One man’s shithole is another man’s, uh, shithole

On Thursday, faux-president Donald Trump asked a gathering of lawmakers why America has to accept immigrants from “shithole” countries like Haiti, El Salvador and Africa, and why we can’t get more from all-white countries like Norway.

When news of this vile, racist comment got out and most of the country erupted with disgust over it, mental giant TV host Tucker Carlson from Trump’s personal network, Fox News, went off in a different direction, defending Trump while asking the stupidest question of the week. “Why can’t you say that?” Carlson wanted to know.

Well, Tucker, if you don't know the answer to that question, I’m not sure I can help you...but I’m going to give it a try nonetheless.

Consider this:

* If your cat digs a hole out back and then shits in it, it's ok to call that a “shithole.”

* If you are camping out in the woods and you dig a latrine – hopefully somewhere downwind of your campfire – you can call that a “shithole,” too.

* And if you should happen to stumble into a drug den littered with garbage, used needles, drug paraphernalia and human excrement, that's also appropriately called a “shithole.” That would probably be true even in a place like Norway.

On the other hand, countries like Haiti and El Salvador are sovereign nations that are friendly toward the United States, and Africa is a whole big continent full of 54 separate countries inhabited by living, breathing human beings with basic needs, basic desires and the basic human right to have a decent existence. It is not okay for the president of the United States to call an entire country a "shithole."

Tucker Carlson should know this already. A man who graduated from Trinity College with a B.A. in history should be smart enough to recognize that poor people doing their best to overcome deplorable conditions don’t deserve childish insults from the supposed leader of the free world just because they’re poor (and also brown or black). If Donald Trump – and Tucker Carlson by association – wasn’t a racist, xenophobic moron with no dignity or class, a stone for a heart and a total lack of appreciation for the world in which we live, he would know better than to call their homes a “shithole” while going out of his way to deny them a better life.

Of course, this is who Donald Trump is, and nothing I write is going to change him into the Ebenezer Scrooge who woke up happy on Christmas morning after spending the night with four ghosts. But Tucker Carlson? I don't know why I have to explain this to him. Doesn't he read? Doesn’t he ever explore the world around him just a little bit, or does Fox News pay him so much money that he’ll say anything to keep getting the checks? I’m guessing he just doesn’t care.  

For the record, the core of the issue that prompted the “shithole” comment is Trump’s move to revoke the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) that was granted to certain nations by prior administrations, dating back to 2001, and to deport the undocumented immigrants it brought (legally) to America. Under TPS, the secretary of Homeland Security may open the door to immigrants forced to leave a foreign country because of conditions such as civil war, environmental disasters or an epidemic of some disease. At issue are some 60,000 Haitians and 200,000 Salvadorans who fled from deadly earthquakes at home and who now may be forced to leave the U.S. within the next two years.

In his defense of Trump, Carlson said it would be “dishonest” to say he wouldn't rather live in Trump’s Norway than the "shitholes" the faux-president detests. “So if you say Norway is a better place to live and Haiti is kind of a hole, well anyone who’s been to those countries or has lived in them would agree,” he said on the air. And then he tweeted this:

Option A: El Salvador isn't a "shithole," so they don't need 17 years of Temporary Protected Status, and migrants from there should be sent home immediately. 

Option B: El Salvador is, in fact, a "shithole."

On second thought, Tucker, I guess I really can’t help you after all.