Don’t fall for this Republican bullshit
While many Democrats are feeling frustration at this particular time in the cycle – the single most important words of advice were said on Monday by Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) who didn’t mince words: Don’t fall for “Republican bullshit.” Murphy was specifically referring to the reaction to the Afghanistan withdrawal and the ways in which Republican politicians are trying to dump the entire thing on the Biden administration, despite having honored the deal negotiated by the former guy’s secretary of state.
“There is this fantasy that has been constructed by the media and members of both parties that we could leave Afghanistan, amid a collapse of the Afghan army and government, in a neat, clean way,” Murphy said in a Washington Post interview. Had the U.S. kept this agreement in place under a second Trump term, it’s likely that the images seen in the media would be much worse – while that administration would be adamantly refusing to help Afghan refugees and probably most American citizens stranded in Afghanistan.
While there was clamoring from Republicans that in no way would the military be able to move 15,000 people out of Kabul before the deadline, the U.S. managed to airlift over 21,000 people from the country on Tuesday alone. As President Biden likes to say, it’s a bad bet to bet against America. This is the perfect phrasing we should use whenever right-wingers stir up their usual nonsense about the escape. Rather than give into their phrasing of the question, the right way to deal (if you must) is to simply ask them why they’re so determined to bet against the U.S. and our troops.
James Sullivan is the assistant editor of Brain World Magazine and an advocate of science-based policy making