stand-up and try to match the bravery of the kids, children, actually – from Parkland. They were too young to sign a legally binding contract, yet too mature to not call “B.S.” Seems like El Paso is locked arm in arm with them. I am with Beto on this, it ought to start by “respectfully” asking Trump to let them grieve, and then not so respectfully “telling” Trump to stay away, at least for now.

There will be plenty of time for discussion about the law and about the victims in the future. We honor them by remembering. At that point, some discussions ought to be had in El Paso, and Trump ought to be there. But tempers and grief are hot right now, and Trump is far more likely to inflame than soothe.

I wish this was some aberrant situation. Unfortunately it is more normal than many of us can take.

Bless El Paso, and bless Dayton. We are with you, and Trump should show the same respect by sending support, by engaging you, later.

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Peace, y’all.

Jason