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The
Perils
of a
Poisonous
Politics
Op-Ed by
Rev.
Jesse L.
Jackson,
Sr.
By
doubling
down on
his vile
slur on
President
Obama’s
love for
his
country,
ex New
York
Mayor
Rudi
Giuliani
created
the
media
frenzy
that he
craved.
He also
set up
an easy
test of
decency
for
Republican
presidential
contenders:
who has
the
sense to
disavow
Giuliani’s
poison?
Jeb
Bush,
Rand
Paul and
Marco
Rubio
passed
the
admittedly
low bar;
Governors
Scott
Walker
and
Bobby
Jindal
failed
ignominiously:
Governor
Rick
Perry
pretzeled
his way
through
it.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/republican-presidential-hopefuls-rudy-giulianis-obama-comments/
If
Republicans
wonder
why 95%
of
African
Americans
and 70%
of
Latinos
will
likely
end up
voting
for
Democrats
in 2016,
they
should
look in
the
mirror.
Virtually
every
African
American
will see
this
attack
on
President
Obama as
racist,
something
that
would
not be
occur
were
Obama
white.
Silence
in the
face of
the
attack
will be
seen as
proof
that the
Republican
race-based
politics
of
division
remains
in
force.
In his
decision
to
weaken
the
Voting
Rights
Act
Shelby
v.
Holder,
Justice
Roberts
wrote
that
“this
country
has
changed.”
Giuliani’s
insult
ratifies
the
wisdom
of
Justice
Ruth
Bader
Ginsberg’s
ringing
dissent,
that
while
progress
has been
made,
the
Congress
surely
was
right in
deciding
we still
have far
to go.
Giuliani’s
rant
echoes
the new
hysteria
that
Republicans
are
trying
to
stoke:
that
Obama is
“withdrawing”
from the
world,
and
thereby
weakening
America.
A parade
of
horrors
– Russia
in
Ukraine,
ISIS in
Syria
and
Iraq,
negotiations
over
nukes
with
Iran,
terrorist
violence
in Paris
– is
summoned
up and
blamed
on the
president.
Recently,
Obama
made the
simple
and
common
sense
observation
that we
are not
at war
with
Islam,
but with
terrorist
extremists
who want
to
hijack
the
religion
for
their
own
ends.
His
statement
was
similar
to that
repeated
frequently
by
George
W. Bush
when he
was
president.
Any
future
president
from
either
party
will
make
similar
statements
– both
to
reflect
reality
and to
keep the
fear-mongers
from
fanning
hatred
here at
home.
Yet the
president’s
comments
sparked
hysterical
comments
from
across
the
right-wing
noise
machine
as if
common
sense
were
somehow
heresy.
This
clamor
is
feeding
a
mindless
war
fever.
Do we
want to
have an
armed
confrontation
with
Russia
over
Ukraine?
Not
really,
the
macho
hawks
basically
want to
fight to
the last
Ukrainian.
Do we
want to
put
troops
back
into
Iraq?
Not
really,
although
as
President
Obama
has
escalated
the US
response
to ISIS,
the
armchair
hawks
have
moved to
more
muscular
positions,
now even
mumbling
about
“boots
on the
ground.”
We are
fighting
wars in
Afghanistan,
providing
troops
and arms
and
bombs
against
ISIS,
running
drone
attacks
in
nearly a
dozen
countries,
dispatching
special
forces
to 120
countries.
And
somehow
this is
scorned
as
withdrawal
from the
world.
Missing
in the
hysteria
and the
vile
attacks
on
patriotism
is a
sensible
policy
debate –
and a
sensible
reckoning
of how
we got
to where
we are.
The
reality
is that
excessive
belief
in
military
force
has done
more
than
anything
to cause
this
mess.
The
catastrophic
invasion
of Iraq
is the
worst
foreign
policy
debacle
since
Vietnam.
The
decision
not
simply
to go
after
Bin
Laden
and al
Qaeda,
but to
wage a
counterinsurgency
war in
Afghanistan
and
“rebuild”
that
nation
has led
to the
longest
war in
our
history
that
shows no
sign of
ending.
The
“humanitarian
intervention”
in Libya
has left
chaos
and
violence
in its
wake.
The US
invasion
of Iraq
turned
the
country
over to
Shiite
rule,
ironically
empowering
Iran.
ISIS
comes
out of
the
Sunni
reaction
to that
reality.
Meanwhile
we’ve
only
begun to
pay the
$3
trillion
tab for
Bush’s
Iraq
War,
even as
our own
roads,
rail,
sewage
and
water
systems
grow
ever
more
dangerous
for lack
of
investment.
Those
who
mindlessly
call the
president
weak,
impugn
his
patriotism,
and
accuse
him of
withdrawing
from the
world
ought to
be
called
to
account.
Enough
with the
rhetoric,
the
posturing,
and the
poison.
What is
the
policy
that
they
want?
Let us
hear
them
explain
how they
will
drive a
confrontation
with
Russia
in
Ukraine,
while
fighting
in
Afghanistan,
Iraq,
Syria,
Yemen
and
elsewhere.
The only
way
Americans
will
accept
this
nonsense
is if
they are
scared
out of
their
wits.
Sadly,
that
seems to
be the
intent
of the
fear
mongers,
who need
to be
challenged
before
they
frighten
us into
yet
another
costly
debacle.
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