Four years ago, when I stepped onto American soil for college, I quickly learned, somewhere in small talk, the rhetorical question "Where are you originally from?" and the phrase "Go back to your country" were vintage stocks of an evil market called racism. At that time, these words coming out of the president's mouth would exemplify a bad joke, because it was unimaginable, unrealistic. Ever since, many things have changed, including the commander-in-chief.

Maybe it's more accurate to say US politics took a nosedive into that once incomprehensible joke, verbatim, recently. The 45th president tweeted, "Why don't they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came," referring to four congresswomen of colour, elected in midterms 2018.

Speaking with passion and empathy for the working class, these four congresswomen, now referred to as the "squad," include: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, the youngest woman ever elected to the House of Representatives, a newcomer who beat a 10-year incumbent after working as a bartender the year prior; 45-year-old Ayanna Pressley, the first Black congresswoman to represent Massachusetts; and the first two Muslim women elected in congress, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, also a former refugee, and Palestinian-American Rep. Rashida Tlaib from Michigan. Needless to say, they're all US citizens, and, therefore, Americans: three of them born and raised in the US, and Omar, a naturalised citizen for a higher number of years than the current First Lady. Each of their success stories to top positions echoes the empowerment in overcoming hardship, and gleans reassurance that nothing is impossible if you work hard enough, that the American dream is accessible to even those with limited opportunities.

 But their fresh faces mirror much more than telegenic symbols of American pluralism. They're vigorous personalities with strident opinions on human rights violations, while proffering definitive policy proposals in stark contrast to Chief Trump. For example, they're pro-immigration against his wall-like jingoistic vision, climate change advocates opposed to his science denialism, and so on. Donald Trump's nightmare though comes from the power of Congress to impeach him. That plausibly hits the buttons to bring out his raw colours, evident not only in his feral tweets, but also in his recent rally in North Carolina, wherein he demonised Ilhan Omar (his favourite target) and set the stage for depraved chants from the rabid audience: "Send her back, send her back."  

The president's transition from dog-whistles to explicit bigotry signifies a historic moment of validating birtherism, and the racist entitlement to demand legal citizens of colour be sent back to where they emigrated from, when they don't agree with the head of state.

But didn't we already know Donald Trump equates whiteness with American citizenship? Remember his battery of false claims that Barack Obama was born in Kenya? Trump's 2016 election strategies were moored all over in divisiveness, clumsily designed to alienate minorities and arouse hatred for diversity. So, the reason why he thwarts these particular women is grounded in the realms of gender bias, mixed with the fact that they're multiracial minorities in his political regime that reaps profits from the fear of immigrants and vows to keep them out. Their candid outspokenness coupled with non-European heritage makes them perfect recipients not only of racism in US politics, but also the ploys of retaining power. These four women have occasionally been scornful of moderate Democrats, such as the pragmatic Speaker Pelosi, which means Republicans can capitalise on their differences and divide Democrats.

The quartet's progressivism is less about politics, and more about human values (probably as it would be in a perfect world). They're persistent in pushing the Green New Deal and Medicare for all to save the planet, future children, especially underprivileged ones. The Republicans' objective is to vilify these social justice acts by labelling the actors as degenerate socialist Democrats, anti-Semites, the standing enemies who want to "model America's economy after Venezuela" (as Donald Trump stated in his op-ed in USA Today in October last year).

By plastering this narrative of the foursome on the entire Democratic Party today, the Republicans' aim is to accumulate votes of moderates by creating that familiar "lesser of two evils" situation. Or rather, result in low turn-ups for the Democrats in 2020, which worked in Trump's favour in the last election. For context, the white, evangelical, uneducated base will still vouch for him anyway, but he didn't win 2016 only because more people voted for him, but also because Democratic voters, especially Bernie supporters, commonly Leftists, antagonised Clinton with their absence at ballots.

So now, journalists find themselves in over-calculating conundrums, debating whether this latest massacre of words reflects a shrewd strategy for an upward trajectory, or the catalyser for Donald Trump's demise in 2020. But in making everything about the forthcoming election, we continue to trivialise the violations of behavioural standards mandating the politics of greed and the thirst for power. The president's transition from dog-whistles to explicit bigotry—for which people all over the country, including those in top positions, get fired—signifies a historic moment of validating birtherism, and the racist entitlement to demand legal citizens of colour be sent back to where they emigrated from, when they don't agree with the head of state. It's a desire to silence women of colour, the opposite of the very universality that makes America unique.

The fact of the matter is that, the duly elected congresswomen's subjection to unforgiving scrutiny by the White House is rooted in their unapologetic criticism of the president, GOP's policies, and lobby powers of Israel. The latter has been subverted by Republican media to mean "anti-Semitism," although Bernie Sanders, of Jewish faith himself, has repeatedly said, "It's not anti-Semitic to be critical of a right-wing party in Israel." Similarly, being critical of a right-wing US government shouldn't mean one is anti-American.

Later in the speech in North Carolina, Donald Trump mentioned how very rich, powerful men who once called him "Don" now call him "Mr President," because "people have such respect for the office of the president—they have respect for our country again! Our country is respected again." These anecdotes, to me, rumble a sinister sentiment: those who disagree are those who hate, and those who support the Trump administration, by extension, respect America. All the boundaries between patriotism, nationalism and narcissism officially blurred. What that means is that dissent and diversity—signature American values (refer to the Declaration of Independence)—face the threat of extinction.

While four Republicans have renounced their president's racist statement, for a group who dissented from President Obama for eight years on end, the ghastly silence among the rest to eschew rebuke now, and the concurrence of some that women of colour are in fact "anti-American" for differing viewpoints, is totally unjustifiable, considering even the murky nature of power politics.

It's worrisome, to say the least.

Ramisa Rob is a master's candidate in New York University.

Follow The Daily Star Opinion on Facebook for the latest opinions, commentaries and analyses by experts and professionals.

To contribute your article or letter to The Daily Star Opinion, see our guidelines for submission.