Wednesday Open Thread [11.18.15]

VIRGINIA—Univ. of Mary Washington: Clinton 63, Sanders 27, O’Malley 5

NATIONAL—UMass: Trump 31, Carson 22, Cruz 13, Rubio 9, Fiorina 4, Kasich 4, Paul 4, Bush 3
NEW HAMPSHIRE—WBUR/MassINC: Trump 23, Rubio 13, Carson 13, Cruz 8, Kasich 7, Bush 7, Christie 6, Paul 5, Fiorina 4, Graham 2, Huckabee 1, Santorum 1, Pataki 1
VIRGINIA—Univ. of Mary Washington: Carson 29, Trump 24, Rubio 11, Cruz 10, Bush 5, Fiorina 5, Paul 4, Huckabee 4, Christie 4, Kasich 1

Since Friday’s horrific attacks in Paris, Republicans have overjoyed ISIS and terrorists worldwide through their sheer panic in declaring that the United States shouldn’t take in Syrian refugees because … uh … well, because even if they didn’t have anything to do with the attacks, they are Muslims, so why not equate all of them with the terrorists who murdered at least 129 people last week? After all, their base loves it. Thank God, however, our country and Frances are governed by adults rather than bedwetting children. According to ABC News, French President François Hollande has said that his nation will not bow down to the terrorists and will still be taking in 30,000 refugees in next 2 years, saying that France has a duty to honor that commitment and that “life must go on.”

Yeah. I'd say I'm sick of the party of strong national security crapping the bed everytime something bad occurs in this wicked world.

— Thomas Levenson (@TomLevenson) November 17, 2015

John Kasich is apparently the “reasonable” and “moderate” Republican candidate, and he just came up with an idea so theocratic and fascist it should have been Mike Huckabee’s. He wants to create a propaganda organization with a “mandate” to promote “Judeo-Christian” values. John Kasich has obviously never heard of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

The normally conservative S.E. Cupp:

As David Bier, Director of Immigration Policy at the Niskanen Center, points out, a sponsor-based-program initiated by President Reagan saw the successful settlement of at least 16,000 refugees in the US between 1987 and 1993, mainly Cubans and Soviet Jews and Pentecostal Christians.

But some in the U.S. have suggested absurd solutions like penning Syrian refugees into camps, or only accepting those who can somehow prove they are Christian, as NewsCorp’s Rupert Murdoch wants to do.

Is this really our answer? To show these refugees what freedom and democracy have to offer by imprisoning them and giving them religious tests?

This is not who we are. It’s been deeply disappointing to see many of my Republican friends turn on our American values and cow to the baser politics of fear, rather than make the case for humanity and leadership on the world stage.

This isn’t just about feel-good back-patting so we can say we did the right thing. There’s real purpose in taking in Syrian refugees, if we can summon the will and the courage, and remember what it means to be American.

Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA), a member of the House Select Committee On Benghazi, said Hillary Clinton laid “a trap” for the committee during Oct. 22 appearance before them.

Said Westmoreland: “As you know, some of you may have watched the marathon Hillary Clinton fiasco, and I say that because Trey Gowdy, the chairman of the committee, wanted to interview her in private, and she said, ‘No, I want to do this in public.’ Now to me, that was us stepping in a trap because we should have known that she was going to go on and just stall, debate, filibuster, on these answers to make it go as long as possible, so we would look cruel.”

So she laid a trap for them by answering their questions for as long as they wanted. How devious of her. In a way, Westmoreland is right. Republicans always overpay their hand, or alternatively lose their shit, when they are confronted with Hillary Clinton, or Bill Clinton, or Barack Obama.

Texas state Rep. Tony Dale (R) said we cannot allow Syrian refugees into the country because it’s too easy for them to buy guns, Fox 7 Austin reports.

Wrote Dale to Gov. Greg Abbott (R): “While the Paris attackers used suicide vests and grenades, it is clear that firearms also killed a large number of innocent victims. Can you imagine a scenario were [sic] a refugee [sic] is admitted to the United States, is provided with federal cash payments and other assistance, obtains a drivers license and purchases a weapon and executes an attack?”

Perhaps now this bedwetting coward will warm to some gun control measures?

I have seen some liberals say that they are worried about the refugee situation and the Paris Attacks and about how the media is creating a narrative where, naturally, liberals will lose and the nation will march to war again. And because of that, they say, we should preemptively capitulate and give into the narrative. Kevin Drum is an example. I have a couple more in my Facebook feed.

That is what I did in 2002. I was one of those bedwetting liberals who went along to get along in 2002. I will not do it again. I, and we, have learned our lesson. Booman tells us what we must do:

I know damn well that the Republicans have the winning political argument when they say that they’ll protect the country at all costs, even down to denying three year-old orphans a sanctuary, [and] that they’re going to do even better if they can keep that pulse [of America] raised to just short of panic-level.

So, what’s the counter to that? Do we agree with them? Do we also try to make people more afraid?

The problem is that we disagree substantively, not politically. And if we’re compelled to take the losing political argument because it’s the right thing to do, then we should at least point out that our opponents are bedwetters who become incontinent every time they think of a Muslim terrorist- even when that Muslim terrorist is shackled in Guantanamo and being fed orange-glazed chicken, rice pilaf and two kinds of fruit.

Frankly, it’s not mockery that I am going for, but shame. I want to shame grown men into being embarrassed to admit that they pee themselves in fear. If nothing else, it keeps me sane when I’m surrounded by the worst kind of charlatans and demagogues.

Exactly right. I will not stop mocking them. I will not stop shaming them. I will call them cowards. Bedwetters. Even traitors. And if we lose the political battle, so be it. But at least this time I keep my integrity. And I am not entirely sure we will lose that political battle. A new poll out of New Hampshire shows only 38% of GOP voters support sending new troops to Syria or the Middle East. Maybe, finally, people have discovered their memories.

Nate Silver shows his the five factions of the GOP Primary. Bizzarrely, the candidates within more than one faction (or circle) have been the first to drop out. Walker. Perry. Now Jindal. Then again, Carson and Cruz, but Kasich and Bush aren’t.