There is evil afoot and we are teetering on the edge of something horribly dark in this country.
No one will deny this nation, western civilization, and the rest of the world, who seeks nothing more than peace, is under siege by a horde of barbarians who barely deserve the title, human beings. They are savage beyond all comprehension and claim to adhere to a ghastly version of a religion most Americans not only don't know, but a huge number of us absolutely refuse to even try to understand. That the overwhelming majority of the people who belong to that religion, Islam, are equally appalled by these beasts escapes us. As does the obvious truth that most of the victims of ISIS are themselves Muslim.
Into this conflict comes marching two, or three candidates for the republican presidential nomination who are overtly pandering to the worst in us. There isn't a single shred of statesmanship, or common decency to be found in their words when they harangue the crowds who wildly applaud them, or during press interviews which they so eagerly seek out.
On Thursday, Donald Trump was asked by a NBC reporter if he would support a national data base which would help track of Muslims in this country. Without even pausing to think he quickly promised, that if elected, he would implement a registry of all Muslims. In other words, despite what that pesky constitution says about freedom of religion, he would single out the members of a particular belief system so that the feds could keep an eye on them.
According to NBC the responses to his statement were swift and varied among his GOP rivals.
Ben Carson said that singling out a particular race, or religion for surveillance would set a dangerous precedent. Sounds reasonable, right ? Sort of. Prior to Trump's comment, Dr. Carson had used a metaphor involving rabid dogs when speaking about Syrian refugees. Then, proving he has a rather peculiar understanding of the endless republican mantra which condemns an over reaching federal government, he told the media he was in favor of keeping a data base on every single person in the entire country. That idea should garner him wide spread support among tea party and NRA types.
Ted Cruz maintained that while he liked Donald Trump he, "...wasn't a fan of government registries of American citizens." Ah, the nuances of lawyers. Notice the Senator didn't say he was against a registry which would keep an eye on people who aren't American citizens.
John Kasich, while saying Trump's proposed policy would, "divide people," seemed to not care about the morality, or unconstitutional nature of it, but rather the election night results it could cause. He warned it could cost the republican party his home state of Ohio.
George Pataki said such a measure was, "...as revolting as it is un-American, but no republican is going to vote for him anyway, so it really doesn't matter what he thinks.
At this moment, Jeb Bush is the only major republican candidate who portrayed the idea as, "...abhorrent. It haunts back to a time that no one wants to go back to."
Indeed, it does. In fact the last time the world has seen anything like it in a western nation was after Herr Hitler and his pals grabbed the reins in Germany. The Nazis made Jews sew yellow stars of David on their clothes while members of the gay community had to wear pink triangles. That way everyone would know who and where they were Make no mistake about it, yesterday, Donald Trump endorsed nothing less than a twenty-first century version of that grotesque policy.
Meanwhile the republican controlled house wants a, "pause," on accepting Syrian refugees and then demanded that the justice department sign off on each and every one of them coming into the country after a thorough investigation. Basically, Paul Ryan and his crowd wants to make it so difficult for Muslim refugees to get here that they'll give up trying.
In 1939 the German ocean liner, M.S. St. Louis set sail from Germany carrying a little over 900 Jews who were trying to escape from Hitler and the other monsters wearing red, black, and white arm bands. They had bought visas for Cuba, but the Cubans changed their laws and wouldn't take them in.
The St. Louis then attempted to reach port in Florida, but rumors swirled in the United States that the passengers were, not only Jews, but communists and anarchists. We turned them away. So did those always friendly Canadians.
The ship returned to Europe and those on board were accepted in varying numbers by the U.K. Belgium, France, and the Netherlands. For those of you who failed 20th century history, Belgium, France, and the Netherlands quickly fell to the German onslaught. It is estimated 25% of the passengers, who the United States of America refused asylum to, were killed in Nazi death camps.
President Obama wants to allow 10,000 Syrian refugees into the country over a year. If we kick them all back to the middle east what will the book be on the over/under of how many of them will be killed either by Assad, or ISIS?
So much for the ideal engraved on the Statue of Liberty.
And if we stoop to what Trump wants, so much for the ideal known as America.
sic vita est
11-20-15
I wonder how The Donald's supporters will feel when the day comes and they become the focus of his attention?
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