The Responses to Orlando
There has been a variety of responses to the Orlando shooting, showing how differently people in the country respond to these attacks. Most of what our leaders or future leaders are saying, give little reason to believe that we will grow and learn from this tragedy.
Barack Obama: We Have Nothing to Fear but Fear Itself
While Obama’s foreign policy has not been dovish, continuing the war in Afghanistan, bombing 8 different countries in his 8 years in the White House, expanding a drone program that has little transparency, he has been a voice against kneejerk reactions to terrorist attacks, and has responded to gun violence and mass shootings in the only way one can at this point.
Obama’s response to instances like San Bernardino and Orlando have been to stay the course, to not give into fear and enact radical policies like that of Donald Trump, but to continue to stand in solidarity with victims, work with Muslims here and abroad, and do our best to pass laws that keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people. His rebuke of Donald Trump Tuesday has been the strongest condemnation of his and other Republicans remarks about their desperation of using ‘radical Islam’ after these attacks.
Obama’s response to terrorism and ISIS is not that it’s an existential threat to the United States, or that it’s a force of evil that is so resilient. We will never be 100% safe, but we will always do our best to prevent these attacks and that many more of these plots are thwarted and stopped than enacted. This isn’t civilization scale warfare, it is an acknowledgement of the sobering reality, but never letting that throw us into a fear that will cause us to do things we regret, like demonize a religion, or entering wars that will only hurt more innocent people.
Donald Trump: Fear and Loathing
While many mainstream pundits assumed that Trump was going to make some sort of swing to the middle to appeal to people that aren’t racist Republican primary voters, he has done no such thing, made evident by his statements after the shooting. Fully committing to his Muslim ban, claiming that Obama’s unwillingness to say ‘radical Islam’ means he is somehow complicit or a type of ISIS sleeper agent, shows there is no limit to how conspiratorial and bigoted he will be.
Like many other conservatives and Republicans, Donald Trump was quick to attribute this attack to ISIS, and tie the shooter closely to ISIS. Not only does this further stoke paranoia and create an irrational fear in our country, it’s not even close to being right. The more we have found out about the shooter, he had limited connection to ISIS and his background is incredibly complex. The causes and motives that drove the shooter are multi-faceted, from his home upbringing, to self-loathing, abusive and violent behavior, to simply categorize him as ISIS-affiliated is foolish and wrong.
Thoughts & Prayers Crew: It’s All We Can Do!
Then you’ve got the standard rank and file Republican response to a mass shooting which is to simply send out a tweet about thoughts and prayers, solidarity with victims and so on. They’ll never lift a finger to even consider gun control, not even willing to pass better background checks that overwhelming majorities approve of. They could not give less of a damn about the lives lost. This isn’t because they’re stupid, but because they are malicious. They will budge from their position and they will never take action. Not even on mental health, which is their usual scapegoat, because that involves spending money, something they also are fiercely opposed to on principle.
There is an extra aspect to their typical, remorseless response to these tragedies. For decades Republicans have demonized the LGBT community as pedophiles, monsters, and more. They have sought to deny them rights, whether it was to serve openly in the military, to marry their partner, or to adopt a child. They consistently associated themselves with African pastors who wanted to make it illegal to be gay. For them to suddenly express solidarity and sadness for the lives of those they demonized when they contributed to the homophobia that drove the shooter is pathetic.
Hillary Clinton: Better Than Trump I Guess?
Hillary Clinton obviously condemned Trump’s comments as well, and called for similar policies to Obama, including banning those on the terror watch list from being able to buy guns. While this seems like an obviously good policy, there’s much more nuance to the issue and Ryan Cooper has a good write up on why we shouldn’t enact this: http://theweek.com/articles/593827/kill-terror-watch-list
It’s where she’s differed from Obama that is worrying. Unlike Obama, who has decided not to overplay the threat of ISIS, Clinton has done the opposite. She inflates ISIS to be a much more dangerous entity than it really is. Here is a portion of her response:
“Whatever we learn about this killer, his motives in the days ahead, we know already the barbarity that we face from radical jihadists is profound.
In the Middle East, ISIS is attempting a genocide of religious and ethnic minorities. They are slaughtering Muslims who refuse to accept their medieval ways. They are beheading civilians, including executing LGBT people. They are murdering Americans and Europeans, enslaving, torturing and raping women and girls.
In speeches like this one, after Paris, Brussels and San Bernardino, I have laid out a plan to defeat ISIS and the other radical jihadist groups in the region and beyond.
The attack in Orlando makes it even more clear, we cannot contain this threat. We must defeat it. And the good news is that the coalition effort in Syria and Iraq has made recent gains in the last months.
So we should keep the pressure on ramping up the air campaign, accelerating support for our friends fighting to take and hold ground and pushing our partners in the region to do even more.”
In the same speech she talked more about greater surveillance, getting social media and tech companies to expand how much information is being surveyed. While not fueled by bigotry, or shouting of the sky falling, Clinton is still using fear-inspired rhetoric to expand the surveillance state when that has been shown to not been good policy as it simply has led to more and more useless information being sent to the NSA and it violates civil liberties. She also called for an “increased air campaign” which means escalating the bombing of the Middle East, consistent with her more hawkish policy.
Clinton isn’t as clearly bigoted as Trump, but her foreign policy is largely to the right of Obama, and she’s always had an interventionist mindset, and she has promoted that path in the aftermath of Orlando.
The Night is Not Dark and Full of Terrors
No matter what happens in the election, the dialogue surrounding terrorism will most likely get worse. For all of his policies imperfections, Obama’s message is essentially “We have nothing to fear, but fear itself.” In these tragedies and attacks Obama has told us to mourn and stand in solidarity with the victims, while not giving into fear or bigotry, advocating for widely agreed on policy solutions to try and make us just a bit safer than before. Trump is an extreme, preying upon the fears of people to advance his candidacy, offering nothing worth considering, but with his platform he has no doubt furthered the divisions in the United States. Hillary Clinton has presented us with something dangerous as well. While not as extreme, as Trump, some of her policies would absolutely put us on the wrong path, a more powerful surveillance state and even more interventionist mindset.
The responses of both candidates would be playing right into the goals of those who try to terrorize us. That we become bigoted like Trump, or make groups like ISIS more important and dangerous than they are like Clinton. That we enact policies as brutal and disgusting as banning Muslims or seemingly benign but dangerous call for more surveillance and bombing yet more innocent people abroad. Emotions of hatred and fear will never be good motivators for policy. Counterterrorism and gun control must be done properly, by looking at what works, rather than the kneejerk response.
