Editorial: Would Trump tell white congressmen: 'Go back where you came from'?

How does anyone demonstrate their love for America?

They can do it by participating in the United States’ democracy even in the face of dismissal from those who disagree, hatred from those who belittle and even violence from those who are prejudiced.

Four women have been showing love for their nation by doing what real Americans do. They are appropriately speaking out, participating in the electoral process, doing their jobs as members of Congress to hold the executive branch of their government accountable and pursuing policies they support.

It doesn’t get more American than that.

Loving America is not measured in agreement with the president. Loving America doesn’t require a certain color of skin, place of birth, gender, religious faith or physical ability.

Loving America does not mean worshiping Donald Trump.

But President Trump has, contrary to our patriotic ways, demanded if they don’t like HIS policies they can “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.”

It was a racist reference to their ethnic heritage. All four are American citizens. It seems as though the president assumes all dark-skinned people were born in other countries and are not “real” Americans.

It was not about the actual places they live in the United States or represent in Congress. Three of these women were born in the United States. Ilhan Omar came to America when she was 14 from a Somalian refugee camp.

Would Trump tell four white congressmen who disagreed with his policies to go back to where “they” came from?

Spin, obfuscate, twist and deny all they want, those who should be holding the president accountable for his words and action – particularly the congressional Republicans from North Carolina – are derelict in their duty.

Ironically, it is those who are the object of the president’s horrible vilification and bigotry who are doing their jobs.

Real Americans who are concerned about their country speak up and speak out. They share their ideas, put them and themselves in the public arena.

The silence from North Carolina’s congressional Republicans speaks volumes.