How The Paris Attacks Change The US 2016 Election

So, I had plans this week to cover all the usual crap we all wade through week after week in this 2016 election campaign. I was going to touch on the not-at-all exciting Democratic debate in Iowa, in which Hillary Clinton claimed that Wall Street gives her millions of dollars because, you know, 9/11. I was going to discuss Ben Carson’s terrible stabbing skills, Trump calling out Starbucks and the Wall Street Journal, Ron Paul’s and Chris Christie’s recent strong debate performances, and Hillary’s ridiculous “I almost joined the Marines” story. As it turns out, I am not going to touch on any of that.

Nope, Paris happened instead, and all that other shit got flushed down my mental toilet, only to be replaced by The Rage. You all know The Rage. It is that feeling when you see a journalist beheaded, and you hear the taunt of the self-proclaimed Islamic defender holding up the severed head of some 25-year-old who was just doing his job. It is The Rage you feel when you hear about gay men being thrown off buildings in Iraq and Syria. It is the same you feel when a Jordanian pilot is burned alive inside a cage. You feel The Rage when you bear witness to the savagery committed by the animals we face, and you long to do something about it, to boot-stomp them back into the medieval shit-hole from which they crawled, the self-designated defenders and interpreters of an entire religion.

In terms of American politics and the 2016 election, we may very well have arrived at a tipping point. While the president goes to heroic lengths to avoid ascribing these barbarities to Islam—and George W. Bush did the same, professing that we were not at war with Islam—it appears that a critical mass of Americans no longer believe that, and have joined with ISIS in coming to the conclusion that we are, in fact, at war with radical Islam.

People in America’s heartland, for whom I hesitate to speak of in broad terms—and yet, will try—are sick and tired of hearing the theological academic arguments from the elites that ISIS and al-Qa’ida do not represent true Islam, and thus should be seen only as “extremists,” or “terrorists,” or whatever the name du jour might be. Your common American has no time for these meaningless academic debates when Jihadi John lops off another head, and eight pieces of human garbage shoot-up unarmed civilians on the streets of Paris. America’s blood is boiling.

Certainly, the president does not appear to empathize with The Rage, as he strives to remain dispassionate and remind us all that the war against ISIS is going really well. He sits firmly with those detached, aloof, strategic-thinking elites in Washington and New York who cannot come to grips with The Rage—who may not even feel it. Well, they had better be prepared to suffer the consequences of ignoring it, at this point.

So, what might those consequences be? President Obama appears weak in his response. There is simply no way around that fact, and I am one who thinks his response to al-Qa’ida in Pakistan and Afghanistan has been strong. However, against ISIS, he is losing the fight. First, he refuses to name the enemy—radical Islam—thus appearing to show more concern for political correctness than for winning. Second, he has called ISIS the “JV,” saying they are weak, and he claims they are losing in Syria. Third, he refuses to even acknowledge the legitimate concern that Syrian refugees might be infiltrated by, at a minimum, ISIS sympathizers, while governors across America begin to refuse to accept them.

If the president, and the “establishment” in general, aren’t careful, they will be guaranteeing the victory of Donald Trump in 2016. Mark my words. Not to compare Trump to far right parties in Europe, but similar conditions are allowing the rise of far-right parties across the continent. Large numbers of people in those countries—and more and more in America—simply refuse to fall in line with the elites, to see things rationally, and to think strategically. Can you blame them?

They face what they see as an existential, cultural, and physical threat coming from a religiously fanatical organization that wants to kill them and their families. They can be forgiven, once blood begins spilling in their home countries, for moving beyond rational and well-thought out arguments against closing borders and refusing to see the fight as one between civilizations. They have moved beyond the talking phase, in other words, and are ready to push back hard, shoving shit down the throat of radical Islam.

Elites, you need to wake up and take a different tack against this threat. Your words and tactics are ringing hollow and feckless, and you are allowing those to your right flank to offer the only alternative response to this growing threat. You may not think ISIS is as big a deal as they do, but you better start to, or be prepared to move out of the way, and let someone like Trump lead us into the fight. The ball is in your court.