<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div>Courtesy of the Opinion section of today's (January 7, 2017) Moscow-Pullman Daily News with a special vote of thanks to "Ghazi" Ghazanfar.</div><div><br></div><div>--------------------------------</div><div><br></div><div><div><h1 itemprop="headline" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 42px; margin: 0px 100px 0px 0px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.1; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">Letter: Normalizing Trumpism</h1></div><div> </div><div>A recent Washington Post mentioned "anti-Islamic White House" as part of "normalizing Trumpism." So it seems.</div><div><br></div><div>New White House strategist, Steve Bannon's Brietbart website promotes racism, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. While the new guardians, including many in the Congress, will likely resist anti-Semitism and overt racism, Islamophobia, now officially sanctioned, will be an open game. Bannon recently attended an Islamophobic gathering, sponsored by the Horowitz Project (which also sponsored Washington State University's 2007 "Islamo-Fascism Week"). The president-elect's national security adviser, Michael Flynn, views Islam as "cancer." It's a "toxic ideology," says U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, the attorney general-designate. The entire Islamic world (1.8 billion) is "infected."</div><div><br></div><div>President Barack Obama's 2008 election generated many tears of joy; some thought racism was over. Now many are gloomy, for racism never vanished, having resurfaced with a vengeance. President-elect Donald Trump challenged political correctness, but now hatred and bigotry toward all "others" is politically correct. While unashamedly seeking to join Trumpism, Mitt Romney once called it "trickle-down racism, trickle-down bigotry" and complained about "scapegoating Muslims." Many are emboldened to overtly exercise their "right to hate," presumably to "unite" the nation. There are challenges ahead for proponents of multiculturalism, pluralism, diversity - values that echo from the Statue of Liberty. Despite fresh tremors in the Islamic world, the ISIS goons are celebrating Trumpism.</div><div><br></div><div>The election has morphed all the recent Islamophobic bigotry into the ugliest expressions. Hundreds of incidents of hate and harassment have occurred since the election and anti-Muslim incidents have risen exponentially. The new establishment will continue to spread the most bilious fodder, thereby further legitimizing crusade-like expressions of visceral hatred.</div><div><br></div><div>The New York Times touted its "Journalism that matters, More essential than ever." While resistance must be the national calling, however, our mainstream media, susceptible to being "tamed," will likely contribute to "normalizing" Trumpism.</div><div><br></div><div>S.M. Ghazanfar</div><div>Acworth, Ga.</div></div><div><br></div><div>--------------------------------<br><br><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Moscow Cares"</span></div><div><a href="http://www.moscowcares.com/" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://www.MoscowCares.com</font></a></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div> </div></div></div></body></html>