The Uninformed "Intellectualism" of Juan Cole

Juan Cole and the Seven Exclusions



"Heigh ho, heigh ho
It's off to the States we go"


University of Michigan Professor Juan Cole, a big supporter of the Arab world and harsh critic of Israel, has-not surprisingly- weighed in on the decision by the Supreme Court that affirmed the Trump travel ban. In his blog, "Informed Comment", he lets loose against the court and, of course, President Trump-not to mention our entire history of immigration, which Cole terms, "racist". The title is:

The Seventh Exclusion: Great Moments in American Racist Immigration History

https://www.juancole.com/2018/06/seventh-exclusion-great.html
Here are some choice excerpts:
"Non-US citizens don’t have a constitutional right to visit the United States, so in principle the president can keep some persons out, especially if the State Department cooperates in declaring a security threat."
Yes, Juan. That is correct. That is the whole point of this. Had the Supreme Court decided differently, they would have been the mad hatters, not Rudy Giuliani, who is no mad hatter (unlike the four liberals on the Supreme Court.) In addition, many Muslims (not all certainly) are, indeed, security threats. Ask the Europeans. Ask the families of the victims of 9-11, San Bernardino, the Pulse nightclub, Boston Marathon, and many other Muslim attacks, not to mention the numerous other foiled plots.
"In other words, Rudy Giuliani may be as loony as the Mad Hatter, but he knew exactly how to get Trump the racist Muslim ban he wanted and make it stick in the US system."
Tell me, Juan: What race are Muslims anyway? Answer: All races. Islam is a belief, not a race.
"Ironically, the court decision came back the same days as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s upset win in the 14th Congressional district in New York. The 19th-century Protestant Know-Nothing conspiracy would have tried to exclude her from the US for being of Catholic heritage."
What a coincidence! So now Juan is reaching back to 19th century Protestant "no-nothings". A rather tenuous connection if you ask me.
"The travel ban upheld by a narrow majority on the Supreme Court causes untold heartache to Iranian-Americans, Yemeni-Americans, and other groups designated for exclusion." 
Really? I have news for the uninformed Professor: Americans cannot be kept out of the US. He himself designated two groups targeted for exclusion as being Iranian-Americans and Yemeni-Americans. The key word is American.
"It also injures the First Amendment of the US constitution, which forbids the state to take a position on good and bad religion." 
Juan forgets that two of the countries on the list, Venezuela and North Korea, are not Muslim-majority countries. There are some 50 other Muslim-majority countries which are not on the list. The countries involved are those with hostile, shaky or weak governments that cannot or will not cooperate with the US in vetting would-be travelers to the US. This is not about cracking down on a religion; it is about protecting American lives. There is nothing in the Constitution that a foreign person in another country can lean on in claiming a right to enter our country.
 "It has nothing to do with security–the nationalities banned haven’t engaged in terrorism on US soil in this century. Most terrorism in the US is committed by white nationalists (many of whom support Trump)."
What about Somalis? Maybe none have successfully carried out a terrorist attack here, but numerous Somalis have been arrested plotting attacks, have returned to Somalia to join Al Shabaab, or have been arrested in the process of leaving. As for the so-called "white nationalist Trump supporters", it all depends what your definition of terrorism is. Not to condone the KKK or neo-Nazis, or the Richard Spencer types, but to argue that they represent a larger threat than Islamic jihadists is a lie.
Then Cole goes way back in history from the 19th century to the 1930s to list six examples of exclusion based on race or religion. Supposedly, this Trump travel ban is the 7th. 
Cole overlooks the fact that we also excluded communists from coming to America. That wasn't based on race or religion, rather a hostile belief system, which wanted to overturn our democracy and impose their own system upon us.

The fact is that notwithstanding the above examples, this country has long allowed people to come to this country as tourists, students, temporary workers and immigrants from all over the world. In fact, one group that in recent years has found it very difficult to immigrate to the US are white Europeans. In addition, only recently have we found that some immigrants have come not to assimilate but to change our very system and in some cases to harm us. Any sensible country has the right to defend itself and its citizens from that.

Finally, Cole concludes by telling us that civility (among other things) won't save us. The use of the word "civility" is a dog whistle because it is mostly conservatives in places like university campuses that are calling for civility in the face of leftist disruptions and in-your-face tactics of intimidation and bullying, in many cases by the pro-Palestinian crowd that Cole sides with. 

No, Folks. According to Cole, the solution is to go out and elect those open borders, socialist, and uncivil Democrats like Maxine Waters. And Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is leading the way?