Two veteran Missouri Republicans exchanged a public clash of words this summer over President Trump and the Republican Party. One is John Danforth, the Ralston Purina heir who served as state attorney general and U.S. Senator. He issued a scathing attack on the President, which the liberal Washington Post and St. Louis Post-Dispatch were only too happy to publish.
Danforth claimed that “Trump isn’t a Republican” because “he stands in opposition to the founding principle of our party: that of a united country” as reflected in our national motto, e pluribus unum (out of many, one). Danforth concluded that “for the sake of our nation, we Republicans must dissociate ourselves from Trump by clearly and strongly insisting that he does not represent what it means to be a Republican.”
The other Republican, Gene McNary, was the longtime prosecuting attorney and county executive in Saint Louis County. McNary released a cogent response to Danforth, but the liberal media weren’t interested in publishing it.
As McNary correctly noted, “It isn’t the President who is dividing this great Nation, it is the liberal left, the media, and obstructionist Democrats. They can’t get over the fact that the American people elected Donald Trump.”
While Danforth complained that “Trump is eager to tell people they don’t belong here, whether it’s Mexicans, Muslims, the transgendered or another group,” McNary responded: “Is it wrong to tell Mexicans and others to come into the U.S. legally? Is it right for sanctuary cities to flout the law and harbor those who are in the U.S. unlawfully?”
As the former commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) before those functions were transferred to the new Department of Homeland Security, McNary patiently explained why Danforth was “patently wrong” to say that Trump’s travel ban is anti-Muslim. People who can produce reliable documents from countries with stable governments are not prevented from coming into the U.S. merely because they are Muslim.
Gene McNary concluded his response to Senator Danforth by observing, “Trump broadened the base by appealing to industrial and trade workers who felt that the Democratic Party had deserted them. I like that. I like Trump. He is my kind of Republican.”
