Local Vet Makes Colorado Look Good, Trump Look Very Bad

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by: Colorado Pols

Donald Trump.

There’s no nice way to say it: Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump’s hotly controversial call to bar the entry of all Muslims into the United States has a surprising–the better word may be disturbing–amount of support among American conservatives according to polls taken since terrorist mass shooting attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California. While polls of the general public show Americans reject Trump’s demagoguery as unconstitutional, it has given Trump new strength in GOP presidential primary polls after opponent Ted Cruz began narrowing the gap in recent weeks.

Trump’s enduring dominance in the Republican presidential primary has legitimized a segment of American conservative political opinion that, while we’ve always known it was out there, has truly significant implications for America’s reputation as a global moral leader in human rights and equality when brought into the light of day. Trump’s campaign has ripped the proverbial scab off the ugliest manifestations of not just the “Tea Party,” but decades of divisive politics American that has its roots in the Southern Strategy of the 1960s and the racist realignment to the GOP that strategy produced.

Needless to say, what’s happening could make for a very long blog post. And it is very bad for America’s moral authority.

But instead, ABC News reports this Christmas week on a lifelong Denver resident Iraq War veteran with a campaign in response to Trump that’s going viral:

Veterans and current service members are using social media to reassure Muslim Americans that they will fight for their rights as citizens.

On Facebook and Twitter, military service members and veterans have started using the hashtag #iwillprotectyou after one mother’s post went viral about her daughter’s fear of being kicked out of the country.

Melissa Chance Yassini posted about her daughter’s reaction to hearing proposals by Donald Trump to ban Muslims from entering the country.

“She had began collecting all her favorite things in a bag in case the army came to remove us from our homes,” Yassini wrote on Facebook about her daughter Sofia. “She checked the locks on the door 3-4 times. This is terrorism. No child in America deserves to feel that way.”

Denver-area Iraq War veteran Kerri Peek.

Melissa Chance Yassini’s post about her daughter’s fear of being deported for being Muslim caught the attention of local veteran Kerri Peek:

Kerri Peek, an Army veteran saw the story on social media and was horrified.

“I was up all night, it bothered me,” Peek told ABC News. “I’m a mom, for mother to mother … I know you want to protect your children from everything.”

Peek said she was especially upset that Sofia was worried about soldiers coming to take her away.

“What’s a way [for her] to know that soldiers are not going to come to her door,” Peek told ABC News, who eventually sent her a picture of herself in her Army uniform.

Peek’s response to Yassini was picked up by the national social sharing site Upworthy on Friday, and from there is making its way into national media today. You can follow the hashtag #iwillprotectyou on Twitter and Facebook to see the trending nationwide response, which as of this writing has many more veterans and supporters than pro-Trump “trolls.”

From our vantage point watching over Colorado politics, and with Christmas coming later this week, we can’t think of a better response to Trump than this story–maybe even a validation of the principles that make America a great place, even as Trump besmirches them. Here’s a local Iraq War veteran doing a lot more to defend American values from the Donald Trumps of the world than some others we know in much higher places.

15 thoughts on “Local Vet Makes Colorado Look Good, Trump Look Very Bad”

BlueCat says:

December 21, 2015 at 3:00 pm

Thanks ColoPols but many of us are way ahead of you. A polster posted about Kerri and all the soldiers and vets and ordinary citizens flocking to pledge protection days ago and many of us have been sreading the word already. Thanks for a fresh injection of attention.

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JeffcoBlue says:

December 21, 2015 at 3:19 pm

Trump will either usher in fascism or wake Americans up to the threat the far right represents. He could be a good thing if he galvanized sane America against the tea baggers.

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davebarnes says:

December 21, 2015 at 4:21 pm

"Trump’s campaign has ripped the proverbial scab off the ugliest manifestations of…decades of divisive politics American that has its roots in…the 1960s"

I call bullshit. Since the 1800s.

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1. notaskinnycook says:
  
  December 21, 2015 at 9:41 pm
  
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BlueCat says:

December 21, 2015 at 5:21 pm

I think he's ripped the scab off a lot of things. Just the other day Lindsey Graham was saying that the degree of Republican dislike for Obama was "unhealthy". This from a pol who, though southern gentleman civil, has always been as extreme a critic of everything Obama as anyone in the party.

We can only hope that Trump as the runaway Republican front runner may indicate that things have gotten as sick and twisted as they're going to get and even the Repubicans who so enthusiastically created the Tea Party/Christian extremist monster with their hate and fear spewing, all compromise is treason to our values, stop the baby killers, stop the dirty diseased Mexican immigrants and stand against Sharia law which is threatening to take over our Christian nation rhetoric are perhaps just starting, maybe, to feel the need for a long scrub in the shower.

And, BTW, can even his staunchest supporters seriously think that any other American pol is jealous of the flattery he receives from Vladimir Putin? That any other Republican pol would consider that a plus? Seriously?

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mamajama55 says:

December 21, 2015 at 6:03 pm

I think Trump goes for the nomination, through the Republican convention and likely floor fight. He likes a rumble, and the idea of thousands of people shouting his name and waving his signs will feed his gigantic ego.

Tomi Ahonen reminds us, in his Trump Scenarios , (h/t to davebarnes for posting this today) of Trump's long association with WWF at Trump hotels, and writes:

Trump is playing us. He’s campaigning not on US Presidential race rules, he has decided to play with Pro Wrestling rules instead.

If nominated, Trump will probably even run a credible general election campaign. Perhaps his goal is simply to wreck political discourse in this country, to cheapen and degrade all civility and journalistic integrity, to remake all of that in his own reality-show, crass, pro-wrestling, gloriously fake image. Don't think that he can win in a general election… but if, all deities forbid it, he does….

Then it will be to make the US Presidency his vehicle for his biggest "deal" ever. To make Cheney's shameless war-mongering in order to get contracts for Halliburton look like small potatoes. To build up the Trump empire and the Trump brand.

And if a few eight year old Muslim girls or five year old Syrian boys get hurt in the process, hey, just cut to the commercial break, which will be all flowers and sunshine, well-groomed smiling white people (with two token “blacks” or “Hispanics” for cover), luxuriating in a Trump hotel lobby.

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1. BlueCat says:
  
  December 21, 2015 at 7:20 pm
  
  Iowa will be telling. You need traditional boots on the ground organized campaigning to get people to come out for hours at night in an Iowa winter and that kind of basic political organization really is not The Donald's thing. I doubt he thinks he needs a real, boring, painstaking GOTV structure. Bet he thinks just being on the TV and at some big venues being "great'' should do it for him. He might be in for rude awakening. If he isn't, the rest of the GOP sure is.
  
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  1. Phoenix Rising says:
    
    December 21, 2015 at 8:53 pm
    
    He doesn't need Iowa, but he does need one of the early states. New Hampshire will do. South Carolina would be a bonus. But Iowa has failed to pick the Republican candidate for a few cycles in a row now; it's increasingly irrelevant as the first caucus in the nation.
    
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    1. BlueCat says:
      
      December 21, 2015 at 11:34 pm
      
      I realize that. And Iowa isn't the only caucus state that picks more base oriented candidates who don't go on to win the nomination. Happens on the Dem side too. As a former very minor party officer, only HD level, I know that we never worried too much if the candidate we felt was the most electable in some of our races didn't win at caucus and the one with more appeal to the base but no chance in a general in a purple state did. With our system no matter who won top line that way the more moderate electable candidate always won the nomination via the primary in the end.
      
      I'm just talking about what Iowa will say about whether or not this is a candidacy that can move from the world of showmanship to the world of nuts and bolts politics. Is he even building much of a boots on the ground GOTV operation with the kind of experienced ops who can run one? I kind of suspect not. I kind of suspect what we see in the public performances is what we get. And I don't think things have changed so radically in the past few years that a candidate can actually win through on TV celebrity alone without traditional political organization.
      
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2. MichaelBowman says:
  
  December 21, 2015 at 11:09 pm
  
  It's starting to feel freakishly like Hunger Games
  
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  1. Samuel L. Clemens says:
    
    December 23, 2015 at 9:30 am
    
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mamajama55 says:

December 22, 2015 at 5:58 pm

Chris Matthews is giving Trump more free media tonight on MSNBC with his special Citizen Trump. Mediaite calls it a

transparent and disgusting ratings grab that will no doubt include footage of our possible future president ejaculating champagne all over the Playboy bus:

So when Citizen Trump discussed Donald's early military school and draft-dodging (he had four draft deferments for a "bone spur"in his foot. Which foot was it? He couldn't remember).

Matthews' man-crush on Trump also required skipping over Ivanla's documented rape charges against her then-husband. Although Ivanla Trump denied the charges, and somehow the court transcripts "disappeared", the only reason to leave this out of a documentary about"Citizen Trump" would be to pander to the millionaire and preserve Chris Matthews' ratings.

Also no discussion of Trump's "family values" as he cruised through three marriages with consecutive trophy wives.

There was token coverage of protests against Trump's excesses. One protester even called Trump a racist on camera. There was even some fact-checking. And that famous quote from a supporter. "Bends the truth? He may……but he's gonna get things done."

Real criticism of Trump was left to Jonathan Alter and Tom Brokaw. Chris Matthews is obviously infatuated.

Shame on you, Chris.

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1. BlueCat says:
  
  December 22, 2015 at 11:45 pm
  
  Chris Matthews hasn't had a clue in years. I remember when the gospel according to Matthews was Giuliani v HRC , done deal, for 2008?
  
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  1. Duke Cox says:
    
    December 23, 2015 at 6:16 am
    
    I agree.
    
    I have never been a fan of that self- aggrandizing loudmouth. I have always thought it ironic that he named the final segment of his show, "Let Me Finish"….something he seldom lets his guests actually do.
    
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    1. BlueCat says:
      
      December 23, 2015 at 9:11 am
      
      Or start. Every time a guest starts answering a question Matthews just talks over them with more additions to the question.
      
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