Go Right!
You might think that even in our complex times that there are some things we would all agree on. Torture, for instance. We can't control what other people do about torturing prisoners, but WE should stay away from it, right?
Well, evidently it depends on who's asking and who's answering. If you're a Republican running for president, here's what you have to take into account: Job One is getting my party's nomination, and nothing else matters too much if that doesn't happen. The people who get me that nomination are NOT the American public, but a small slice of it, especially since my party has suffered some losses. Those people I depend on are, in fact, hard-core GOP folks who are now accustomed to some, shall we say, rough edges in the War on Terror or whatever we wish to call it. Subjecting some A-rabs to torture, especially if they know where the next bomb is (all this taking place in GITMO where it's done in secret) is WAY DOWN on the list of things those Primary voters worry about. Otherwise, they would already be Democrats. If I want that nomination, I need to be VERY sure that my answer on the torture question posed in one of these so-called "debates" shows me as TOUGH, RUTHLESS and IN CONTROL.
And that's pretty much what happened at just such a debate hosted by the FOX NEWS folks in South Carolina this month. Only John McCain, a man who knows a thing or two about torture, declined to endorse whatever they call torture these days, even though the question was set up to produce the toughest answers ever thought of. Romney made people forget any notion of Mormons being "soft" on anything by saying he wants GITMO to be twice the size it is now, as though he wanted to be first in line to handle the whips and electrodes.
So the process has a corrupting effect that can really not be avoided. For the candidates of both sides, success comes from money which comes from success and money on a smaller scale. If Romney were in my living room answering the same question, his answer might be completely different. Heck, about a century ago candidate Bush said that the US should have a "humble" foreign policy. Did he mean it? Not when it came time to decide whether or not there would be
torture. Of course he says the US doesn't do it, but you can make people scream in lots of languages.
Is this short enough, Allison?
Well, evidently it depends on who's asking and who's answering. If you're a Republican running for president, here's what you have to take into account: Job One is getting my party's nomination, and nothing else matters too much if that doesn't happen. The people who get me that nomination are NOT the American public, but a small slice of it, especially since my party has suffered some losses. Those people I depend on are, in fact, hard-core GOP folks who are now accustomed to some, shall we say, rough edges in the War on Terror or whatever we wish to call it. Subjecting some A-rabs to torture, especially if they know where the next bomb is (all this taking place in GITMO where it's done in secret) is WAY DOWN on the list of things those Primary voters worry about. Otherwise, they would already be Democrats. If I want that nomination, I need to be VERY sure that my answer on the torture question posed in one of these so-called "debates" shows me as TOUGH, RUTHLESS and IN CONTROL.
And that's pretty much what happened at just such a debate hosted by the FOX NEWS folks in South Carolina this month. Only John McCain, a man who knows a thing or two about torture, declined to endorse whatever they call torture these days, even though the question was set up to produce the toughest answers ever thought of. Romney made people forget any notion of Mormons being "soft" on anything by saying he wants GITMO to be twice the size it is now, as though he wanted to be first in line to handle the whips and electrodes.
So the process has a corrupting effect that can really not be avoided. For the candidates of both sides, success comes from money which comes from success and money on a smaller scale. If Romney were in my living room answering the same question, his answer might be completely different. Heck, about a century ago candidate Bush said that the US should have a "humble" foreign policy. Did he mean it? Not when it came time to decide whether or not there would be
torture. Of course he says the US doesn't do it, but you can make people scream in lots of languages.
Is this short enough, Allison?
posted by Mark at 1:35 PM
1 Comments:
Yes, short and concise, much easier to digest. I don't think you should worry your little head so much about the republican nomination as I believe that this next presidential election will be a repeat of the congressional election.
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