Ilhan Omar and the Irrelevance of Republicans

Credit Life Matters/Pexels

Last week, Ilhan Omar once again was the target of the right-wing outrage machine, this time because of comments that she made during a news conference with Minneapolis leaders. You can view the full conference here: Critics honed in on a small portion of the conference, namely comments she made about dismantling systems of oppression:

As long as our economy and political system prioritize profit without considering who is profiting, who is being shut out, we will perpetuate this inequality. So we cannot stop at [the] criminal justice system. We must begin the work of dismantling the whole system of oppression wherever we may find it.

There was an almost immediate backlash from the right. Critics quickly jumped to America’s defense at the perceived slight, setting right-wing twitter afire with cries that “America is not a system of oppression” and that she was violating her oath to “defend and protect the Constitution, not shred it.” The President’s son himself leaped into the fray, alleging that “these are the people” that will be advising and steering Biden if he wins the election. Of course, those who were outraged by her comments conveniently forgot about all the times that Trump employed the same rhetoric. After all, the rhetoric in his “American carnage” inauguration speech is strikingly similar to Omar’s own statement. He opines how the system failed to help the working class, saying that “[The establishment’s] victories have not been your victories… there was little to celebrate for struggling families across our land.” At the time, the same people criticizing Omar applauded the speech. One has to marvel at the hypocrisy: what makes Omar’s comments any different than Trump’s? Is it the person saying it?

As accusations swirl that Omar is “un-American”, we should remember the principles that our country was founded on. As I wrote for The Commoner, America wasn’t founded on “maintaining the status quo”; it was founded on the idea that people have the right to change their government when it no longer serves the people. From the Declaration of Independence:

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness… it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

The founders never said that we must protect the current iteration of America at all costs. In fact, they went so far as to provide guidelines for changing the Constitution itself, and it’s a bit ridiculous to think that they would be angered by her saying that we “must begin the work of dismantling systems of oppression.” It’s also a little bit worrying that so many people think that our elected officials aren’t allowed to mention our country’s problems, much less solve them. Before Republicans jump to criticize Omar, they should perhaps take a look at the fact that the Americans billionaires in the country increased their wealth by $584 billion while tens of millions lost their jobs during the pandemic. Or, they should look at the creeping fascism in the streets of Portland, or any of the other problems that we are plagued with. In fact, I would argue that the plain-faced denial of our problems is far more “un-American” than calling attention to them.

If anything, the latest outrage shows how irrelevant the Republican Party is becoming. Republicans are failing to recognize that most American’s don’t have the rabid, nationalistic patriotism that they did in the years following 9/11. The idea that “America is not oppression” is nothing more than a cheap slogan surrounded by a plethora of evidence that contradicts it, and pushing the narrative of America infallibility does nothing but push away voters. People are too busy trying to keep themselves fed and housed to believe that America is doing great, and Republicans might find out in November that more people agree with Omar’s comments than they do with the myth of American exceptionalism. It’s not 2016 anymore, and the Republican party’s attempts to campaign on the culture war and nationalism is likely to appear pointless when confronted with our very real problems. Perhaps they should learn from Ilhan Omar and directly confront our problems, instead of shrieking about patriotism whenever they are presented with valid criticism.

By now, it should be clear that Ilhan Omar and the rest of the progressive left can do no right by the Republican (and Democratic for that matter) establishment. Luckily for Omar, the American people don’t really care about what the establishment wants or says anymore. We saw it during the 2016 election, the 2018 midterms, and again during the 2020 primary, where right-wing and left-wing populist movements swept the nation. The vast majority of Americans agree with Omar that we have deep, systemic issues within our economic and political system, and every attempt by establishment figures to smear her comes across as gaudy and cheap. Perhaps politicians should stop trying to evaluate their opponent’s perceived patriotism and take a deep look at the issues that they try to cover up.