Where we should begin this week's
column is with what is going on in Yemen and the Middle East, but instead we
are compelled to comment about the beginning of the Republican primary season
starting in Iowa with the American Freedom Summit.
We genuinely have a distaste for
the fact that Republicans wrap their conferences in these patriotic names that
are supposedly justify a false ‘more Americanism’ than everyone else.
Prospective Republican presidential candidates were trying to out conservative
one another, today’s panel noted. By that measure, it was a good decision on
the part of both Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney not to attend this "Summit"
in Iowa.
It’s ‘summits’ like these that
advance a notion that we’d like to address and that is the idea of the religion
of conservatism. You can't paint all Republicans with a single brush – we know
this, but the base of their party is so purist and vocal that they exercise
disproportionate control. So things like this American Freedom Summit are
really disappointing to Americans of all stripes. Republicans spending time
trying to out-conservative one another is a waste of time.
Law professor and commentator,
Hugh Hewlitt, on today’s panel, covered the summit and said that Common-Core
education was talked about much more than immigration. The panel didn't discuss
same-sex marriage, though it was between Chuck Todd and Mike Huckabee in their
interview, and we’re sure it didn't come up a lot in Iowa this week amongst
conservatives. The reason why is that immigration and same-sex marriage are
viewed in large part by the majority of people in the country as civil rights
issues. All people no matter what your sexual orientation or where you have
come from should be treated humanely, decently, and equally.
On the other hand, the Common-Core
education debate is more philosophical and political because now you're talking
what information we impart to our children. Do we teach creationism or do we
teach evolution, for example. Honestly, for us, this is the silliest debate
we've ever heard in terms of educating our kids. Former Arkansas governor Mike
Huckabee said that he agreed with the original intent of Common-Core, as it
pertained strictly to language arts and math. He explained that when it
extended beyond that, into the entire curriculum, that is where he turned away
from it.
In theory we agree with him, but
we would strongly oppose something like creationism beubg taught in public
schools in any state. That concept is based on a religious belief, and that
religious belief should not be part of the public education system. To restate,
the notion of creationism is make-believe and not based on any science.
This is the danger of not having
Common-Core education in an entire curriculum because outside of math and
reading, depending on who runs the school district, ridiculous notions like the
world is only 6,000 years old, which is scientifically untrue, can be
introduced as if it is fact, which would be doing a disgraceful disservice to
our children. This type of politics especially, conservative politics, is
playing a huge role in misinforming school students in the United States.
This is the Republican debate
because Jeb Bush, looking as if he is running for president, is for Common-Core
education, which makes sense to achieve the goal of all American public school
students to have a base knowledge in math, reading, writing, American History and
geography.
Baltimore Mayor Stephanie
Rollins-Blake accurately described it as going against logic so that what
they're saying does not stray outside of a very conservative way of
thinking. Most Republicans, again, are not like that; however most Republicans
are perceived that way. And when it came to the topic of same-sex marriage, Tom
Brokaw pointed out that Mr. Huckabee discussed it in purely procedural terms,
and did not bring up the religious aspect of the debate.
Conservatives, who are mostly Christian,
understandably have a problem with same-sex marriage. Christian conservatives
believe that marriage is between a man and woman; however, as you listen to Mr.
Huckabee, he is very much about strictly following the Constitution. But the
Constitution says that all men (and women of course) should all be afforded the
same rights under the law. If that is the case then you cannot allow some
people benefits of society while discriminating against others, benefits and
rights can extend from taxes to visitation rights in the hospital to wills as
they relate to marriage.
Loud local purists, the kind that
espouse a religion of pure conservatism, are no doubt damaging the Republican
party by extension also damaging the United States.
To say again, most Republicans do
not want to be painted with such a brush understandably, just as most Muslims
around the world do not want to be painted with the jihadist brush.
Tom Brokaw noted that Pres. Sissi
of Egypt stated in a speech recently that there is a problem with Islam,
referring to the violent ideologues. This continuing turmoil in the Middle East
will not cease and unless the governments of these countries can run their
countries in non-theocratic ways.
Governments who managed to maintain peace under a theocracy do so by repression of their citizenry; for example as in Iran and Saudi Arabia. The major difference between the two is that you have an overwhelming majority of one denomination of Islam over another. In the case of Iran, people are predominantly Shia and in Saudi Arabia, they are predominantly Sunni.
This brings us to Yemen, which was
run by a U.S.-friendly Sunni government that has now been overthrown by Shia
militant, backed by Iran. Yemen is quickly deteriorating into, as noted on
today's program, is a Civil War between Shia and Sunni Muslims on the Arabian
Peninsula.
White House Chief of Staff Denis
McDonough said the United States has to up its intelligence and continue its
operations in Yemen and Syria; intelligence, by the look of what's happening on
the ground, seems spotty at best.
We found the interviewee, Ahmet,
in Richard Engel’s segment, to be somewhat credible. It’s difficult to believe
that he was not tortured so for
survival purposes, when beating prisoners as he said, he is most probably
bending the truth when he said he was forced to do it. That doesn’t at
all discount the validity of his statements describing how people in Syria and
people in Europe were in frequent communication. This is something not to
be taken in any other way than with grave seriousness. Isis feels legitimized
by the United States attacking it, and it would feel further legitimized by
successfully committing a major attack against either a Western European
country or the United States, neither of which can be allowed to happen.
In Mr. Todd’s interview, Kareem
Abdul-Jabbar described these radical jihadists as insane, and not religious
adherents of Islam, and as a political ideology. We can wipe out ISIS
militarily and we can militarily end these religious conflicts. However, as
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar said, the dissension into hateful ideology (that has
nothing to do with Islam) will continue because of the absence of one universal
right – hope.
Panel: Tom Brokaw, NBC News;
Stephanie Rowlings-Blake, Mayor of Baltimore; Helene Cooper, The New York Times; Hugh Hewlitt,
commentator
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