It’s a ban.  It’s a friggin’ ban.  Stop saying it isn’t, it’s insulting.  You can’t close down McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, and White Castle and then claim, “But I didn’t even mention hamburgers.”  We know what you meant, and it’s not even a little bit subtle. Maybe your prevarications work with the average Breitbart clicker, but when you try it on us you sound like a defense attorney trying to get his murdering client off on a technicality.

And stop with the “extreme vetting” Nonsense while you’re at it.  We already have a rigid vetting system that takes 18-24 months before an immigrant or refugee is allowed into our country.  There’s no possibility of making the process harder than it already is, so when you say “extreme vetting” what you’re really saying is, “You’re never getting in whatever you say or do, never, never, ever.”  And that’s what you want, so stop pretending otherwise.

This is what you said, in effect:  “We don’t want Muslims coming into our country.  We are afraid of you. You might be terrorists.  We’ll all feel a whole lot safer if we don’t have to deal with you.  So good luck and all that–you don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here!”  So just say that.  I’d disagree vehemently with your decision, but at least I wouldn’t feel like you’re trying to sell me a bridge.  You’re not that good at salesmanship, or lying, so what you end up doing is wasting any tiny little trust I might have had.  And what gets lost is any REAL, SOBER, MODERATE discussion about issues of immigration and the safety of our citizens.  You took out a bazooka and fired it into the face of restraint.

And maybe that’s what you want.  Screw political correctness!   You’re going to push this, along with your cabinet of CEOs and billionaires, down America’s throat.  If they don’t like it, too bad.  They’ll get used to it.  Leaders lead, and followers follow or get left behind.  And part of the country is loving this.  They are absolutely adoring being able to say all the things they have been holding their tongues about for years.  You have loosed that particular strain of contagion.  And not everyone who voted for your crusade is a racist, or a xenophobe, or a white nationalist.  But let me tell you, those are the ones with the loudest voices.  You own that lunatic fringe, and every crappy, horrible, un-‘Merican thing they may do.

Still OK with you?  Fine.  I get it.  You’re the guy who makes a racist joke around a bunch of other white folks to see who “your people” are.  You’re reveling in the disorder.  You’re sadistically enjoying the pain you’re causing.   Burn it all down.  It’s what gets you up in the morning.  In your own mind, you’re a hero.

Here’s why you will never be a hero.

Call it kumbaya bullshit, call it libtard ranting, call it East Coast elite nonsense.  Downplay the protests and the calls to the Senators and the petitions all you want.  Dare us to challenge you.  This country has survived worse than you, and it will again.  Every time hatred and ignorance have been used to prod the willing into unspeakable cruelty and violence, this country has fought back and won.  Our forefathers saw you coming and made sure you and your kind would never prosper.  There is a Constitution, and a Bill of Rights, and a Judicial system, and nearly 250 years of trial and error in your way.  And there’s us. The battles you win will be temporary.  The damage you inflict will be reversed.  You are a pretender to the throne, and in two years your Congress will be gone and in four years (if you last that long) you will be gone as well.  A sad footnote in an important novel.  And what they will say about you is that you tried to rule by hate and division and fear and you failed.  You will be an unfunny joke.  They will count up the deaths you caused and lay them at your feet.  History will hold you up to ridicule and disdain.

You’ll never be bigger than this country, Steve.  And we’ve got our eye right on your ass.