Kirk shows prejudices in attack on Duckworth
U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk rightly says he isn't endorsing fellow Republican Donald Trump because he says he's a bigot, but Kirk exhibited his own prejudices when he attacked the patriotism of the family of his opponent, U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth.
In 2004, Duckworth lost her legs in the Iraq War when a rocket-propelled grenade hit the helicopter she was piloting.
And during a recent debate, Duckworth spoke about the human costs of war.
“My family has served this nation in uniform, going back to the Revolution. I'm a daughter of the American Revolution. I've bled for this nation,” she said.
“But I still want to be there in the Senate when the drums of war sound,” she added. “Families like mine are the ones that bleed first. But let's make sure the American people understand what we are engaging in, and let's hold our allies accountable, because we can't do it all.”
Kirk responded by saying, “I had forgotten that your parents came all the way from Thailand to serve George Washington,” he said.
Duckworth's mother is from Thailand and her father's family has lived in this nation for many generations.
Kirk later apologized to Duckworth via Twitter.
Not classy.
Kirk will deny it, but his remarks are all about race.
It harks back to 2008 when the “birther” movement was born. Folks questioned whether the U.S.-born Barack Obama was eligible to be president because his father was from Kenya.
We rarely heard anyone suggest that Obama's opponent, John McCain, wasn't eligible even though he was born outside the 50 United States. His father, a U.S. naval officer, was stationed in what is now Panama along with his wife when McCain was born in 1936.
For the record, I believe that McCain was eligible, but his claim to being a “natural born citizen” would seem to be far more tenuous than someone, like Obama, who was actually born here.
The Constitution requires a candidate be a “natural born citizen” to be eligible to be president, a qualification most legal scholars agree includes individuals born abroad to an American parent or someone born in the U.S.
For years, GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump has fanned the flames of the birther movement.
He was the most prominent advocate for that ridiculous notion that our president isn't eligible to be president.
Back in January, Trump suggested that his GOP rival Ted Cruz wasn't a natural born citizen because he was born in Canada to a U.S.-born mother and Cuban-born father.
So what do Cruz, Obama and Duckworth have in common? They each had a parent born overseas and have had their own devotion to this country called into question based on that fact.
But it goes beyond that. It is their “otherness” that is the dog whistle in these fights.
The parents in question weren't of immediate European descent, leaving Trump, Kirk and others of their ilk free to attack their children's patriotism.
Don't believe me?
Well, how often have you heard anyone attack Trump for having a mother born in Scotland?
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