Letter 2 America for November 30, 2015

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Dear America,

As the Republican campaign to reoccupy the White House wears on, the Republicans in it become more and more shameless.  The pandering and demagoguery become more overt and offensive with each passing day.  Rubio is campaigning against President Obama by offering the same strategy as the one we are already pursuing in Syria against ISIL, but he says he will send in more special forces...not how many more, but more...and claims that that is a distinction, though it is not a difference.  Cruz, on the other hand, is either nakedly opportunistic or nakedly bigoted, in either case an odious and foolhardy...Republican.  In the guise of a conservative, he now wants to infringe on religious freedom by denying entry into this country to Muslims.  Then there's the self-proclaimed "kinder, gentler" conservative, Jeb Bush.  I suppose we shouldn't expect more from a man who, in his middle age, has gone by and still goes by an anagram of his first, middle and last names to the extent that no one even remembers that that is what he is doing...except Barbara, W and HW of course.  Bush wants us to concentrate on the Christians among the Syrian refugees in hopes that no one will notice that he too wants to censor the religious freedoms that we are all supposed to be able to take for granted.  Of course the bloviator in chief, Donald Trump, has trumped them all with claims of thousands of New Jersey Muslims on roof tops cheering the collapse of the World Trade Center in 2001: a fiction crafted by him from whole cloth, but believed by the masses of Republicans who adore him. 

But demagoguery and misdirection aside, while the Republican base seems to be eating this red herring with simpletons' glee, it never will be anything but a misdirection, like Jeb Bush claiming that his brother, president in September 2001, kept us safe.  Whether he did or not, whether ISIL perpetrators are always Muslims or not, whether the world is round or not, restricting the flow of Syrians into the country, Muslim or not, won't solve any problems.  Consider that the among the Muslims who perpetrated the Paris shootings were one Belgian and five Frenchmen, two of whom were residing in Belgium.  Add to that the fact that fully 10% of Frenchmen are Muslim and if excluding anyone from immigration could help, it would make more sense to exclude French Muslims than the Muslim Syrian refugees.  But after all, reason has nothing to do with all this.  Take, for example, the clamor over our screening process, which is the most rational suggestion the conservative, Republican far right seems to be offering.  In the New York Times last week there was a table of the course of an application from a Syrian refugee, which incidentally takes two years to process.  It entails investigations and interviews by the U.N., the State Department, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service and the Department of Homeland Security...at least.  And the FBI, the Defense Department's terrorism detection department and something called the National Counterterrorism Center are involved in some classified way as well according to the Seattle Times' November 18th account of the process.   But now the Republicans, albeit with the support of 40 Democratic Congressmen, have passed H.R. 4038, which is supposed to be a measure to strengthen our vetting process for Syrian and Iraqi nationals and residents.  It supposedly does so by requiring that the heads of three agencies sign off on the approval of each application for immigration to the U.S., and that the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security reaffirm those certifications every year.  That's the Republican balm to salve our fears about domestic terrorism: get three more signatures, one from the head of each department already investigating every application for admission to this country, and have an inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security recertify those applications a year after they have been granted.  And about this would-be dramatic improvement in our security screening process, conservatives who claim to oppose excess government intervention in our lives are congratulating themselves.  Meanwhile, our president has vowed to veto it even though it changes absolutely nothing of significance.  I guess he's going to borrow the Republican foot shooting pistol for awhile after they use it.

It is sound and fury signifying nothing, as Shakespeare might have said; a tempest in a teacup.  But the Republicans continue to try to beat the Democrats up with this issue, all the while refusing to look the American people...us...in the eye.  The reality is that someone who wants to blow up a building or shoot people can get into this country by eluding detection no matter how intense our scrutiny of Syrian refugees is.  There are visas of all kinds issued every day for people to come here to work, go to school or just visit, and there are lunatics in America just like there are in Syria, Belgium and France.  We do have to be vigilant, but being unrealistic partisan about it serves no purpose...unless you are a Republican running for president.

Your friend,

Mike

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This page contains a single entry by Michael Wolf published on November 30, 2015 10:30 AM.

Letter 2 America for November 19, 2015 was the previous entry in this blog.

Letter 2 America for December 3, 2015 is the next entry in this blog.

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About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by Michael Wolf published on November 30, 2015 10:30 AM.

Letter 2 America for November 19, 2015 was the previous entry in this blog.

Letter 2 America for December 3, 2015 is the next entry in this blog.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.

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