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Title: Lindsey Graham Is An Unhinged Kook Who Shouldn’t Be Taken Seriously
Source:
The Federalist
URL Source: http://thefederalist.com/2015/05/19 ... o-shouldnt-be-taken-seriously/
Published: May 19, 2015
Author: Ben Domenech
Post Date: 2015-05-19 17:23:37 by Tooconservative
Ping List: *2016 The Likely Suspects* Subscribe to *2016 The Likely Suspects*
Keywords: None
Views: 3085
Comments: 10
He holds an expansive view of the unrestricted powers of the executive branch; a steadfast belief in protecting the administrative state; and he has expressed doubts about much of the Bill of Rights. He does not believe bloggers deserve first amendment protections. He does not believe Americans suspected of terrorist acts deserve to be read their rights. And he, like Hillary Clinton, believes the Citizens United decision was a monstrosity that ought to be overturned – he has called for a Constitutional amendment to do so. In more senses than one, Graham takes after John C. Calhoun – a warhawk with progressive views of government and an ahistorical view of the Constitution whose primary motivation, first and last, is power. Graham also regularly says things that are not just wacky, but absurd, even within his own established field of foreign policy and national security. The other day in Iowa, Senator Graham endorsed droning Americans without even calling a judge first. “If I’m president of the United States and you’re thinking about joining al-Qaeda or ISIL [the Islamic State], I’m not gonna call a judge,” Graham said, a reference to Sen. Rand Paul’s earlier remark about how the NSA should call a judge to obtain a warrant before tapping into people’s phone records. “I’m gonna call a drone and we will kill you.” In a conversation with Wolf Blitzer, his depiction of Saddam Hussein’s influence in the Middle East is just bizarre. To suggest that Saddam was a destabilizing force at the time America entered Iraq is nothing more than fanciful revisionism. But this is the sort of thing Graham does all the time. So why does Graham get away with it? Why is he viewed by some people as a serious person, where Michele Bachmann and Ben Carson and Donald Trump are not? Graham is held up by the television networks as an “adult” on foreign policy and national security, but his views are not just unconservative or hawkish, they are regularly unhinged and bereft of facts. The fact that he endures as a voice with any authority on matters foreign or domestic within the Republican Party is a sign of how unwilling the party is to seriously engage in internal debate about its future. This is why him running for president is a very great thing. Light will bring heat for the Senator, and I suspect that his DOA campaign will help publicize the extremism of his views in the context of the presidential field. Graham’s intent is to make the case for his particular brand of foreign policy. But by placing himself on stage with a number of candidates whose interest is in appealing to particular factions of the Republican coalition, Graham will be a useful foil for big government policies of a wide variety. For candidates who wish to appeal to those voters who value the constitution – and reject the Obama Administration’s approach to governance – Graham offers a tempting target on a plethora of subjects. Running for president doesn’t allow you the freedom of the Senate floor to merely talk about what you want to talk about, and I suspect that he may spend more time defending his domestic policy views than advocating for his foreign policy perspective, both of which are equally unhinged.
Subscribe to *2016 The Likely Suspects* Yesterday Lindsey Graham expressed his interest in yes, for real, becoming a presidential candidate for 2016. Spend any amount of time around the good senator and you’ll hear more extreme sentiments expressed publicly than from any other candidate for the Republican nomination.
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#1. To: TooConservative (#0)
Senator Graham is basically promising a military coup, including taking congress prisoner, until they deliver the defense budget that he wants. The media is pretending that it never happened. Que Sgt. Schultz... I know nothing! News black out. So, we're left with this report from the "World Socialist Website". The source sucks, but I believe that the story is true. The protracted 2016 presidential campaign cycle has already begun, and with it the close attention of the media to the statements made by prospective candidates in hopes of discovering even the slightest “gaffe” that can be turned into a political news item. All the more odd then that the remarks made at a New Hampshire town hall meeting by one Republican presidential hopeful, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, have been virtually blacked out by all of the major print and broadcast outlets. Asked by a member of the audience what he would do about automatic cuts to the Pentagon budget that would go into effect because of sequestration, Graham responded that the problem had left him sick to his stomach. He continued: “And here is the first thing I would do if I were President of the United States: I wouldn’t let Congress leave town until we fix this. I would literally use the military to keep them in if I had to. We’re not leaving town until we restore these defense cuts. We’re not leaving town until we restore the intel cuts.” The statement is extraordinary. A candidate for the presidency of the United States vows that, once elected, he would use the military to impose his—and its—will upon a recalcitrant Congress. Presumably, troops would hold members of the House and Senate at gunpoint until they produced the results demanded. What Graham described is in essence a military coup, much like those organized by the Pentagon and the CIA in countries like Iran, Guatemala, Brazil, Indonesia, Chile and Argentina, claiming hundreds of thousands of lives in the process. Graham’s aides subsequently tried to portray Graham’s statement as an attempt at humor, insisting that it was not to be taken “literally,” even though the candidate himself stressed that unleashing the military on Congress was “literally” something he would do. The only corporate media outlet to produce anything on the incident was Bloomberg news. It cynically headlined its piece, “How a Lindsey Graham Joke Turned into a Coup Plot Against the Government.” Most of the article was dedicated to mocking what the author termed the “ideological media” for treating “the Graham joke as a serious proposal.” The New York Times, the supposed “paper of record,” maintained a complete silence on Graham’s remarks. It did post a puff piece reporting that Graham is one of a number of senators who “rarely or never use email,” while noting reassuringly that “Lawmakers can certainly be effective without using email since they employ staff who send messages on their behalf.” Hot news indeed. A Washington Post politics blog featured the same email story. Graham’s statement about dispatching troops to Capitol Hill received only the absolute minimal and indirect reference in another online Washington Post blog: a link to the Bloomberg story, saying nothing about its content and describing it as a piece that “explains how a meaningless remark becomes a ‘gaffe.’” Graham’s remark was no mere “gaffe,” much less meaningless. It expresses real relations within the US government, which after nearly 14 years of continuous war has seen an immense growth in the power and influence of the military and intelligence apparatus. This protracted eruption of militarism has gone hand-in-hand with the monopolization of wealth and political power in the hands of a financial oligarchy and the unprecedented deepening of social inequality. These processes, rooted in the crisis of American capitalism, have steadily eroded and hollowed out what remains of constitutional government and democratic rights in the US. These relations have found concrete expression in the ongoing discussions over sequestration and the military budget, with a parade of generals, admirals and civilian Pentagon officials coming before Congress to predict catastrophe and global defeat if any part of the gargantuan spending on arms and military operations is cut. The all but stated premise behind this testimony is that the generals and admirals are the only ones qualified to set military policy, and the Congress, ostensibly consisting of the elected representatives of the people, should get out of their way. This is a viewpoint that elements like Graham echo and endorse. Under conditions of deepening crisis and rising social conflict, it is not such a leap from this position to the military taking a more direct hand in dictating government policy, along the lines suggested by Graham to the town meeting in New Hampshire. If the corporate media has no interest in probing the real relations underlying Graham’s remarks, it is because it is fully complicit in the conspiracies to wage war abroad and eviscerate democratic rights at home. It is fulfilling its function as an instrument of the corporate and financial elite: not to expose or clarify, but to cover up the real dangers confronting the working class.
Certainly, his public statements about using the military to confine Congress to the Beltway until they pass a defense budget Miz Lindsey thinks appropriate sounds pretty similar.
Well, as they say, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree . . .
Grahm & McStain, both are "Wacko Birds", of the first order.
Si vis pacem, para bellum
But they're the kind of wackos the establishMedia likes. I think for a while Juan was even a permanent guest on "Meet the Press". Or was that center square on "Hollywood Squares"? I get so confused . . .
Or was that center square on "Hollywood Squares"? " He should have been a permanent guest in the padded room in the loony bin.
Si vis pacem, para bellum
Naw,he's just one more ambitious homosexual looking out for number 1. He may have started out as someone with good intentions,but being a homo makes him prime blackmail material,and there is nothing "the man behind the curtain" loves than politically powerful "front men" that can be pushed out into the public and be seen to make the decisions and push the agenda they want so they don't have to expose themselves. This has always been one of the prime reasons I have always supported equality and equal rights for homosexuals. For all of modern history you can look at the homosexuals in powerful positions that were blackmailed into committing treason. Granted,you can NOT blackmail a honorable person into committing treason,but nobody in modern politics puts honor above power . We might now like this truth,but it is one we live with.
Why is democracy held in such high esteem when it’s the enemy of the minority and makes all rights relative to the dictates of the majority? (Ron Paul,2012)
Or was that center square on "Hollywood Squares"? I get so confused . . . Yeah,you are confused. You have McLunatic confused with Paul Lynde. Lynde was the funny one.
Why is democracy held in such high esteem when it’s the enemy of the minority and makes all rights relative to the dictates of the majority? (Ron Paul,2012)
He is a US Senator,which makes him one of the most powerful people in the world. He should be taken VERY seriously. Seriously enough to be removed from office and put on trial for corruption and abuse of office. He should also have about 90 co-conspirators on trial with him at the same time.
Why is democracy held in such high esteem when it’s the enemy of the minority and makes all rights relative to the dictates of the majority? (Ron Paul,2012)
That bears repeating, sneaky.
http://www.tedcruz.org
Why the media silence on Lindsey Graham’s vow to use the military to force vote in Congress?
By Bill Van Auken
14 March 2015 The D&R terrorists hate us because we're free, to vote second party
"We (government) need to do a lot less, a lot sooner" ~Ron Paul
#2. To: hondo68 (#1)
News black out. So, we're left with this report from the "World Socialist Website". The source sucks, but I believe that the story is true.
#3. To: TooConservative (#0)
Lindsey Graham Is An Unhinged Kook
#4. To: Rufus T Firefly (#3)
#5. To: Stoner (#4)
Grahm & McStain, both are "Wacko Birds", of the first order.
#6. To: Rufus T Firefly (#5)
" I think for a while Juan was even a permanent guest on "Meet the Press".
#7. To: TooConservative (#0)
#8. To: Rufus T Firefly (#5)
I think for a while Juan was even a permanent guest on "Meet the Press".
#9. To: TooConservative (#0)
#10. To: sneakypete (#7)
you can NOT blackmail a honorable person into committing treason,but nobody in modern politics puts honor above power.
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