Fear mongering will not work. Fear is like pain. It goes away. You don't elect a president to calm the fear of the masses promulgated by fear itself. The country is safe. If San Bernardino was indeed the "worst terrorist act on American Soil since 9/11" (CNN), then we are safe. Every single GOP candidate in last night's debate of 12/15/2015, worked the fear angle. I wish I could count the number of times ISIS was mentioned. ISIS is our enemy? Really? Our enemy is fear itself and as the quote taught us it's all we have to fear.
I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest there won't be another 9/11-sized attack on this country for some time to come. These small jabs will hit us here and there. They will get swiftly resolved by law enforcement and the perps will either die or get locked up. Period. The anguish of death is about the same as it is for the constant deadly attacks on masses of people gathered in schools, malls, churches, theaters, or parties, carried out by singularities of no particular persusaion with no real organization behind them. If there is a solution to these sporadic deadly events taking out a few to a few dozen people at worst, then let's work to find one. Let's not incorporate a false mindset feeding xenophobia and ethnocentric motives.
Terrorism, as bad as it is in 9/11 dimensions is largely contained and rearing it's ugly head more in fear promotion than in actual implementation through hard facts that just don't match the magnitude of a real terror attack. Last night's GOP debate painted a nation in fear and trembling longing to be made safe against a rag-tag bunch of free radicals peddling their product mostly through the internet and yes, a few well-placed beheadings. They connect to the various incidents we face through cheering and empathy more than direct machinations. They are being taken down the right way. Systematically using remote resources of war' drones, Fighter jets, special forces and assets comprised of boots worn by citizens of the Arabic nations where ISIS lives.
We are a nation of strength, endurance and courage which has met the worst enemies in history and come out on top. We are a strong nation which has met fear and spit in its eye more than once. There is no reason to politize something that only exists because repetitious memes and speeches create the mirage which reveals fear as nothing les than deception poised to win votes in the absence of anything concrete enough to elect any single one of these desparate hopefuls..
If last night's debate shows us the best the GOP has to offer, then there is no choice but to vote DNC which will most likely be Hillary Clinton who has not pandered to the fleeting and misleading presence of fear made worse by statements made linking criminal attacks like San Bernardino to real assaults like 9/11. We may have to live with skirmishes and cowardly attacks of a deadly but small scale until the concerted world effort against ISIS gains momentum against the barbaric idea of Jihad and Caliphate-building based on the implementation of fear.
