Clowns To The Left Of Me, Jokers To The Right

What the hell is wrong with the Republican party?  The Republicans are supposed to be the life affirming party, the party who opposes the killing of the unborn, the defenders of the weak and powerless, the party of morality.  The Democrats are supposed to be the party of narcissists, caring about no one but themselves and their own pleasure. 

And yet the leading Republican contender for President is a fascist who denounces and demonizes entire groups of people.  The Republicans – not the Democrats - are the ones who oppose helping the war refugees from Syria and other Muslim countries.  The Republicans cower in fear, afraid that some bad guy might slip in with the suffering mass of humanity pouring out of these countries.

It doesn’t matter that babies, small children and women are a large portion of the millions of people who have fled torture and murder in Syria. It doesn’t matter that many of the 220,000 dead in Syria are innocent civilians. It doesn't matter that the enemy creating the nightmare in Syria - ISIS - came into being as a result of our invasion into Iraq. It doesn't matter that there is not one documented case of a terrorist being among the refugees. There might be a couple of bad guys among them, so they just have to deal with the mess we helped to create without any assistance from us. We can't put ourselves at risk!

Syrian Refugees
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Republicans can't be bothered with statistics like the following form World Vision:

Syria crisis: Fast facts

• 13.5 million people in Syria need humanitarian assistance.
• 4.3 million Syrians are refugees, and 6.6 million are displaced within Syria; half are children.
• Most Syrian refugees remain in the Middle East, in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, and Egypt; slightly more than 10 percent of the refugees have traveled to Europe.
• Children affected by the Syrian conflict are at risk of becoming ill, malnourished, abused, or exploited. Millions have been forced to quit school.

This chart from the Belfer Center at Harvard University has no effect on the Republicans cowering in the corner:

I heard someone say recently that conservatives are driven by fear, and that is why they tend to love tradition, because it gives them something tangible to hang on to. How sad and utterly true that is. It is fear that drives Republicans and conservatives of all types, including Catholic traditionalists. Look at the traditional blogs. They are all about someone or something or a group of people who are out to destroy everything they hold near and dear. Everyone who doesn't believe as they do is the enemy. They insist on Group Think, and if you refuse to walk in lockstep with them, you will be castigated and rejected.

I saw this fear boldly demonstrated in a recent article from "RenewAmerica". The article, entitled, "A no-go-zone for Muslims in America?", was written by Cliff Kincaid, an ultra-right conservative, as is everyone else connected with RenewAmerica. The article actually defends Donald Trump's proposed ban on Muslims into the country.

Kincaid starts out by criticizing the "liberal media", and specifically in this case, CNN:

Covering a topic with no end in sight, as they usually do, CNN has been highlighting negative comments about Donald Trump's proposed ban on Muslims coming to America until the nature of the Muslim terrorist threat can be analyzed and addressed. The terms include "unhinged," "offensive," "unconstitutional," and "reprehensible.

And there is something positive about banning an entire religion from the United States, a country founded on religious freedom? Apparently Cliff Kincaid thinks so, as he writes:

The term "unhinged" more appropriately applies to Trump's critics.

Kincaid goes on to write:

The American people are scared, but not of Trump. They are scared of terrorists. Trump seems to be the only political figure with anything approaching a solid proposal to keep potential killers out of the United States.

I don't know how a follower of Jesus Christ could ever agree with Donald Trump.  There are millions of suffering human beings in Syria in desperate need of help, and all we can think about is keeping "potential killers" out of the United States.  The fact that no known terrorists have ever been found among the refugees means nothing to Kincaid.  What does he bring up to justify his statement?

America has just witnessed two Muslim killers in San Bernardino carrying out a massacre, and all that the media can do is unite in anger against a candidate who proposes a ban on Muslim immigration until the two major political parties running Washington, D.C., can figure out what to do.

On of those "Muslim killers" was American born, and the other, his wife, was here on a valid VISA.  How do we ban someone who is born in this country, and then ban his wife?  Thank God for the media "uniting in anger" against this blatant discrimination and hate.

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Kincaid actually feels that the Trump proposal - to ban an entire religion - is "cautious"!!

If anything, Trump's proposal is cautious. He is giving Democrats and Republicans a chance to solve the problem before more massacres take place. This is supposed to be alarming?

You better believe it's alarming!  If the powers that be decide one religion is dangerous, what is to keep them from deciding that another religion or another group is dangerous?  Maybe they will decide that anyone who does not agree with same sex marriage or abortion is a danger to the country.  After all, a "pro life" person just killed three people in Colorado.  Who knows how far this can be taken.  Hitler started with the Jews, and he ended up putting priests, nuns, homosexuals, handicapped - and anyone else he didn't like - into the camps.  Hate is insatiable.

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Kincaid then went after his fellow conservatives for not aligning themselves with the hatred spewed by Trump:

Demonstrating the staying power of the liberal media and their ability to cause a panic – in this case generating fear of Trump – the new House Speaker, Paul Ryan (R-WI), was quick to declare at a news conference that while he normally stays out of the GOP's presidential nominating process, he just had to say he was disgusted with Trump's proposal.

 . . .

President George W. Bush treated Islam as a "religion of peace." There may have been a diplomatic rationale for such a statement coming shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, when the U.S. wanted leads from the Muslim community about terrorists in their midst, but more than 14 years later, with the Middle East in flames and American blood being spilled in the cities of Paris and San Bernardino, such terminology cannot be justified. It is a denial of reality.

Kincaid is clearly pushing the idea that all Muslims are wicked and evil, with the main purpose in life to "kill the infidels."  He furthers this sentiment with the following:

The media saw for themselves the Koran in the killers' apartment. What was that for? Since we know the killers were devout Muslims, it is logical to conclude that they read the Muslim Holy Book and understood its message. This is the conclusion our media are desperately eager to ignore. They don't want to face facts.

Ordinary Americans can read the Koran for themselves, and many have. They understand that, in contrast to the "love your enemies" message of Jesus Christ, Muhammad spread violence and terror, just as some Muslims are doing today. America is their main target.

I think Kincaid slipped here a bit.  He said "some Muslims" are spreading violence and terror.  Yet, his solution is to ban all of them, because you just can't be sure.  It doesn't matter that Muslims are being tortured and murdered.  It doesn't matter that much of the violence we see in the Mideast today is the result of our invasion into Iraq.  Muslims are bad guys, and they must be banned!

How does he explain the fact that there are actually conservatives who do not agree with him?

This, then, helps explain the pathetic Republican response to Trump. They don't want to admit he has a point because to do so means that George W. Bush had it wrong. To put it charitably, Bush, a Christian, was duped. Obama, by contrast, seems to be a true believer in the power of Islam. After all, he told the U.N. that the future didn't belong to those who "slander the prophet."

This Kincaid guy really has it figured out.  If you can't see how evil Muslims are, you have either been "duped" like George Bush was, or you are just as evil as the Muslims, as Obama is.

Kincaid then presents a completely false argument, blaming the San Bernardino attacks on President Obama:

Obama's approach, which opened the door to last week's attack that resulted in 14 dead and 21 wounded, is mildly criticized by the media as being "out-of-touch" with the terrorism problem. Trump, on the other hand, is called every name in the book, including "fascist," and is being compared to Hitler, simply because he proposes banning those with a presumed commitment to jihad. How do you identify these Muslims? Our security people can't identify all of them. But surely the picture of the killers entering the U.S. in 2014, along with evidence of their foreign travel and connections, is enough to raise questions.

Just what is it about this picture
that tells us these people are terrorists?

Trust me, I am no fan of President Obama. I disagree with him on almost every issue. But there is no way he can be blamed for the San Bernardino attacks. As stated, Syed Rizwan Farook was an American born citizen, and his wife was here on a valid VISA. There is nothing in "Obama's approach" that had anything to do with these killings.

Look at the words Kincaid uses: "Trump, on the other hand, is called every name in the book, including "fascist," and is being compared to Hitler, simply because he proposes banning those with a presumed commitment to jihad." No, this is not what Trump is proposing. Trump is telling us that every Muslim is presumed guilty of being a jihadist until proven innocent, and since we can't prove them all innocent, we must ban them all from this country. And that is most definitely fascism in action.

They're all Jihadists
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I have now completely washed my hands of the Republican party and conservatives in general.  At the same time, I cannot be a part of the Democrats or liberals because of their support for a basically anti-God, anti-life platform.  

"Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right."  

Never have I felt more like an exile in this world.  The only place I feel at home is with the Blessed Sacrament. 

I guess that's not so bad.