Markos Moulitsas: GOP a danger on ISIS

So far this year, 393 people have been killed in the United States in mass shooting attacks. Each tragedy, from the nine slain by Dylann Roof in South Carolina to the nine shot down at Umpqua Community College in Oregon to the other 316 mass shootings recorded this year alone, is a travesty, bringing terror to supposedly safe places such as churches, schools, movie theaters and workplaces.

Yet the immediate Republican response to each one is a rote and generic “let’s pray for the victims,” and for sure don’t “politicize” all that death.

{mosads}After Umpqua, former Arkansas Gov. and White House hopeful Mike Huckabee accused President Obama of “shamelessly try[ing] and exploit[ing] any tragedy he wants,” while Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, also vying for the presidency in 2016, claimed Obama “seeks to tear us apart; he seeks to politicize it.” 

For conservatives, domestic gun terrorism isn’t worthy of debate, discussion or concern. Just pretend to pray for victims, wipe your hands and move on to more pressing concerns, like stripping people of affordable healthcare. And despite the fact that 280,000 Americans have died from gun violence of all stripes (including accidents, suicides and non-mass murders) in the past decade, congressional Republicans won’t even allow federal agencies to study the ramifications of that violence.

Death by non-Muslim gunfire just doesn’t rate. But death by jihadist? Hit the panic switch! 

While only 24 Americans have been killed by jihadists on American soil in the past decade, the GOP continues to aggressively push the expansion of a $1 trillion national security apparatus focused in large part on fighting terrorism. And Republicans certainly are trying to squeeze every last drop of political advantage from the Paris tragedy.

Donald Trump, the front-runner for the GOP nomination, argues that if everyone had guns, the attacks last week waged by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) would’ve turned out differently. Tell that to people in Beirut, who suffered a devastating ISIS-backed attack the day before; Lebanon essentially has universal open carry. 

Former neurosurgeon Ben Carson, another top contender for his party’s nod next year, promised to set up a no-fly zone over Syria and shoot down Russian military aircraft — no one knows why. 

Marco Rubio, Florida’s junior senator, weighed in with some “clash of civilizations” nonsense, apparently forgetting the hundreds of thousands of Muslims fleeing their homes to avoid what is, in reality, a clash of extremists, created in the aftermath of GOP failures in their last disastrous ground war. 

Meanwhile, Republican governors are refusing to allow Syrian refugees in their states, both giving ISIS veto power over their policies while simultaneously ignoring the U.S. Constitution. They are apparently unaware that terrorists can drive, fly or take the train or Greyhound to their target, even across state lines. If a terrorist’s job is to terrorize, Republicans are his greatest allies, giddy to be terrorized. 

Meanwhile, these same hysterical Republicans betray their cynicism by refusing to call for true shared sacrifice. Why not offer to raise taxes on the wealthy to fund a new massive military expansion? Why not call for universal national service — military or otherwise — so that all Americans, regardless of socioeconomic status, have to do their part? 

Because they have no interest in paying for a new war or having their children or grandchildren fight it. The roster of American war dead and massive debt this past decade serve as testament to that. The poor can bleed while their families surrender their meager food stamps. Mitt Romney’s sons aren’t enlisting any time soon to fight the war their father is demanding. 

Republicans are more interested in ginning up fear of foreign terrorists than they are in dealing with massive domestic gun-related terrorism, even if it means another quarter-million Americans die in the next decade.

Moulitsas is the founder and publisher of Daily Kos.