Those seeking a Republican presidential candidate who isn’t dangerous won’t find one.
Donald Trump, a racist, fear-mongering xenophobe, continues to paradoxically show some philosophical flexibility as he kicks the electoral asses of three hidebound career politicians – Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and John Kasich – who, even as they march toward presidential irrelevance, cling by their teeth to failed Cold War rhetoric and doctrines that were outdated, though popular, a half century ago. Being a Cold Warrior today isn’t wise, but neither are the belligerent people who dominate both political parties. Trump again capitalized on this during the debate in Coral Gables.
This reserved praise for Donald Trump, as foreign policy strategist, should not deflect attention from his refusal to disavow or modify his claim that one point six billion Muslims hate us. All of them, he was asked? Well, a lot of them, said The Donald. And what about his desire to “take out” families of terrorists? Trump asserted we have to expand laws, especially regarding torture, or we’re a “bunch of suckers.” Rubio and Cruz piously refuted Trump’s positions.
Yet, in most matters overseas, Donald Trump is the moderate, and Cruz, Rubio, and Kasich are warmongers. Rather than let the United States continue as the blinder-clad lapdog of Israel, Trump emphasized that it’s “important for Palestinians to believe a deal can get done.” Rubio, pockets stuffed with Super PAC money from only-Israel-counts donors like Sheldon Adelson and Paul Singer, repeated his robotic and now quite old spiel that the Palestinian Authority is not interested in a peace deal; it only wants to attack Israel (and, evidently, suffer many times more casualties than Israel.) The south Florida crowd applauded Rubio but silently received Trump’s John-Lennon-like response that he wants to “give peace a chance.” Republicans don’t like peace. They need war and economic catastrophe so they can be perpetually angry and trigger more wars and recessions. John Kasich, who several weeks ago said the United States needs to “punch Russia in the nose” – will big bad John be doing the punching and personally dealing with the counterpunch? – continued his saber rattling, stating there is “no long-term peace” opportunity in Israel and Palestine. How the hell does John Kasich know? One should also note that Rubio doesn’t seem to have the words West Bank or Palestine in his lexicon; the highly-paid sycophant calls that area Judea and Samaria.
Tough Ted Cruz tried to out-Trump Trump regarding Mexico, promising to build a wall, triple the border patrol, end sanctuary cities, and cut off welfare for those without documentation. Canadian-born Cruz is also anxious, from day one of his presidency, to eliminate the Iran Nuclear Treaty, vaporize Obamacare, and axe the Department of Education.
Hand Marco Rubio a globe and he’d have trouble identifying any areas he doesn’t want to attack or at least bully. He believes the Chinese need to be disciplined in the South China Sea, which Rubio evidently believes is an American lake. As noted, he’s ready to slit more Palestinian throats to please his pro-Israel puppeteers. Naturally, he wants to destroy ISIS. Even Bernie Sanders wants to do that. But how? With American “boots,” that quaint euphemism that doesn’t say people are in those boots. And after ISIS is “destroyed,” like the Taliban in 2002, what then? Permanent American boots on the ground, perhaps.
Rubio naturally opposes President Barack Obama’s upcoming trip to Cuba, the land Rubio’s future parents abandoned two years before Fidel Castro took power. He’d wanted you to assume they were refugees but word got out. No problem. Rubio received the loudest hand of the night when he denounced Cuba for being undemocratic and harboring criminals and thieves. Sounds like decades of close friends of the United States.
What does Donald Trump think about Cuba? He feels fifty-five years of unnecessary enmity are quite enough and it’s time to start making deals.
Those seeking a Republican presidential candidate who isn’t dangerous won’t find one. Democratic shoo-in Hillary Clinton is also a Cold Warrior seeking to prove something – perhaps the psychic presence of gonads – by starting a war, and preferably more than one war.
I could never vote for Donald Trump. But I can envision him negotiating more and shooting less than Hillary Clinton, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, or John Kasich. The least belligerent candidate, Bernie Sanders, has no chance. He’s a pinko socialist who wants poor people and the middle class to have more money and the superrich to have less. At least Rubio and Kasich also are out of it in all respects except the generation of hot air. Trump’s got too many enemies to win, likewise way-right Cruz. So the presidency will probably be Hillary’s, and there’ll be times she’s ordering attacks that Donald Trump would have used to try to make a deal.
