Examples such as Pearl Harbor show us that there is a gathering of presidential emergency powers. The Bush administration’s assertion of power over issues like torture and Guantanamo Bay has shown us a lot about what happens with executive unilateralism and the executive and emergency power that a president has after a tragedy in their country occurs. The cases of FDR and Bush have become cautionary tales for unchecked power, while presidents originally were only supposed to use these powers a last resort. The discriminatory policies that FDR and Bush passed were not necessary so it was not dire circumstances. Future missteps like torture or internment of certain racial groups is likely to occur, especially in our current political climate. …show more content…
He used the example of Japanese internment camps when discussing the future for Muslims which raised concerns. He said, “We’ve done it based on race, we’ve done it based on religion, we’ve done it with Iran back a while ago. We did it during World War II with Japanese.” His statement is troubling because he is almost suggesting internment camps would be a solution. The man went on to say, “we need to protect America first”, which goes back to the patriotic ideology that we have a history as a country as blaming groups of people who do not necessarily look “all American” but who are associated with a group who has harmed America. The fear is rooted in racism because when there is a white terrorist attack or a school shooter, people do not call that terrorism, and no one blames white people as a whole for one person’s attack. The resurgence of xenophobia recently is a precursor to the dangers of Trump in office and what he will do to Muslims. In the past, the prospect of internment is always tied to registries of people. The concern is that these first steps of wanting to register Muslims and putting a travel ban on them will lead to an even more extreme situation like putting people in internment …show more content…
Still, it resulted in over 110,000 people from Japanese descent being incarcerated. Two-thirds of that number were Americans. His executive order is similar to Bush’s when allowed that there be any military force necessary used overseas to catch “terrorists”, effectively legalizing torture on anyone with no evidence necessary. FDR’s order is similar to Trump’s Executive Order 13769 because he, too, does not specifically mention Muslims at all, but is trying to target them underhandedly by just banning travel from countries where most people are Muslims. He does not want it to be openly obvious that he is targeting a certain race or religion, just as FDR did not want make it evident that the Japanese were being targeted. Trump’s first order even had an exception for refugees who were persecuted as a religious minority in those countries. All of those people would be Christians, so it makes it even more obvious that he is targeting a certain religion. Although during his campaign, Trump advertised moves to have a “complete shutdown of Muslims entering the US”, he tried hard later on to prove he was not persecuting people based on religion, but the country they were from. On