Rewrite Redux

Trump surrogate says it will be no sweat to register Muslims, because Japanese-American internment went so smoothly.

Interviewed by Megyn Kelly, as she cues him to use his inside voice—

KELLY: Come on. You're not — you're not proposing we go back to the days of internment camps, I hope.

HIGBIE: No, no, no. I'm not proposing that at all, Megyn, but what I am saying is we need to protect America from —

KELLY: You know better than to suggest that. I mean, that's the kind of stuff that gets people scared, Carl.

HIGBIE: Right, but it's — I'm just saying there is precedent for it, and I'm not saying I agree with it, but in this case I absolutely believe that a regional based —

She tops it off with this—

KELLY: You can't be citing Japanese internment camps as precedent for anything the president-elect is gonna do.

The language is completely calculated, always. Here, it's Japanese internment, to imply that America's concentration camps were filled with war-time enemies. To obscure the truth: they they were families of ordinary citizens, deprived of homes, businesses, and freedom.

Certainly, they floated this after 9-11. And camp survivors were quick to oppose post-9/11 discrimination against Muslims, recognizing as they did that those who would exploit the situation were directing fearful citizens to find scapegoats in other, vulnerable citizens.

Great rewrite job now, when direct survivors of America's camps will not be with us for many more years.