Flynn: Democrats, rediscover your values.
DNC race is a critical first step for party as it eyes the future
A house divided against itself cannot stand. That was true when Lincoln said it in 1858, and it’s true today.
Donald Trump has badly divided our country. With no strong objection from his party, Trump publicly called on Russia to hack Hillary Clinton’s emails; he urged the “Second Amendment people” “to take care” of Clinton; and he urged that her body guards be disarmed.
Supported by his party, he initially denied Russian hacking, even though Vladimir Putin also hacked into European computers to disrupt elections in Germany and elsewhere. Trump and the Republicans joined with Putin in attacking President Barack Obama for his sanctions against Russia, and also joined Putin in falsely attacking our own intelligence agencies, claiming they were biased.
Some are urging that we “normalize” Trump for the common good. They argue that if we don’t normalize Trump, we hurt the country. But if we do normalize him, we also hurt the country by embracing Putin’s quisling.
To unify the country, we must start by rejecting all personal animosities over race and ethnicity that Trump has stirred up.
But it’s also important that we recognize the threat to our democracy from the present Republican Party. When the Republicans continue to defend or minimize Russia’s cyberattacks on our own citizens, we should introduce resolutions of censure in Congress. We should propose articles of impeachment if Trump continues to suggest assassination either directly (as he did with Hillary Clinton), or obliquely (as he does when he publicly threatens union leaders and journalists, who then get death threats). His odd deference, almost subservience, to Putin may suggest that the Russians have compromising information on him. If he continues to undermine NATO, and if he removes the sanctions on Russia without their compliance with the Minsk Agreement, that also should be grounds for impeachment.
The Democrats also must filibuster all Republican attempts to voucherize Medicare, privatize Social Security, interfere with personal liberties and civil rights, and repeal labor and environmental regulations.
But it is not enough to simply defend against Republican attacks on our core values. The Democratic Party also has to rediscover our historical roots. We are the party of strong defense, and the Republicans are the isolationist party. Until the 1970s, the Republicans criticized the Democrats for “starting every war in this century,” alluding to the First and Second World Wars, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. Until the 1970s, the adage was “vote Democratic, and we’ll be at war but the economy will be good; vote Republican and we’ll be in a recession.” That impression of the Democratic Party disappeared following general disillusionment with government over the Vietnam War and the assassinations of the Kennedy brothers and Martin Luther King Jr.
As part of a strong defense, we have to make it clear that we will keep jihad out of our country. The Trump voters who voted for Obama and Trump were not racist — they wanted change. Those voters were not Islamaphobic — they were properly concerned with 9/11, San Bernardino, Orlando, Fort Hood, Chattanooga, Chelsea, Ohio State and other atrocities, and they don’t want any more.
Jihad is not a religion, and it cannot be assimilated in our democracy. It historically has been a doctrine of invasion, murder and forced conversion. We are a secular society under our First Amendment. Religion is a private choice. There is a mistaken assumption by some that we must let people into the U.S. despite their beliefs because they have a “First Amendment right” to any belief, even if that belief is to destroy the First Amendment by tacitly acquiescing in occasional mass murder, to intimidate and change our culture to their liking.
The Constitution does not apply to anyone seeking to enter the United States. We can exclude anyone for any reason. For instance, men from El Salvador who wore gang tattoos were excluded, even though they claimed they didn’t belong to a gang, but allegedly had “a First Amendment right” to wear the tattoos. Another man was properly excluded despite objecting to the search of his laptop without a warrant because he had no Fourth Amendment rights.
No one who believes in and advocates jihad, no matter how it is explained, should be permitted in our country.
The reflexive anti-military feeling that crept into the Democratic Party after the end of the Vietnam War has got to be reversed. Democrats also have developed a tendency to divide themselves into ethnic, racial, gender and other categories. This creeping identity narcissism has got to stop. A balkanized America is a divided America. We are one country and one people.
There are presently two major candidates to chair the Democratic National Committee: Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison, and Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez. Perez did a good job, and was encouraged by Obama and Joe Biden to run.
Ellison was heavily involved with the Nation of Islam until he renounced it in 2006 when it became an issue in his congressional election. He wrote an article describing what he viewed as “the dubious circumstances under which Israel was founded.” In 2008, he took a $13,000 contribution to travel to Saudi Arabia, and concealed it by failing to disclose it on a mandatory congressional filing.
Ellison is less qualified than Perez on the merits to run our national party, and to speak for all Democrats. It’s important that Perez be elected.
The recent decision by Obama to abstain and refuse to veto an anti-Israel resolution in the U.N. was a serious mistake. It hurt our ally Israel, and hurt American interests. The election of Ellison over the more-qualified Perez would be seen as further dragging our party toward its fringe.
The Republican Party has surrendered to Trump. As a Dublin friend told me, the cat’s very much among the pigeons now.
There are more combat medals in union halls than hedge fund conference rooms. Only a revived Democratic Party can unify America.