The GOP Is No Longer the Party of National Security | America’s allies and enemies watched as Trump’s pick for defense secretary failed to quell concerns about his character and qualifications.
The GOP Is No Longer the Party of National Security
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.
Don't forget that Ronnie Raygun likely was involved in fucking up Carter getting hostages released. And then there was Iran/Contra....the qons don't GAF about American security and I'm not sure they ever have. Funneling money to their defense contractor boyfriends does not equal "national security". If anything, it destabilizes things.
Exactly, every time you turn around these guys were always ignoring evidence-based-anything. What they mean about "Law and order" is beating the shit out of innocent people and pinning charges on them. What they mean about "national security" is bombing the fuck out of wherever they can steal resources from. It's why Trump brought up Greenland and Panama Canal, strategic resource allocation.
The only thing they know to utilize is violence and domination. They're not clever fucking people, they're just ruthless.
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.
We're also gonna just watch this all happen.
It was a shit time.
o7
Yep, it's Germany all over again, everyone's just gonna roll over and let it happen, thinking "it won't get that bad, I've got to get to work anyway."
o7
Time to organize, get busy meeting some neighbors
This is simply the end of a country. For no other reason than placating a geriatric rapist and felon. Fucking pathetic.
If they're the party of national security, they're bad at it as Republicans in charge makes me feel unsafe everytime it happens.
They haven't been ever since they circled the wagons around donvict before and during his LAST term, which is now a decade ago.
The people that deny donvict's ties to Russia are completely deluding themselves, and there are even a great deal of people on the left that argue it's a big nothing. It's not nothing.
Where the hell did they find this guy? Did he get the position purely based on the fact that he looks like the villain in a WW2 movie?
I know he has been in Trump's orbit for a while, but seriously. Was there no one else remotely qualified?
Republican claim to "the party of national security" should have evaporated back when Valerie Plame was outed by the second Bush admin. If not before.
Oh. This guy again.
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.
Like it or not, the US is a global economic, political, and cultural powerhouse. What happens here bleeds over to everywhere.
I would wager the OP meant American democracy. Not global democracy. But you’re right that we Americans should speak as if there are other people out there other than us.
I’m at this point in my life where I feel like it doesn’t really matter what happens to me personally. But, I do have two children, and I am sad for them at the thought of what kind of world they’ll be inheriting. They genuinely deserve better than what they seem to be getting.
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.
The world will go on, but democracy wont do just fine. Once they are done with the US they'll push harder than ever to do the same to the EU, and they've already come damn close in both France and Germany. Its just a matter of time until one of them slips. And worse, without the US leading the "free world" theres a huge power vacuum/imbalance that will almost certainly have to be resolved violently, either with a spate of serious regional wars or another big global brawl.
I'm not even this optimistic. They will vote mostly along party lines, but I feel like there will be enough collaborator's to ensure the GOP gets their way even if they have internal disagreements