There is no bad historical idea that Donald Trump will not embrace. Or pat on the back, or lick roughly across the face, from left ear to right eyeball, in front of the gathering crowds.
GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump said late Tuesday that everyday Americans should monitor their neighbors for questionable behavior. [...]“You’re pretty smart, right?” he asked his audience. "We know if there’s something going on, report them. Most likely you’ll be wrong, but that’s OK.
There is a line between keeping a weather eye out for trouble and SWATing your new neighbors because you don't think a true American would pair that couch with those drapes. This statement sits nebulously in the middle, except that the most likely you'll be wrong but that's OK part is a bit too glossy-overy of putting the rest of the families in your neighborhood on a terrorist watch list if you think you might be a'feared of them.
We know, of course, the sort of people that support Donald Trump are afraid of. They are afraid of Latinos, Muslims, and black people. Clean-shaven Biff and his storage shed full of ammonium nitrate will not be garnering undue attention, but walk down the street with a certain style of headcovering and you'll have Donald Trump supporters bolting their doors and wondering if they've stocked up on enough canned goods to hold out while you make your way to the corner store and back.
Donald Trump, for example, knows exactly where your suspicions should be placed:
He also criticized President Obama late Tuesday for not monitoring the nation’s Islamic worship centers for extremism.“There’s something going on in the mosques and other places,” Trump said. "There’s some nastiness, there’s some meanness there.
Not really a dog whistle, that.
All of this is seemingly unnecessary, given that Donald Trump himself continues to declare that he personally has terrorism-predicting powers. Powers which he continues to not use to predict terrorism because, we must assume, he's just been too darn busy. So he is outsourcing it to you, dear frightened Trump supporters. I'm sure that will go well.