{"id":18523,"date":"2015-12-16T11:05:20","date_gmt":"2015-12-16T19:05:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/franklycurious.com\/wp\/?p=18523"},"modified":"2015-12-16T11:25:14","modified_gmt":"2015-12-16T19:25:14","slug":"republican-debate-were-strong-and-hard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/franklycurious.com\/wp\/2015\/12\/16\/republican-debate-were-strong-and-hard\/","title":{"rendered":"Republican Debate: We’re Strong and Hard"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"RepublicanI guess I should say something about the debate<\/a>. Despite my best efforts, I did manage to listen to the whole thing. But as soon as I found out that it was focused on “national security,” I wanted to run away. This strikes me as journalistic malpractice on the part of CNN<\/em>. Do we really need a forum to listen to all these candidates talk about how terrible non-Americans are and how we need to close down our borders? This is most of what we get from the candidates regardless. This is the easiest issue to demagogue and so they stick with it.<\/p>\n

What’s more, when it comes to the situation in Syria and Iraq, they all push how “strong” and “hard” they will be. But when you get down to it, they aren’t proposing to do anything more than Obama. So they are going to continue to bomb but with more intent? Ben Carson implied that he wanted boots on the ground. Marco Rubio wants boots on the ground — Arab boots on the ground. John Kasich wants boots on the ground — some kind of Persian Gulf coalition. But I get it: the Republican Party is working itself up for war.<\/p>\n

The reason I know this is because my father told me that he thought we needed to send ground troops into the conflict. Charles Krauthammer must think this. I know because my father also has no clue why we should send ground troops in. I questioned him about it. Does he think that ISIS is an existential threat? No. Does he think fighting ISIS over there is going to make terrorist attacks here less common? No. Does he realize that ISIS has been so successful because of our starting the Iraq War? Yes. So why do we need ground troops? At that point he folded, but this is fast becoming the new Republican orthodoxy.<\/p>\n

But watching the debate, it was hard to escape the conclusion that Republicans think the greatest threat to the United States is Barack Obama. It’s also hard to understand why they all haven’t emigrated from the country. I mean, as Trump put it, “Our country doesn’t win anymore.” The United States does have a lot of problems, but listening to these bozos, you would think we were Zimbabwe. No one respects us; everyone gets over on us; we’re weak. And the only thing that will save us from this sorry state is a Republican president. That is, interestingly, also the one and only<\/em> thing. Just elect one of them and America will be great again because it will be “strong” and “hard.”<\/p>\n

The phrase “Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton” was repeated so often that I began to think it was a single person. And almost all of the attacks were facile. Take Ted Cruz’s opening, “The men and women on this stage, every one of us, is better prepared to keep this nation safe than is Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton.” And why is this? Based upon the discussion, there seem to be two ways that every one of them is better:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. They won’t be politically correct.<\/li>\n
  2. They will use the magic words “radical Islamic terrorism” more often.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    That seems like snark, right? But it isn’t. It all comes down to their contention that there is something ineffable about fighting terrorism. It isn’t about intelligence and bombs and troops and so on. None of that matters if you don’t really<\/em> want to fight the terrorists. And the one thing that Republican voters know<\/em>, it is that Obama loves the terrorists just as much as he hates America. What they want is not any particular policy. They want more belligerent rhetoric. That will make them feel safer. And they are very much willing to give up essential liberty to purchase not temporary safety but the illusion<\/em> of safety. It’s worse than Benjamin Franklin<\/a> said.<\/p>\n

    Image from last debate used under Fair Use.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I guess I should say something about the debate. Despite my best efforts, I did manage to listen to the whole thing. 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