Cowards and the cowardly cowards who lead them
by Tom Sullivan
A lot of pant-wetting in the Home of the Brave yesterday as fear of #SyrianRefugees swept the intertubes.
It didn't matter that all the attackers identified as of yesterday were French or Belgian nationals. It didn't matter that the Syrian passport found near the body of one of the Paris suicide bombers was a fake. Serbian police arrested a man Saturday with the same passport information except for the photo:
... according to the Serbian daily Blic, the existence of the second passport with the same data means “it is likely that the two men separately purchased false Syrian passports at the same forger in Turkey”.
Whatevs. Half the governors in the country yesterday (all Republicans but one) showed the rest of the world what Americans are made of:
25 out of 50 American states have now refused to take in #SyrianRefugees https://t.co/HfvBTLgJRU pic.twitter.com/h9lhfYqRcl
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) November 17, 2015Their refusals carry all the weight of a Facebook "legal notice," someone observed on Twitter.
Christians only
The right fringe lined up yesterday to break faith with American values.
The day after the Paris shootings, Cruz told Fox News that Obama and Hillary Clinton’s plan to “bring tens of thousands of Syrian Muslim refugees to America — it is nothing less than lunacy.”Cruz went on to say that Syrian Christians should be provided “safe haven” in the US, as they are being targeted for genocide and persecution. Cruz suggested that Muslim refugees — like the millions of Shiites and Alawites targeted by ISIS persecution — be brought to "Muslim-majority countries."
Obama facing enormous opposition in accepting refugees. Maybe make special exception for proven Christians.
— Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch) November 16, 2015Fox News strategic analyst Ralph Peters:
STUART VARNEY: The topic this morning on many people's minds is whether or not we should allow 10,000 Syrian refugees into this country before the end of the year, and another 100,000 next year. We can't -- we don't know who they are. Should we let them in?
RALPH PETERS: Yeah, but that's, again, we need a little more granularity. There are real refugees among the people fleeing Syria and they're Christians. You want to avoid importing Islamists terrorists into our country? Don't let Muslims in, let the Saudis take them. I see a good argument for giving refuge to the Christians fleeing the Middle East, because we have stood by and done nothing while 2,000 years of Christian civilization has been systematically and gruesomely destroyed. [Fox Business Network, Varney & Co., 11/16/15]
Governors slam the door
LA Gov. Bobby Jindal:
I just signed an Executive Order instructing state agencies to take all available steps to stop the relocation of Syrian refugees to LA.
— Gov. Bobby Jindal (@BobbyJindal) November 16, 2015Not even orphaned toddlers, says NJ Gov. Chris Christie:
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie doesn’t want any Syrian refugees let into the United States — not even if they're orphaned toddlers.
“I don’t think orphans under 5 are being, you know, should be admitted into the United States at this point. But you know, they have no family here. How are we going to care for these folks?” Christie said in an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt Monday.
God knows what might be hiding in their diapers.
State Representative Tony Dale of Texas missed the absurdity completely, not that it should surprise you:
A GOP state rep in Texas says we can't have Syrian refugees in Texas because it'd be too easy for them to get guns.
And scene.
— Jason Stanford (@JasStanford) November 17, 2015President Obama took the high road in a statement called the reactionaries' behavior "shameful":
"And when I hear folks say that, well, maybe we should just admit the Christians but not the Muslims, when I hear political leaders suggesting that there would be a religious test for which person who's fleeing from a war-torn country is admitted, when some of those folks themselves come from families who benefited from protection when they were fleeing political persecution, that's shameful," he said, his voice rising. "That's not American. That’s not who we are. We don’t have religious tests to our compassion."
But for blustering cowards whose faith in this country has always been a mile wide and an inch deep, it's their go-to response.
Syrian refugees are fleeing the same terror and tragedy that struck Paris. Refusing to help is beneath our values. https://t.co/OVfSGckluq
— Mark Takano (@RepMarkTakano) November 16, 2015Doctor Zoom at Wonkette crystallized the absurdity:
Of course U.S. America should take in refugees. It’s our fucking job. The alternative is to leave them stuck in hell, where they will either die or become radicalized against the United States. Or else we might as well replace the plaque on that nice welcoming statue in New York Harbor with one that reads, “Sucks to be you.” The lesson of World War II was supposed to be “Never Again,” not “leave ’em to die because they’re scary foreigners with the wrong religion.”
If only they weren't so very wrong, so very often, perhaps we could take the fear-mongering politicians seriously. pic.twitter.com/UOFHd90Qxm
— John Nichols (@NicholsUprising) November 17, 2015Recalling 1939
Senator Taft (R-OH) explains to a Jewish war veteran why 20,000 Jewish children can't come to the USA, May 1939 pic.twitter.com/yMqHdRwlR0
— Thomas Leveritt (@thomasleveritt) November 16, 2015
Jewish refugee ship turned back by USA. 254 passengers died in the Holocaust. ht @mlvwrites https://t.co/gyTt5LsasX pic.twitter.com/Gh6kP2gCTC
— Saladin Ahmed (@saladinahmed) November 17, 2015
A cartoon from the New York Daily Mirror at the time (June 6, 1939). https://t.co/R5RP0SaA6U pic.twitter.com/uAhldFqrwj
— Will Jordan (@williamjordann) November 17, 2015Finally
Pat Begley, editorial cartoonist for The Salt Lake Tribune:
Republican America is mean, narrow, ill-informed, bigoted, angry, self-destructive ... and incredibly well-armed. pic.twitter.com/xXEIjI1fKR
— Pat Bagley (@Patbagley) November 17, 2015One thing you can say about America: we are consistent. Osama bin Laden was betting on it.