… Spurred primarily, but not solely, by Donald Trump, the Republican field has spent months debating whether undocumented immigrants from Mexico pose an economic and security threat, whether gays and liberals are waging a “war on Christians” and now, whether Muslims can be trusted as loyal Americans fit for the presidency (not to mention whether President Obama is a Muslim himself).
This succession of searing arguments has transformed the Republican presidential field into a kind of national purification tribunal sequentially debating which groups stand as legitimate members of the American community. CONT.
Ronald Brownstein, National Journal