Don's Tuesday Column

          THE WAY I SEE IT   by Don Polson  Red Bluff Daily News   7/23/2019

           “Walkin’ on the fightin’ side of me”

I hear people talkin' bad, About the way they have to live here in this country.

Harpin' on the wars we fight, And gripin' 'bout the way things oughta be

And I don't mind 'em switchin' sides, And standin' up for things they believe in

But when they're runnin' down our country, man, They're walkin' on the fightin' side of me.

They're walkin' on the fightin' side of me. Runnin' down a way of life

Our fightin' men have fought and died to keep

If you don't love it, leave it. Let this song that I'm singin' be a warnin'

When you're runnin' down our country, hoss, You're walkin' on the fightin' side of me.

I read about some squirrely guy, Who claims that he just don't believe in fightin'

And I wonder just how long The rest of us can count on bein' free.

They love our milk and honey, But they preach about some other way of livin'

But when they're runnin' down our country, man They're walkin' on the fightin' side of me.

Merle Haggard wrote, sang and brought this song, in January, 1970, to an America that was as divided as it is now. There were riots, assassinations, attacks by domestic terrorists like the Weathermen and its despicable cadre (including Obama’s buddy Bill Ayers); haters of America and our military in the Vietnam War era. No. 1 for 3 weeks on the country charts, it remained a touchstone for fervent pro-America, pro-military passion for decades, and inspired Toby Keith’s “Courtesy of the Red, White, & Blue (The Angry American)” who called it “the original ‘Angry American’ song.”

The reaction has been vociferous, on all sides, to President Trump’s fusillade of condemnation (Dems would say “condemnable”) criticism of the “Squad” of 4 hyper-partisan and ultra-leftist Democrats in the House of Representatives: Reps Omar, Tlaib, Cortez and Pressley. They are 4 women who rode the wave of progressive fervor into their seats from solid “blue” districts that leaned so far left that, in Ms. Occasio-Cortez’s case, a solid liberal incumbent Democrat lost the primary to the bartender radical.

For the record, Cortez calls our border detention the equal to Nazis rounding up Jews into concentration camps; Tlaib lied about her support for BDS (Boycott, Divest and Sanction Israel to kill the nation economically) to gain money from liberal “J street” lobbies; Pressley actually said that brown, black, female and “queer” people have no business expressing views not in line with the left’s dogma; and Omar is a dyed-in-the-wool anti-Semite who plays victim when called out while normalizing her hate. Trump’s winning against them all.

We find, on the one hand, a chant with arguable nativist historical sentiment, “send her back,” by perhaps a few hundred out of a rally of thousands, pivoting off Trump’s own “let them leave, they should leave” if they are so angry, even hateful of this nation. A nation that, in Ms. Omar’s case, rescued her and her family from a true hellhole of a nation, Somalia. I see genuine hatred of America, not “constructive criticism,” in their condemnation of America’s origins, to the eradication of slavery by hundreds of thousands of dead soldiers in the Civil War, to what they insist are inequities for women and racial minorities. It’s fair to say they hate capitalism.

When conservative, retired Army colonel Kurt Schlichter asked his naturalized Cuban immigrant wife what she thought about the “send her back” chant, her response was “Tell her to start packing.” No one actually proposes that immigrants who are now citizens should be rounded up and deported—no one.

However, deportation is a legal remedy and prescribed punishment for crimes by illegal entrants, legal residents, naturalized and even born U.S. citizens. From Wikipedia: “Recent data suggests that in 2010 well over 4,000 U.S. citizens were detained or deported as aliens.” Congresswoman Ilhan Omar is credibly accused of immigration fraud involving her marriage to deceive authorities and allow a Somali man to benefit thereby; if the crimes are proven, you do have plausible cause to chant “Send her back”.

The Daily Beast, in a friendly piece, admitted the plain facts: “In 2012, Omar was reunited with (husband number 1 Ahmed) Hirsi and had another child with him, but did not legally marry him. In 2014 and 2015, Omar and Hirsi filed joint tax returns together, even though she was still married to (her brother?) Ahmed Elmi.” From the same bunch that have called, without justification, for the deportation of Trump adviser Sebastian Gorka and even Melania Trump, their knee-jerk defense of Omar and attack on Trump is duplicitous and malicious.

Accusations of racism, having been overused, mean nothing. In “The Sordid History of Liberals Calling Republicans Racists” (9/13/2016), D. C. McAllister summarized decades of despicable character assassination of Republicans with the fallacious epithet, “racist/racism.” President Trump is due credit for his treatment of minorities—whose economic fortunes have dramatically risen, thanks to Trump.

Blogger Julie Kelly summed up how we’ve all been called racists, morons, idiots, traitors (to their gender), and un-American; accused of supporting a rapist and a Russian agent…and endured a vicious political, social and cultural environment for years. “The Left started this race war, degrades citizenship, trashes Americans, has shot at our Congressmen, targeted pro-life high schoolers, chased people out of restaurants, make Nazi comparisons and threaten our security and tranquility.

“The Dems, media and NeverTrumpsters lied for 2 years about Russian collusion, investigated, harassed and mocked innocent people. And now we’re supposed to watch our manners, take the abuse with a smile? Listen to ungrateful, unaccomplished, spoiled lawmakers insult us, this country and the president and what, be kind? No thanks.”