UCLA killing is a silver bullet for Donald Trump, but will he use it?

If Donald Trump had a genie in a bottle and was granted a wish, he would have said, “Okay, I’ve got the wetbacks and the Latinos, the Cubans and the Filipinos. Now, do something for me to rid me of these meddlesome, super-smart, hyper-intelligent Indians who have taken over the information highway and gridlocked it, and taken over medicine and science and the spelling bee.” The genii would have said, “Dude, your wish is my command. But are you sure you want to get rid of the Indians? They run our systems, you know and our medical facilities.” “Do it,” Trump would have said. And the genie would have shrugged and said, “Okay, you’re the boss” and would have given him Mainak Sarkar, the first ever Made in India American campus shooter. For sheer bad timing, this student’s rampage and the killing of his mentor and professor gives Trump ammunition, and he will use it. [caption id=“attachment_2814764” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File photo of Mainak Sarkar. AP[/caption] Of course, it is damnable and we Indians are not violent in the singular sense. Not really, not even in India. Our courage comes from the comfort of the mob, in numbers, when we feel we are less vulnerable. Alone, we are docile. Yet, whatever the reason for his rage, Mainak not only destroyed a young American family, but also his own life and the lives of his families. We do not know what his angst was or what drove his rage to pull the trigger. But for Trump this is scripted. “See, it is not just the Moslems, it is also the Hindus, they are all the same. They bring crime, and this fella…he killed a decent upstanding Little League supporter, a man who was loved in the community. Donald will not look at the history of Indians and weigh this ugly and sad incident against the general law abiding citizenry from India that lives in the United States and does such a super job of being good people. And the frightful thing is that he will get that backing from the rank and file. That most shooters have been American will escape notice and will be put aside. It is to be seen if Trump will have the moral courage not to exploit this situation to advantage. But the policy of being anti-foreigners is his major plank and the one that catapulted him to the national stage. Why would he not extract mileage from it? This could not have happened at a worse time for the US and the best time for him. If he comes out guns blazing (metaphorically), his popularity rating will soar. I feel sorry for the two other students in the same cohort who are Indians. And for the thousands of others who will have to up their security and stay mentally indoors. For Sikhs who are mistaken for terrorists, for bearded people who have to skulk nervously onto public transportation, for Muslims who have to walk the gauntlet of suspicion, for the largely uneducated American public who think all these folks are a threat. And now, Donald Trump has a smoking gun.