Trump's Foreign Policy - Part 3

Part 1, Part 2

I wonder what Trump supporters think Trump will do to 'Make America Great Again'.  I wonder when they think it stopped being great in the first place.

For my part, here are just some of things I think are great about America:

• From the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Sure, it should have said 'people' instead of 'men', but that's one hell of an idea.  Notice how it doesn't say anything like 'except Muslims', or 'only Americans' --- since there was no America then.
• From George Washington: ". . . the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support."  Washington wrote this letter in 1790 to assure a Jewish congregation in Newport, Rhode Island that they would not face discrimination for their religious beliefs.  This letter may have influenced the First Amendment's explicit affirmation of the right to free exercise of religion.
• Habeas corpus, which protects people from unlawful imprisonment --- and which would make it damn difficult for Trump to 'go after' families of suspected terrorists.
• The Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination and double-jeopardy.
• First Amendment protection of the right to freedom of speech and right to peaceably assemble --- for example, in a mosque.

There's more, of course, but this is enough for my current purpose.  Has America always lived up to these ideals?  Hell, no.  Slavery was an atrocity, the echoes of which reverberate to this day.  No less awful was the treatment of Native Americans at the hands of the U.S. government.  And there were Jim Crow laws, and lynchings in the south.  And the fact that women couldn't vote until 1920.  And Japanese interment camps during WWII.  And discrimination and violence against gays and lesbians.

Every country has aspects of its history it regrets.  The thing that makes America great is that we have learned from these missteps and others, and that we now widely recognize that we were wrong.  And most important of all --- that we continue to reach for these ideals, and take care never to repeat these mistakes.

Trump doesn't understand this, which is why he doesn't hesitate to be derisive of women, or Muslims, or Mexicans, or those who disagree with him; or to mock a disabled reporter on national television.  And when he's criticized for it, he complains about political correctness.  What Trump and his supporters don't understand is that when we condemn his actions, it's not political correctness --- it's the collective wisdom of a nation earned over more than two centuries.

Trump's plans to ban Muslims and close down mosques and take out Muslim families and start a fight with Mexico about a stupid wall won't make America great again.  In fact, it will do exactly the opposite.