ADVERTISEMENT

Turn the Lights Out, Burn It All Down

Nothing matters.
November 20, 2015

It's been one hell of a week since the terror attacks in Paris. America's politicians and thought leaders have covered themselves in glory, and covered everyone else in the sticky hotness of their takes. We deserve Donald Trump, and there is a not unrealistic scenario in which he will actually become president. But he probably won't. Hillary remains the most likely winner in 2016, in which case we'll get eight more years of uninspired gridlock and, if we're lucky, a handful of donor-friendly bipartisan deals and/or bungled wars. We'd deserve that, too, just like we deserved a Thursday night football game between the 2-7 Tennessee Titans and the 3-6 Jacksonville Jaguars. (Final score: 19-13.)

This past week we had ourselves a hot debate about accepting Syrian refugees into the country. Japanese internment was invoked—favorably—by a Democratic mayor. State lawmakers in Missouri are calling for a special session to address the "potential Islamization" of their state. Some want to impose "religious tests" on the refugees we let into the country. Mike Huckabee reminded us that he's still running for president, urging Americans to "wake up and smell the falafel." Ben Carson used a rabid dog analogy in a discussion about refugees. Donald Trump abides.

The media did its best to drive the debate by using one of its favorite tactics for generating inflammatory headlines: 1) propose an absurd solution to a problem, and ask a politician if he'd consider it, 2) if politician gives politiciany non-answer, immediately publish headline declaring "Politician Open to Absurd Solution," because they decline to "rule it out."

Consider this Yahoo News interview with Trump, touting the candidate's "big plans" for addressing Islamic radicalism. Most of the "plans" were suggested by the reporter conducting the interview. For example, Trump was asked if he might consider "registering Muslims in a database" or giving them a form of special identification that noted their religion. Trump, per the report, "wouldn't rule it out," because he answered with a generic dodge: "We're going to have to look at a lot of things very closely." The Yahoo story led to this headline in The Hill: "Trump open to special ID for American Muslims."

But blaming the media only gets you so far. Trump, determined to bring his big beautiful gasoline hose to bear on the Republican Party's dumpster fire of a primary, made sure to "absolutely" endorse the idea of a Muslim database in a subsequent interview. Trump was asked to explain the difference between a program to register and track Muslims and the Nazi registration of Jews. "You tell me," he responded. Trump has come a long way from his initial reaction to the Syrian refugee crisis, telling Sean Hannity in September that "we have to" let them into the United States because "they're living in hell." So maybe Trump is a raging fascist (he certainly loves the idea of banning reporters and fining people who disagree with him), or maybe he's simply a clueless panderer who has no business running for president.

President Obama, meanwhile, continues to behave like a candidate for president, as opposed to the real thing. It is apparently too much to ask for the president to lead a sober debate on Syrian refugee issue, which would involve two things: 1) making the case that, generally speaking, the United States should be a country that shows compassion to and welcomes refugees whose lives have been destroyed by a murderous dictator (Assad) and a gang of genocidal rapists (ISIS), and 2) not dismissing as racist and un-American the understandable concerns most people have about admitting Syrian refugees in light of the Paris attacks and the expressed determination of terror groups to attack the U.S., and working to reassure skeptics and establish trust in our system for vetting those refugees.

Obama has devoted all his energy to the first part, and to attacking Republicans (from abroad). "At first, they were too scared of the press being too tough on them in the debates," he said in the Philippines, where he was attending a trade and climate summit. "Now they are scared of 3-year-old orphans. That doesn't seem so tough to me." Polls show that less than a third of Americans support his plan to proceed with the resettlement of 10,000 Syrian refugees, and even Democratic members of Congress have been underwhelmed by the administration's efforts to reassure skeptics. Nearly 50 House Democrats voted with Republicans on Wednesday to pass legislation that would impose stricter background checks on Syrian and Iraqi refugees.

EVEN THE LIBERAL MOTHER JONES understands that mocking and hurling accusations of xenophobia at those who aren't completely sold on the idea of admitting thousands of Syrian refugees into the country, a position that for most Americans (not just the crazy teabaggers) "seems perfectly reasonable," comes across as "absurdly out of touch." Yet this is exactly what our commander-in-chief and his friends in the media have been doing all week. Look, media's gonna media. He's the effing president.

Is it any surprise that Americans might doubt Obama's commitment in the fight against Islamic extremism and rapidly deteriorating situation in the Middle East? In addition to his dissembling over his failure to enforce his "red line" against the use of chemical weapons in Syria—it was the world's red line, not mine; it only counts if the chemical weapons have been "historically" established as such—the most passionate aspect of his response to the Paris tragedy, which he referred to as a horrible "setback," was his condemnation of Republican critics. Meanwhile, his secretary of State has attempted to explain how last week's mass slaughter was fundamentally different from the Charlie Hebdo attacks in January—at least those had a "rationale" in that the killers were upset over some cartoons.

One of the few positive developments over the past few days is that Republican voters seem to be giving up on Ben Carson, who doesn't seem to have a clue what he's talking about at any given moment, especially when it comes to foreign policy. Never mind, though, because Donald Trump, who claims to "know more about ISIS than the generals do," continues to lead, and could realistically win the nomination (assuming he actually wants to be president). But don't worry, Republicans are getting ready to bury Trump by unleashing the guy who made this ad. Meanwhile, liberals are pining wistfully for the return of George W. Bush. Can you blame them?

On top of it all, this morning I saw a group of high school tourists take a group selfie at the Lincoln Memorial on the escalator at the Rosslyn metro station. 

Turn off the lights. Burn it all down.