Paul Ryan’s Response: Less American Values and More Assault Weapons to Terrorists

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Last night, President Obama ripped Republican candidates for betraying our values during a national address. He also called on Congress to stop the sale of assault weapons to terrorists, something Republicans controlling Congress have refused to do, while insisting Obama is not tough enough on terrorism.

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) was, of course, quick to respond:

“Our primary responsibility is to keep the American people safe from the real and evolving threat of radical Islamic terrorism. That will require the president to produce a comprehensive strategy to confront and defeat ISIS. The enemy is adapting, and we must too. That’s why what we heard tonight was so disappointing: no new plan, just a half-hearted attempt to defend and distract from a failing policy.

“American families should have confidence that our leaders are working together to address this threat. That’s why this week the House will vote on a bipartisan bill to update our visa waiver program to reduce the risk of an extremist entering the country from abroad. This legislation builds on a recent bipartisan vote to strengthen the certification requirements in our refugee program.

“But the ultimate solution is a comprehensive plan to eliminate the extremist threat, and only the commander-in-chief can provide that. The horrific events of recent weeks remind us that any hope to contain ISIS has been a failure. Until we hear from the president what more can be done —with our military, our intelligence-gathering, and our international partners — we will remain one step behind our enemy. This is not just the next president’s problem. It is our problem, and we must confront it today.”

Nothing was said by Ryan about common sense gun laws. Nothing about why Ryan wants terrorists to be able to buy assault rifles.

As the White House tweeted Sunday night,

It was certain from the moment the identity of the killers broke, that the San Bernadino mass shooting would be treated differently than any other shooting, because our other recent mass shootings have been carried out by white men – not by Muslims, but by Christian domestic terrorists.

The Planned Parenthood shooting is absolutely an example of Republican thinking gone awry. It was committed by a white man who had been influenced by Republican hate speech and support for a faked video about Planned Parenthood. Every Republican candidate is partly to blame for what happened. Congress is responsible as well, for not embracing common sense gun laws.

Who is going to keep us safe from domestic terrorists like him? Who is going to keep us safe from Paul Ryan and a Republican-controlled Congress?

Nothing was said by Ryan about betraying our core values by imposing religious tests on refugees, or profiling them on the basis of religion. Their recipe of hate is only going to radicalize more Muslims, just as their recipe of hate continues to radicalize “white Christian Republicans.”

While Ryan insists Obama develop a plan to protect us from Islamic terrorists, he wants no action taken at all to protect us from domestic terrorists. In fact, by promising to continue with the hate speech that has become the knee-jerk response to all things Islam and abortion, Ryan promises to make us less safe.

Remember this?

Yeah…it’s not. It’s the same old day. New face, same narrative.

CBS, introducing the address, put hack Chuck Todd on camera to tell us that the president should have addressed the nation already. Nothing about Obama will ever satisfy the conservative trolls who dominate the mainstream media. Nothing Obama says will change the Republican response in Congress, which is at this point as predictable as death and taxes.

It is Republican politics as usual, in a speech that could have as easily come out of the mouth of John Boehner. Nothing changed when Boehner stepped down and nothing is going to change. Republicans want to to back to September 12, 2001. They want fear and they want hate, they want a compliant president who will do their bidding – and they want war, endless war.

Republicans will complain about President Obama’s address Sunday night on the basis of this or that, but until they embrace Ameican core values and common sense gun laws, they have no right at all to claim that it is Obama who is doing nothing about terrorism.

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Hrafnkell Haraldsson

Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen's Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.

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