Over the past several months, Ilhan Omar has been the subject of a withering verbal assault emanating from the White House and an outright smear campaign orchestrated by Fox News.
In the simplest possible terms, none of the attacks on Omar have merit. The president and his supporters have twisted her words, taken them out of context, misrepresented her positions and, in many cases, outright lied, in the course of suggesting that the congresswoman is a Sunni extremist and a terrorist sympathizer.
Read more: ‘Send Her Back’: The Lowest Point For Domestic Politics In Modern American History
In addition to those repugnant attacks, Omar’s critics (even within her own party) have resorted to similar tactics to paint her as a vicious anti-Semite which is, again, a gross mischaracterization of her positions and a blatant attempt at character assassination.
Thankfully, Omar is now a bonafide celebrity, with millions of social media followers and a diverse fan base across America and the world. Hers is voice that will not be silenced, something she underscores in a brand new Op-Ed, which you can read below. We’re also including a video of Omar responding to a question from a voter – you’re encouraged to take three minuted to listen.
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By Rep. Ilhan Omar
Throughout history, demagogues have used state power to target minority communities and political enemies, often culminating in state violence. Today, we face that threat in our own country, where the president of the United States is using the influence of our highest office to mount racist attacks on communities across the land. In recent weeks, he has lashed out unprompted against four freshman Democrats in the House of Representatives: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, and me, from Minnesota.
Last week, as President Trump watched the crowd at one of his rallies chant “Send her back,” aimed at me and my family, I was reminded of times when such fearmongering was allowed to flourish. I also couldn’t help but remember the horrors of civil war in Somalia that my family and I escaped, the America we expected to find and the one we actually experienced.
The president’s rally will be a defining moment in American history. It reminds us of the grave stakes of the coming presidential election: that this fight is not merely about policy ideas; it is a fight for the soul of our nation. The ideals at the heart of our founding – equal protection under the law, pluralism, religious liberty – are under attack, and it is up to all of us to defend them.
Having survived civil war in my home country as a child, I cherish these values. In Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, I saw grade-school children as young as me holding assault rifles in the streets. I spent four years in a refugee camp in Kenya, where there was no formal schooling or even running water. But my family and I persevered, fortified by our deep solidarity with one another, the compassion of others and the hope of a better life in the United States.
The America we arrived in was different from the one my grandfather had hoped to find. The land of opportunity he imagined was in fact full of challenges. People identified me in ways that were foreign to me: immigrant, black. I learned that these identities carried stigmas, and I experienced prejudice as a visibly Muslim woman.
But the beauty of this country is not that our democracy is perfect. It’s that embedded in our Constitution and democratic institutions are the tools to make it better. It was in the diverse community of Minneapolis – the very community that welcomed me home with open arms after Mr. Trump’s attacks against me last week – where I learned the true value of democracy. I started attending political caucuses with my grandfather, who cherished democracy as only someone who has experienced its absence could. I soon recognized that the only way to ensure that everyone in my community had a voice was by participating in the democratic process.
Today, that basic promise is under threat. Our democratic institutions have been weaponized. The Trump administration has sought to restrict people from exercising their voting rights. It has sought to undermine the basic checks and balances of our Constitution by not respecting subpoenas from Congress. And the president has used overtly racist rhetoric to strike fear and division in communities of color and religious minorities across the country.
The idea – explicitly expressed by this president and enshrined into law by executive order – that people from certain Muslim-majority countries cannot enter this country is not just bad policy; it is a direct threat to liberal democracy. The chants of “Jews will not replace us,” shouted at a rally in Charlottesville in 2017 by white supremacists, whom this president tacitly accepted, are a direct attack on the values of religious freedom central to the founding of our nation.
The reasons for weaponizing division are not mysterious. Racial fear prevents Americans from building community with one another – and community is the lifeblood of a functioning democratic society. Throughout our history, racist language has been used to turn American against American in order to benefit the wealthy elite. Every time Mr. Trump attacks refugees is a time that could be spent discussing the president’s unwillingness to raise the federal minimum wage for up to 33 million Americans. Every racist attack on four members of Congress is a moment he doesn’t have to address why his choice for labor secretary has spent his career defending Wall Street banks and Walmart at the expense of workers. When he is launching attacks on the free press, he isn’t talking about why his Environmental Protection Agency just refused to ban a pesticide linked to brain damage in children.
His efforts to pit religious minorities against one another stem from the same playbook. If working Americans are too busy fighting with one another, we will never address the very real and deep problems our country faces – from climate change to soaring inequality to lack of quality affordable health care.
The only way to push back is to be unequivocal about our values. It is not enough to condemn Mr. Trump’s racism. We must affirmatively confront racist policies – whether the caging of immigrant children at the border or the banning of Muslim immigrants or the allowing of segregation in public housing. It is not enough to condemn the corruption and self-dealing of this administration. We must support policies that unmistakably improve working people’s lives, including by strengthening collective bargaining, raising the minimum wage and pursuing a universal jobs guarantee.
The consequences of this fight will not just be felt here at home but around the world. Right-wing nationalism in Hungary, Russia, France, Britain and elsewhere is on the march in ways not seen in decades. America has been a beacon of democratic ideals for the world. If we succumb to the fever of right-wing nationalism, it will have consequences far beyond our borders.
The proudest moments in our history – from the Emancipation Proclamation to the civil rights movement to the struggle against fascism – have come when we fight to protect and expand basic democratic rights. Today, democracy is under attack once again. It’s time to respond with the kind of conviction that has made America great before.
Not to suggest that “daily signal” is necessarily more trustworthy than Fox, but FWIW:
https://www.dailysignal.com/2019/07/23/judicial-watchdog-submits-congressional-ethics-complaint-against-rep-omar-for-potential-perjury-fraud
While it is a long stretch to accept all of this at face value, her score on honesty-integrity is much below perfect. Similar offense from Trump would be considered a cause for impeachment by many, herself included.
“Omar was fined by the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board for using campaign funds to pay for an accountant to amend her taxes after she filed taxes jointly with Hirsi while she was not married to him (filing joint taxes with a non-spouse is not permitted) and while she was actually married to another man.”
This fact is corroborated by multiple sources so it seems true, thus the article is not entirely garbage. Who knows, maybe perjury charge also has merits.
Nor should America fall to left-wing agenda of the “squad”.
Are you serious with that? The Daily Signal? Judicial Watch? The Daily Caller? Tom Fitton? Do you have any idea who you are citing there? Clearly you don’t. You should do a little research before you embarrass yourself next time. All of those sites and people are absolute, stone, cold jokes. Citing sources like that will get you banned here. We don’t do propaganda, and that network of people/sites you’re citing are notorious for providing fodder to, among others, Breitbart and Russia Today. I don’t think you know that, so we’ll let it slide, but please, educate yourself.
Just to give you a small taste of what I’m talking about, Judicial Watch has also claimed (among hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of other things), that ISIS has training camps in Mexico.
https://www.politifact.com/texas/statements/2015/apr/17/judicial-watch/judicial-watch-says-isis-has-camp-mexico-and-near-/
This speaks to the sad state of affairs in America right now. People cannot separate blatant, known propaganda from truth, despite all the information you would ever need to determine that being but a few clicks away. It’s destroying the country and brainwashing undereducated and uneducated voters who don’t know any better. If someone smart enough to find their way to my site is susceptible to the Daily Signal and Fitton and Judicial Watch, just imagine how vulnerable people in middle America who don’t even know what a stock or a bond is are.
I very clearly prefaced my first comment with the caveat that I don’t take this for granted. I don’t know what truth is but this woman is dishonest so I don’t feel like I have to believe that she’s necessarily innocent. She does have have the benefit of doubt, of course.
Well, uh… What I heard was that Obama’s private army of jack-booted thugs was gonna kick down my door, rape my wife and my daughters, take my gold and my guns and whisk me away in a black helicopter to work as a slave forever in a FEMA camp. So I buried my guns in a box and my gold in a coffee can the day Obama was elected, but eight years later — when Trump was elected, I went to dig up my gold and my guns, but after eight years I had forgotten where they were, and now I ain’t go no gold and ain’t no guns, either.
OK, tx, I am making mental note about Judicial Watch.
I am aware of Daily Signal/Caller caller affiliations. That doesn’t mean that they are lying all the time, does it? Besides, the fact of Omar’s campaign finance violation checks out. Oddly, I don’t see most of left-leaning media reporting on this, with the favorable (and surprising) exception of CNN. If Daily Signal reported it and WaPo didn’t then it’s OK to read it in Daily Signal, no? What about apnews? That’s an honest question, I really don’t know their rep. They report the same allegations. Is that ok by you? Can we talk about it now?
https://www.apnews.com/cc2ccd70de56405098d2f259bf0e46c5
yes, it does mean they are lying or at the very least spreading innuendo and propaganda all the time. how do you not know this? i hate to be the one to break this to you, but most of what you read/hear/see from conservative media outlets is not based in reality, let alone in facts. that AP article you cite has Ilhan calling all of that “disgusting lies”, but I guess the more relevant question here is this: How are you not well-versed in all of this? I mean, you’re talking about that campaign violation crap and the absurd “she married her brother” thing as though you’re just finding out about it. i don’t want to be derisive if you’re just getting to know all of this stuff, but this is not new. conservatives have been pushing both of those stories/lies/narratives for quite a while and she has addressed them on innumerable occasions. plus, you’re getting caught up in the echo chamber, check what AP says about who funded that “stopIlhan” campaign. check the sources for the Daily Signal (they are citing Judicial Watch). look who funds the Daily Signal. Look who funds the Daily Caller. and Judicial Watch is Tom Fitton. What I’m trying to tell you here is that as uncomfortable as this is for people who are gullible to come to terms with, you are being duped and played for a fool. all of this right-wing propaganda is a circular, self-referential loop, where they plant a story, and then recycle it amongst each other until a wire finally is forced to pick it up. you can see the same dynamic operating with right-wing blogs and Breitbart and RT and Sputnik. It’s all nothing but a giant spin machine. none of it is real. it’s no different than the Obama birth certificate story.
My family likes to say that I live under a rock. That’s not entirely incorrect. I don’t have the need to follow all this stuff when it comes out, or ever. Sometimes I do crawl out and get hit by a random piece of (mis)information. Whether the “mis” bit applies can’t always be objectively determined at the time of reading. You can keep your convictions, I’ll keep my mind open. Not sure why you refer to campaign violation episode as crap . CNN reported on it so it must be true.
Again, I’m very skeptical about all this but she has cheated once so she’s not above suspicion.
Love Heisenberg for his principles and objectivity. No where else does on find such integrity on a website focused on financial information. I am amazed!
well, trust me, honesty and integrity aren’t exactly click-magnets, but as regulars know, i’m not in it for the click bait. as i wrote in our updated “About” page, i just want people to i) come away knowing something they didn’t know before, and ii) confident that whatever I say, I damn sure believe it to be true, even if you think I’m wrong. if you come away with those two things, it was worth your time to visit the site. the problem with some of the sites i’m often compared to is that, in my estimation, they do not necessarily believe what they are saying to readers. rather, they say what gets clicks even if they know it’s probably not true, both in politics and in finance. i say what i think is true. and what’s interesting is that, far from what people are often led to believe, the truth about markets is not always bearish. similarly, the truth about politics is not always that there’s a conspiracy buried somewhere or that the people who seem genuine and good (like Ilhan) are actually nefarious. in fact, as boring as this may sound, the truth is that markets usually go up and that the reason most news outlets have a liberal “bias”, is because the liberal point of view is usually the sane, accurate point of view. boring, I know, but it’s the truth
I expect a few conservatives to end up at such an insightful financial site as this.
But how exactly does someone like anonymous end up posting comments here?
Disliking Omar et al doesn’t make me conservative, only normal.
you’re right – it is “normal” for Americans to be irritated that a Muslim woman of color who where’s a hijab is in Congress. but you know what? you’re going to have to deal with it. Americans need to get over their biases and come around to reality, which is that xenophobia and bigotry and nationalism and misplaced jingoism have no place in modernity. period. and if you’re going to roll out the “she’s a socialist” excuse, you’re reminded that most of what you hear in terms of how purportedly “bad” socialism is is also propaganda and lies, force-fed to you by conservative media outlets. how much do you actually know about socialism? and no, referencing Venezuela doesn’t count. that’s one of the most absurd strawmen in economic history. the simple fact of the matter is that capitalism doesn’t work for the vast majority of Americans, which is why 3 people control more wealth than the bottom half of society. you seem predisposed to falling for economic and social agitprop, and I would encourage you to make every effort to avoid falling into that trap, because, again, most of what you hear from conservative media outlets is either misinformation or, worse, outright lies.
I couldn’t care less about her color, religion or how she dresses. I care about her socialist tendencies and her being against Israel, probably a thinly-veiled anti-Semite as well.
As I already told you recently
https://heisenbergreport.com/2019/07/14/if-nancy-pelosi-cant-defend-ocasio-cortez-omar-and-tlaib-the-speaker-should-resign/
I grew up in a socialist country so you are in no position to teach me about how good socialism is. In fact, I could teach you a lot if you were willing to listen but I kind of doubt it. You think you know it all, don’t you?
I already explained to you in the same thread why your “capitalism doesn’t work” argument doesn’t work: it doesn’t matter how wealthy the wealthiest are, it only matters what you can afford.
Speaking of conservative lies, how about this:
“Rep. Omar ordered to reimburse campaign committee after state board finds spending violations”
https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/07/politics/ilhan-omar-campaign-finance/index.html
Is she a cheater or is she an honest woman?
you’re concerned about a $3,500 dispute on travel expenses? Give me a break. you’re being disingenuous and I think you realize it. Also, your anti-Semitism charges leveled against Omar have no merit. did you even read the actual report on Omar’s campaign “violations”? because I did and if you had (or, really, if you’d even read the CNN article you link to), you would discover that you are being overtly silly. why are you doing to this to yourself?
you are obviously determined to believe that Ilhan Omar is a nefarious personality and, lacking any actual evidence to back up that contention, you first resorted to notorious right-wing propaganda. when i pointed out how wildly ridiculous your initial sources were, you went back and found the dispute over $3,500 in travel expenses and seemed to think that because it’s news to you, it must be something that’s news to everyone else. however, if you trace that issue, what you’ll discover is that conservatives have been chasing that $3,500 for a long time, just like they’ve been trying to prove that Ilhan married her brother for years. you are trafficking in silliness. Donald Trump paid $120,000 to a porn star in violation of campaign finance rules. And you’re badgering Ilhan Omar over $3,500 even though, had you even taken the time to read the CNN article, you would find this:
I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a “witch hunt” to me, pardon the joke. it also sounded like a witch hunt to Ilhan and to a whole lot of other people, something you apparently aren’t apprised of because, as you’ve demonstrated here time and again, you aren’t necessarily someone who keeps yourself up to date on this stuff on a daily basis (you said as much yourself). I admire your efforts to get yourself up to speed, but you clearly have a problem differentiating fact from fiction, serious charges from $3,500 travel expense disputes, and real sources from Judicial Watch and the Daily Signal, with that latter confusion being clear evidence that you are vulnerable to being manipulated.
i’m not going to respond to you any further because i’ve done the best i can for you, and at the very least, i hope you’ll at least be more careful in the future about what you read and hear.
A reflection of the education system in America?