Frankly, I’m ashamed of the anti-islamic rhetoric being spewed forth by those on the right (or should I say wrong) side of the political spectrum. With Republican candidates calling refugees nothing more than rabid dogs (Ben Carson), espousing registration of anyone who is a Muslim (Donald Trump), saying that we should take in ‘Christian’ refugees but not ‘Muslim refugees (Bush) and stomping the crap out of our constitutional right to freedom of assembly (Marco Rubio), I truly hope Americans start waking up to what the Republican party has apparently become — the party of Hitler.
Here’s a few of the headlines that make me wonder exactly “what” the Republicans want to “take our country back to.”
Articles from the right
- Carson: ‘Rabid’ dogs and closing mosques: Anti-Islam rhetoric grows in the GOP (WashingtonPost)
- Rubio Trumps Trump: Shut Down Any Place Muslims Gather To Be ‘Inspired’ — Not Just Mosques (ThinkProgress)
- NPR Host Challenges Governor To Name One Problem With The Vetting Process For Refugees (ThinkProgress)
- State Lawmaker Supports Putting Muslim Refugees In ‘Segregated’ Camps (ThinkProgress)
- Trump: ‘Absolutely’ Register All Muslims In A Database (ThinkProgress)
- Hillary: Muslims ‘Have Nothing Whatsoever To Do With Terrorism’ (Townhall)
Articles from the left
- Oh my—George Takei’s perfect response to a Virginia mayor’s statement on refugees (Daily Kos)
- Elizabeth Warren’s beautiful statement on Syria (Daily Kos)
- You xenophobic bed-wetting bigots: The Paris terrorists were from Europe, not Syria or Iraq (Daily Kos)
- The one map that sums up the Syrian refugee pants-wetter situation (Daily Kos)
- Standing Up Against Islamophobia (CAP)
- America at Its Best: Resettling Refugees Is a Core American Value (CAP)
- Infographic: The Screening Process for Entry to the United States for Syrian Refugees (CAP)
- Clinton: No troops in Syria, US must welcome refugees (YahooNews)
- Hillary Clinton: Turning Away Refugees Is ‘New Low’ For GOP (HuffingtonPost)
- Sanders: ‘We will not turn our backs’ on refugees (TheHill)
- Full Interview: Bernie Sanders on Syria, Refugees and More (MTP)
Meanwhile, newly anointed Speaker Ryan pushed forth legislation (HR 4038) that would pretty much put a halt to resettlement of any Syrian refugees on U.S. soil claiming “It’s a security test, not a religious test. This reflects our values.” HR4038, which was passed by the House yesterday, was introduced shortly after the terrorist attacks by the fear mongerers of the right-wing. Never mind that the attacks in Paris were NOT conducted by Syrians, but by homegrown radicalized French and Belgian domestic terrorists. So while any French or Belgian domestic terrorist could present their official EU passport, travel to the U.S. and commit an act of terrorism in the U.S., we’ll be preventing non-violent Syrian refugees from being able to escape the horrors of terrorism for themselves and their family.
Speaker Ryan has portrayed our current vetting process as being seriously broken, Democratic Whip Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD5), on the other hand, claims he’s wrong. “The bill rests on a faulty assumption that the European refugee screening process is similar to the United States screening process. This is entirely inaccurate,” he wrote in today’s Daily Whip. Rather than improve security, Hoyer said that HR4038 would prevent refugees from entering the country by making the vetting process overly inefficient. He described the bill as a “knee-jerk reaction” to a situation in Europe dissimilar to our own. Unfortunately, even with Democratic leadership against the bill, one-fourth of Democrats succumbed to the hysteria and voted to pass it in the House vote.
Under existing law, the United States vets refugees for one-and-a-half to two years before allowing refugees to enter the country. If enacted (President Obama has vowed to veto it), this bill would likely halt the screening process. Just as the Republicans have never gotten around to proposing any alternative to the Affordable Care Act, and as they’ve passed one bill after another to nullify any actions taken by the EPA to protect our environment, they’d likely pass yet another bill to nullify any actions taken to rectify their ‘vetting’ concerns.
The Paris attacks have sparked deeply troubling, abhorrent anti-Muslim rhetoric and anti-immigrant policy proposals from the Republicans in Congress that not only don’t represent our American values, but they’re contrary to the principles outlined in our U.S. Constitution. I just hope that Americans, especially those new citizen immigrants, all across our nation are paying attention. Enough is enough! It’s time for us to cast our votes FOR American values and AGAINST those who have clearly demonstrated they would trample them in a heartbeat.