Ilhan Omar

There are people from Muslim countries who have knowledge about events in the Middle East that is different than mine. It has been the life they have led, and they have at least absorbed information not generally known in the west.  I think many of those points of views are misguided, or biased, or short-sighted, but they at least start from some base of information.  I can also see where people might regard being persecuted as an education of sorts, and enduring hardship to be in and of itself a sort of qualification for understanding others in a similar plight.

But Ilhan Omar's qualifications do not meet even this low standard.  Her victimhood and her audacity are her only qualifications.  She was in a refugee camp.  That is not training for anything.  You don't learn anything about the inter-relations of nations or groups there.  They don't teach history there.  She was not persecuted by Jews. She doesn't actually know anything. She was taught some prejudices about people who have done her no harm. That's about it. Also, she says her views loudly, and because she views herself as righteous, considers it a kind of courage to keep talking when others tell her she is wrong.

From this, I have to conclude that anti-semitism, being loud, and having been a victim are considered sufficient qualifications by a considerable portion of folks in her district, and apparently, across the country.