The Trump Solution

I just posted about Donald Trump calling radio stations and attempting to make his statements and present his views, without regard to what the program hosts wanted to do or what the format of the show was (Go to Break!).

And while I don't typically get political in my teapot musings, there's something here that I just can't keep quiet about.

We all know that Trump has expressed some very strong opinions about Isis, and Muslims, and immigrants, and a whole bunch of other topics.  And that's ok.  We want our aspiring politicians to let us know their positions. 

Quite recently, Trump was on a radio program - Morning Joe - and he was asked some questions, and he gave some answers.  

Now, I don't want to take things out of context, so I'm going to give you the background, and then  I'll quote part of the transcript of the show.  

Donald Trump has very publicly proposed a ban on Muslims traveling to the US, and he reiterated this position on Morning Joe. He said there would certainly be exceptions, that this would not apply to Muslims who are US citizens, or are here for sporting events, and that this would only be temporary. Willie Geist, one of the co-hosts of Morning Joe, asked Trump how the ban was going to be enforced. Willie had to ask the questions a couple times before he got an answer, but that's how politicians are. Willie pointed out that a passport doesn't reflect religion, and Trump agreed that questioning would need to take place.  And the discussion continued as follows:

GEIST: And a customs agent would ask a person his or her religion? 
TRUMP: That would be probably -- they would say are you Muslim? 
GEIST: And if they said yes, they would not be allowed in the country? 

TRUMP: That's correct.

OH    MY     GOSH    

How could we not have seen this before??  All we have to do is ASK people.  

THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING!!!

When my TSA Precheck expires, I was going to apply for the Global Online Enrollment System.  Sure, the GOES costs $100, instead of  the $85 I paid for Precheck, but I thought it would be worth it -- clearly I was wrong. Because all I have to do is step up to the TSA counter and state "I'm a good person and I'm not going to blow up the plane."

We can get rid of all criminal attorneys and judges, because we just have to ask the accused "Did you do it?"  And we certainly won't need juries to try to figure out who's telling the truth, because everyone will tell the truth if you just ask them the question.

And I don't have to show my ID when I write a check or use a credit card, I'll just state that I am who I say I am. 

I'm feeling pretty foolish right now, because I would have assumed that a bad person just might consider lying, because - well - because they're bad.  Gee, it's really a shame that no one thought to ask Dzhokhar Tsarnaev if he was going to leave a bomb at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, or Adam Lanza if he was going to shoot twenty children at Sandy Hook. We could have avoided a lot of grief and suffering if someone had just thought to ask those questions.

I mean -- surely if you asked an Isis guy "are you a Muslim", he's going to say yes, right?  And then we don't let him in the US, and our problems are solved.  Too bad we didn't have the Trump Solution before, and thank goodness we have it now.

Oh.         Wait.

You know, I'm just not convinced that al qaeda  members are going to be truthful.  Or Isis members, for that matter.  Or Daesh members.  I mean, sure, the truthful, honest, reasonable Muslims will answer yes... and so we keep them out -- just temporarily, of course.  But the Muslims who are willing to lie (cheat, steal, kill).... we're going to let them in to our country, because they will answer No to the Trump Solution Question.

Gee, Mr. Trump.  Your solution is not one that solves any of my problems.  

I'm going to have a cup of tea, but I'm not going to invite Mr. Trump to join me.  You see... while I'm willing to listen to opposing views, I have no time for stupid people.