The GOP Is No Longer the Party of National Security
Oh for fucks sake they never were! Talking about it like this is letting Republicans re-write fucking history!! Talking about it like this is letting them dictate what taking security seriously means which is how we got in this fucking mess to begin with!
Was starting two forever wars in the middle east good for the US’s security or Europe’s for that matter?
Not to mention 9/11 literally fucking happened because the Bush admin ignored clear warnings. (What’s that called, a security lapse? Rumsfeld called it a failure of imagination. I call it a failure to fucking read.)
The Afghanistan/Iraq wars in particular are an inflection point in the overall change in wider public opinion about the US government, especially worldwide. It’s when the US’s soft power began to falter and we became known as Team America World Police. It spearheaded disillusionment in the populace which has allowed right wing demagoguery take over in USA and Europe.
Was the TSA ever even really about security? At this point if a terrorist wanted to cause mass havoc and kill many people, they’d just have to set off a bomb while standing in line waiting for security. There’s been two decades of research into the TSA that shows it is all security theater and a stealth jobs program for the Bush administration.
They were never the party of national security, back to Reagan trading weapons for hostages.
EDIT: I remember computer scientists worried about the vote being insecure in 2004 and they were dismissed by “the party of national security.” While the CEO of Diebold was quoted as “We’re dedicated to bringing the President the vote in November.”
So fucking sick of these anti-research anti-science fucks being treated as competent about fucking anything.
That the Republican Party did little or nothing for national security is pretty well-known. But they did have a reputation for talking about it a lot and making it a key part of their campaign strategy and their picks for security secretary and defence secretary have traditionally been Rufus Scrimgeour types who would at least put on a strong act. That rhetoric has been noticeably absent this last election cycle and their pick for defence secretary is noticeably eyebrow-raising in this regard as well.
It won’t matter. They’ll vote along party lines, and Democrats refuse to play dirty. Democracy ends in a week.
Edit: people are wondering if I’m referring to specifically American democracy. No, I am not. Trump and his oligarchy have no respect for borders and norms, such as NATO, and will be interfering in any democracy that gets in his way of total domination. It’s Nazi Germany, but with iPhones, Teslas, and Facebook to soften the beachhead.
Eh… it’s hubris to equate America with democracy. Democracy will do just fine, just perhaps not here. Not being pedantic, I just think it’s time to start thinking like a global citizen. This place may be truly lost for a time, but the world spins on. Perhaps we’ll be the cautionary tale for the next generation.
I don’t think they’re equating the USA with democracy. I think it’s pretty clear that they’re impliedly saying “democracy [in the United States] ends in a week”. Nobody is questioning the health of European, Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese, South American, Australian, or Kiwi democracy—yet.
Wasnt Korea’s impeached president just arrested a few hours ago? Didnt Brazil just indict their former president just a couple months ago? Both for attempting to topple their own democracies? Didnt anyone notice that France was on the verge of electing a neonazi a few years ago, or that Germany might actually do that next month? If you arnt questioning the health of global democracy it just means you havent looked.
Of course I’ve looked. But everywhere I do, I see democracy coming out of the ring victorious. Bloodied and bruised, yes, but not beaten. Only in the US has the fascist won absolute control while the legal system has utterly failed to hold him accountable for his crimes in any meaningful manner.
