Let’s Talk About Khzir Khan

So today, Speaker Paul Ryan put out a picture with a brief statement via Twitter:

Clearly, the Speaker of the House and the titular leader of the Republican Party is not amused by the central themes of the Trump candidacy.

Ryan isn’t the only Republican to repudiate the nominee’s embarrassing and inexcusable contest of wills against Charlottesville native Mr. Khzir Khan, a Harvard-trained attorney who is doing extremely well on his own handling America’s second-string.  We talked about this yesterday, but since then, a number of other Republicans have chimed in.

Senator John McCain (R-AZ) — no stranger to criticisms of Trump — issued his own release:

“In recent days, Donald Trump disparaged a fallen soldier’s parents. He has suggested that the likes of their son should not be allowed in the United States — to say nothing of entering its service. I cannot emphasize enough how deeply I disagree with Mr. Trump’s statement. I hope Americans understand that the remarks do not represent the views of our Republican Party, its officers, or candidates.

. . . .

“In the end, I am morally bound to speak only to the things that command my allegiance, and to which I have dedicated my life’s work: the Republican Party, and more importantly, the United States of America. I will not refrain from doing my utmost by those lights simply because it may benefit others with whom I disagree.

“I claim no moral superiority over Donald Trump. I have a long and well-known public and private record for which I will have to answer at the Final Judgment, and I repose my hope in the promise of mercy and the moderation of age. I challenge the nominee to set the example for what our country can and should represent.

Not a bad line, even if you prefer your war heroes to remain uncaptured.

…and if that last line doesn’t instill some humility in you, then you probably need to check on the state of your soul.

Of course, some folks have chimed in and suggested Khan is playing backup singer for ISIS.  If that’s true, ISIS has made explicitly clear that they are unhappy with the tune (and published in the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz no less).

If you have not watched the speech, you truly owe it to yourself to set aside seven minutes (nine for this clip) and watch it start to finish:

This is the man — a Gold Star father — whom our Republican nominee for president is currently (pardon my language) in a d*ck measuring contest with.

Trump’s response?  Has been to insult the man and his wife, suggesting that she was not allowed to speak by her husband.  I mean, it’s not as if she were Chris Christie or anything.

Khan’s speech has been labeled as the seven minute that shook the convention, a national moment of conscience that transcended the political circus and spoke directly to the hearts of every American and brought home the dangers of a self-inflicted populism.  From POLITICO:

The Clinton campaign offered to put him in contact with a speechwriter. He declined. He knew what he wanted to say. He practiced at home with his family, leaning on 40 years of experience as an attorney that taught him “how to control my thoughts, my emotions and my message.”

On the day of the speech, he grabbed his worn copy of the Constitution and slipped it in his jacket pocket. He carries it regularly, especially when he travels. “It’s my favorite document. I wanted to use it because I wanted to highlight the protections that immigrants have in this country.”

Walking on stage he knew the pocket-sized book was going to come out of his pocket before the evening was done.

“The main purpose of my speech was to bring awareness about the constitutional protections that each citizen of the United States enjoys and to try to prevent the scare that immigrant communities are feeling about the misinformation that one candidate had been pandering. So the effort was to put these worried minds at ease by asking that question: ‘Have you even read the constitution?’”

Ouch.

Not a single Republican I have talked to about this speech has been able to say much more than this.  This was the speech (and these were the speeches) we saw during the 2004 Republican convention.  This was the America we thought we were fighting for.  This was the moment Republicans wanted to see for themselves and the future of the conservative movement.

…not the progressives capturing the moment — and not because the Republican Party absconded our own principles in the pursuit of “winning” or some other shibboleth.

Contrast it with this: President George W. Bush comforting the families and loved ones who fought in the War on Terrorism:

One mom and dad of a dying soldier from the Caribbean were devastated, the mom beside herself with grief. She yelled at the president, wanting to know why it was her child and not his who lay in that hospital bed.

Her husband tried to calm her and I noticed the president wasn’t in a hurry to leave—he tried offering comfort but then just stood and took it, like he expected and needed to hear the anguish, to try to soak up some of her suffering if he could.

Later as we rode back on Marine One to the White House, no one spoke.

But as the helicopter took off, the president looked at me and said, “That mama sure was mad at me.” Then he turned to look out the window of the helicopter. “And I don’t blame her a bit.”

One tear slipped out the side of his eye and down his face. He didn’t wipe it away, and we flew back to the White House.

That’s how Republican leaders are supposed to respect those who have laid love ones on the altar of freedom.  That’s what Republicans used to believe.

Does the past tense scare you?  Used to?

Don’t wince.

It’s true… and you know it’s true.  Feel that shame bubble up inside of you and internalize it.  Turn it into rage and let it drown out the shame.  Because this — ladies and gentlemen — is what we have allowed a handful of profiteers and fear-peddlers to turn the Republican Party of Reagan, Eisenhower, T.R. and Lincoln into.

…a party of fear.

A party that takes those who live up to the very best of our ideals… and tells them they don’t belong in our country.

Is this your Republican Party?  For those who have actually bled in the trenches for years if not decades — is this what you fought for?  Worked for?  Volunteered for?  To let a handful of populists and fear-mongerers tell us who is “other” and who is “nationalist” all in the pursuit of what precisely?  The very opposite of what made us so proud to be an American after 9/11?

Where the hell is our patriotism?

For the Trumpsheviks — those held in thrall to a man who respects Russia’s Vladimir Putin more than Gold Star families — their response has never been one of patriotism, freedom, or free markets.  This is their idea of persuasion, per the New York Post:

So just what makes someone a conservative? I might have thought that nationalism had something to do with it, and certainly conservatives of the past would have found it odd to object to a preference for native Americans over non-Americans. The Open Borders crowd might be good libertarians, but there’s nothing especially conservative about their beliefs.

…and full stop.

The free market is utterly incompatible with the sort of nationalism the Trumpsheviks are promoting. What is that nationalism? A protectionist and ethnic nationalism that defines an “us” based on racial or religious grounds and a “they” based purely on whether or not one lives in America.

The Founders had a creed of free ships and free goods.   It is the free market — not government — has lifted nearly a billion people out of poverty over the last 20 years.  The Wal-Mart effect has provided cheaper goods, food, and services for millions of Americans across the country.

For every person complaining about the benefits of the free market?  Throw away your flatscreen TV, your smartphone, and junk your car… every electronic device and computer you own and everything you wouldn’t have had 20 years ago.

You see, when the Trumpsheviks attack globalism, they’re really not attacking any elites… they’re just attacking free markets to the benefit of another set of elites.

Khzir Khan knows that Trump is out of his league, because Khan knows something that apparently 46% of the Republican Party forgot — America is great because she is free, not because she is nationalist or protectionist.  America is great because families lay the lives of their sons and daughters in the defense of that freedom.  America is great because our best days are ahead of us, not behind us.  America is great because there is nothing wrong with America that can’t be fixed with what is right with America.

Last week, America celebrated the 60th anniversary of President Eisenhower — a Republican, one who helped push the first series of civil rights laws into being in the Republican Party’s long tradition of being on the side of human freedom — signing the legislation that made “In God We Trust” our national motto.

So long as there is a faithful remnant willing to fight for that creed, America is far from finished.

Yet so long as we permit — and we are permitting this through our inaction and unwillingness to drive them out — this small and insignificant faction to dominate our party and our discourse?

Then we deserve Hillary Clinton… because that’s what they’ve pushed upon us.  Or more accurately, what we as Republicans have pushed upon ourselves.

Ubi defunciti equi trottant asselli, after all — and I plagiarized that from Pope Leo XIII Pope John XXIII.

 

Сейчас уже никто не берёт классический кредит, приходя в отделение банка. Это уже в далёком прошлом. Одним из главных достижений прогресса является возможность получать кредиты онлайн, что очень удобно и практично, а также выгодно кредиторам, так как теперь они могут ссудить деньги даже тем, у кого рядом нет филиала их организации, но есть интернет. http://credit-n.ru/zaymyi.html - это один из сайтов, где заёмщики могут заполнить заявку на получение кредита или микрозайма онлайн. Посетите его и оцените удобство взаимодействия с банками и мфо через сеть.