Republican presidential candidates spent a fair bit of time at Tuesday night’s debate arguing about whether it was smart or moral to kill innocent family members of terrorists. Naturally, Donald Trump was in favor of the carnage…. “We have to be much tougher, we have to be much stronger than we’ve been,” said the Republican front-runner. “We have people that know what is going on … I would be very, very firm with families. And frankly, that will make people think, because they may not care much about their lives. But they do care, believe it or not, about their families’ lives.”…. And also in favor, it appeared, was Dr. Ben Carson, who compared civilian casualties to the pain inflicted on brain cancer patients as they undergo surgery to have a tumor removed…. “You have to be able to look at the big picture and understand that it’s actually merciful if you go ahead and finish the job rather than death by a thousand pricks,” he said.
So we’ve finally descended to these depths. Republican Presidential candidates are seriously debating the wisdom and efficacy of killing innocent civilians in order to “win” the war on terror. Never mind that killing innocent civilians is EXACTLY what terrorists thrive on. Or that state-sponsored terrorism is still terrorism. Or that what these moral midgets are debating falls under the heading of “war crimes.” Donald Trump, the putative GOP frontrunner, thinks that amorality is EXACTLY what needs- “we need tough people, we need toughness.”
Right- America makes the rules; we don’t have to follow them.
In a Presidential debate, Republicans hoping to be their party’s representative in the general election seriously advocated for the deliberate targeting and willful killing of innocent civilians…yes, including women and children. Just when I begin to think that the words and policy positions of Republicans couldn’t POSSIBLY become more monstrous…I’m proven wrong. Yet again.
What the amoral demagogues who call the GOP Clown Car home weren’t debating an abstract concept. These wannabe leaders were advocating for the U.S. to break virtually every law of war and abrogat virtually every international treaty we’re party to in order to defeat terrorism. Evidently to their way of thinking, the only way to defeat terrorists is to be willing to sink to an even lower depth than they occupy.
How could that even be considered anything remotely close to victory? If we defeat terrorists by becoming terrorists, what have we won? How can we consider claiming victory if we become the very thing we claim to hate and wish to destroy.
A bit later, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) also took a swing at Trump — not on the grounds that his kill-the-family-members proposal wasn’t serious, but that it was illegal.
“If you are going to kill the families of terrorists, realize there is something called the Geneva Convention that we would have to pull out of,” said Paul. “It would defy every norm.”
In a remarkable moment that will forever be remembered in this campaign and campaigns to come, Trump, one of the most egocentric political personalities of any generation, admitted that Paul was … OK, he didn’t budge a bit.
“So they can kill us but we can’t kill them?” he asked rhetorically.
It’s as if the occupants of the GOP clown car are tripping over each other as they try to out-stupid one another. Their race to the Right bottom has given us a candidate who’s touting his experience as a neurosurgeon as proof of his willingness and ability to kill innocent people. Another may have leaked classified information during the debate. Yet another’s likeability can’t even be increased by a roomful of puppies. I could go on, but it gets even more depressing, so why bother?
The problem is that none of the GOP candidates are addressing any of the actual, honest-to-God problems this country faces- except with meaningless platitudes and transparent talking points. It’s about appealing to people’s fear and prejudice, about “keeping ‘em scared and stupid.” Republicans seem to understand that they can’t win by displaying a mastery of issues and plans for addressing them. They know that a vision for making American better isn’t going to get them through the twisted job interview process for the job of leader of the free world. They know that propaganda, fear-mongering, and appealing to religious zealotry and self-superiority are really the only hope they have. They’ve taken the low road, appealing to the lowest common denominator…because those on the Rabid Right are the ones who can be counted on to actually vote in Republican primaries. The race to the bottom is real all about appealing to the self-righteous xenophobes whom John Cleese once described as “too stupid to know they’re stupid.” That may sound harsh, and perhaps it is, but it’s the truth.
As a nation, we can’t indulge seriously considering and discussing killing innocent men, women, and children. Doing so means we’d risk becoming the very terrorists we wish to defeat. Ultimately, all we’ll accomplish is to create yet more America-hating radicals who wish for nothing more than to destroy because they have nothing to live for.
And yet we still have Republican Presidential candidates openly and shamelessly advocating for committing war crimes. Is that the America we want to live in?
We’re better than that…aren’t we??
