Cancer in plain sight
by digby
This has got Fox News all wound up:
CNN’s Fareed Zakaria offered some commentary on his show Sunday about the rise of Donald Trump in the GOP and its similarities to the rise of Islamic extremism.
Zakaria said, “A main cause of the rise of extremism in the world of Islam has been the cowardice of Muslim moderates who, for decades, chose not to condemn bad ideas and ugly rhetoric.”
He believes they made the dire mistake of avoiding the “cancer in plain sight” and there is “a similar dynamic” at play in the conservative world.
Zakaria argued that the very same people trashing Trump these days aided and abetted his rise by, over the years, embracing “the rhetoric and tactic of the extremes.”
He said that their refusal to acknowledge there was anything wrong with the GOP feeding “the forces of anti-intellectualism, obstructionism, and population” led to a candidate who has “unashamedly” embraced all of it.
I didn't think you were allowed to say this sort of thing in America. Comparing the Republicans to the Taliban was once considered completely beyond the pale. And here's Zakaria comparing them to ISIS! The right doesn't like it one bit but they aren't in any position to complain now are they? Trump has been endorsing torture and coming very close to saying he'd get into the beheading business if he could. He says Americans need to be savages to fight savages. It's pretty hard to argue that this comparison is out of bounds.
It looks like Trump's campaign has had the effect of blowing up all kinds of shibboleths.
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