No Debate Necessary

I’m sick of the debate.  There should not be a debate.  Right now, the Republicans in Congress are proposing a bill which would affect limitations on refugees and asylum seekers that are Presidential powers.  This is a waste of time as it’s already been demonstrated that the bill, if it makes it through both House and Senate, would be vetoed by the White House and that the nay-sayers wouldn’t have the votes to overturn it.  Then, they’re going to put similar language into the next budget bill, a bill that must pass to keep government open, so that the President can’t similarly veto it lest he be accused of shutting down government.

Translation: the Republican caucus, again, is stomping their feet and carrying on like a 2 year old because they’re not getting what they want.  They. Don’t. Learn.  This tactic has ONLY backfired in years past (ex. see debate on National Health Care, see debate on same-sex marriage, see debate on debt limits).  And now, at a critical time, when we have a solid opportunity to put the Republican-led Islami-phobic fear-mongering rhetoric to bed by providing charity to people in desperate need, we have idiots like Ted Cruz and Jeb Bush saying, “well, we’re really only partial to those Christians who are being prejudiced against.”

“…all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

~Declaration of Independence

Where did the ideal of “All men are created equal” go?  Conservatives are all too quick to scream “2^nd Amendment” from the rooftops, but have forgotten why that was important in the first place, to stop tyranny and oppression.  And, our government admitted, through legislation, that they royally fucked up during World War 2, in the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965:

“Entries shall be made available by the Attorney General, because of persecution or fear of persecution on account of race, religion, or political opinion; or that they are persons uprooted by catastrophic natural calamity as defined by the President who are unable to return to their usual place of abode.”

In addition, we believe ourselves to be part of the civilized world, and in 1945, the United States joined the United Nations as a Security Council member…charged with maintaining peace and security among countries!  And, we joined the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees which requires that the US must, in good faith, protect refugees regardless of when they became refugees or where there are from.

"No Contracting State shall expel or return ('refouler') a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social or political opinion"

The United States is already a hillbilly joke to the developed world.  Should these right-wing, conservative cry-babies prevail, it would thrust us backwards in civilized time, damage our international credibility, and, most importantly, turn our backs on a people who desperately need assistance that only we can provide.  It’s time to vote these assholes out!