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I finally get out of Iowa, where it’s not inhospitable, but I am reminded of a group of Filipino men and their Japanese American wives and their Filipino-Japanese American kids who showed up in Iowa to live and farm in 1942 and were told to get out.

It happened. It made the news.

In 2019, after my Japanese car breaks down in Des Moines, I get back on the road and make it to DC for my one-man show, [“Emil Amok: All Pucked Up”](your tickets here: https://capitalfringe.org/event/emil-amok-all-pucked-up-harvard-npr-and-more/) at the Capital Fringe.

And even here, America feels like an unwelcoming foreign country–and not like the America we know and love.

ICE is out lurking about and Trumptown is hot and steamy.

And I’m not just talking about the weather.

The political rhetoric has flipped around. President Trump is actually defending House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from four vocal minority congresswomen who continue to push the Democratic leader to be more progressive in the fight against the current administration.

Trump is leveraging all that, coming to Pelosi’s defense. They are on the same side? The new American traditionalist politics? What a meld of the anti-norm of Trump with the cautious moderation of Pelosi. That sure mucks things up for the Democrats. An embrace from Trump? The kiss of death.

But It was also in how he said it, with Trump saying the most outspoken progressive congresswomen led by Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez should “go back” to where they came from.

You mean New York?

Or Michigan, as in the case of Rep. Rashida Tlaib born in Detroit to Palestinian immigrants.

Or Massachusetts, as in the case of Rep. Ayanna Pressley born in the American Midwest and raised in Chicago.

Only Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota was born outside the U.S. in Somalia.

Exactly where do Americans go back home to when America is no longer like America anymore?

But Trump keeps hammering in his truth-optional manner.

Go home? Or simply just get out of the way?

“These places need you badly,” Trump said, referring to what he presumed were their foreign ancestral homes. “ You can’t leave fast enough,” Trump tweeted. “I’m sure that Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to quickly work out free travel arrangements.”

Nixon had his tapes. Trump has his tweets.

“So interesting to see ‘Progressive’ Democrats Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all), now loudly …and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government should be run.”

That was over the weekend.

To kick off Monday, Trump acknowledged what he did, but instead of showing any signs of remorse, he strikes back even harder.

“If Democrats want to unite around the foul language and racist hatred spewed from the mouths and actions of these very unpopular and unrepresentative Congresswomen, it will be interesting to see how it plays out. I can tell you that they have made Israel feel abandoned by the U.S.”

As if the divisive front-end rhetoric isn’t bad enough (is Trump boasting that his hateful talk is less hateful? ), he ends with a casual and simplistic Israel zinger attacking the congresswomen as anti-Semitic.

A nuclear tweet. The dude loves to play with fire.

And so we have Trump on the attack against all people of color, and the accuracy of your status doesn’t matter. If you’re different, if you dare speak out, you’re un-American and unwanted. Get out of the country.

Besides, as Trump has said publicly, the country’s too full.

Sounds hateful and un-American, and it’s coming from mouth of the president of the United States.

Inspired hate for his base?

The art of politics has always allowed for grace. But when you wear your hate on your sleeve, the next step is obvious.

When you make the leap from “immigrants go home” to “Americans go home,” you are sticking your dagger into the heart of our democratic values.

American go home, is the next step toward tyranny and the end of free speech and civil liberties. Dare you disagree? Go home, get out. Shut up, Trump says.

It’s pure intimidation rhetoric intended to put the chill on anyone who dares to challenge.

Sunday was the beginning of the ICE raids, which so far haven’t been as bad as feared. But don’t overlook Trump’s not-so-subtle transition to the “American Go Home” theme.

It’s the undocumented first. And when that becomes normalized, it’s the rest of us.

And then the fight really hits home.

MY “AMOK”
None of what’s happening now is new. Raids. Deportation, self and forced. Nativism. White ethnic purity. What do you think anti-miscegenation laws were about—the anti-intermarriage laws that prevented Asians from marrying whites. If there were a Rush Limbaugh back in the 1930s, you’d hear him spouting about trying to stop the “peaceful penetration” of another race. And it all was on top of the skewed men to women ratios, 14-1 for Filipinos. That was enough to make a red-blooded Filipino male go amok. Like a good Vulcan Trekkie.

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