Dec 8^th

There is no shortage of curious right wing material to write about today; I’ll begin with Donald Trump. Trump was interviewed this morning on “Morning Joe” and that interview has been replayed over and over again…and with good reason. Trump, the previous evening had brought his audience to its feet by asserting that this country should refuse to admit any Muslims. Now he was given an opportunity to expand on this idea.

It was not really an interview; we assume an interview means that the interviewee is asked questions and supplies answers that clarifies or expands his position. This was an attempt at an interview with several people calmly asking Trump questions and Trump, before the questioner could finished with the question, interrupting and veering off the topic to something he, Trump, preferred to discuss. Then the questioner would calmly return to his original question and get the same non-response from Trump all over again.

One of Trumps diversions was to rehash the discredited comments by “Bobby” Jindal, the Governor of Louisiana, who claimed that there were sections of London where the police dared not go. When put on the spot he couldn’t name them. Now Trump has tried the same trick only Trump has added Paris to London as cities having Muslim sections where the police fear to go. When Scarborough asked Trump which sections of Paris he was talking about Trump just kept insisting that it was Paris. Trump’s standard response to questions he doesn’t like is to ignore them and keep talking.

Trump effectively dominated the discussion by talking incessantly until Scarborough finally said that if he kept up his uninterrupted flow of speech, Scarborough would go to a commercial break. Trump kept talking and Scarborough went to a break cutting him off in mid-sentence.

First of all, such a ban on Muslims entering the country would not be Constitutional. Second, the very suggestion of such a ban by a leading political figure will do major damage to any attempt by this government to build a coalition of Arab (Muslim) states to fight ISIL. Jordan, that had one of its pilots burned alive, and has been a staunch ally now learns that its citizens cannot enter the United States. Whose side is Trump on? If boots go on the ground to defeat ISIL they will have to be Muslim boots. Trump is a disaster for this country’s efforts to defeat ISIL.

Trump isn’t getting much support on this issue from other Presidential candidates; they reject his position on prohibiting Muslims entering the country, usually in unequivocal terms…with one exception. Ted Cruz is very gentle with Trump. Cruz says that he “disagrees” with Trump’s proposal to ban Muslims from entering the country but that he will not criticize him. What a surprise! Cruz is waiting for Trump to flame out and then Cruz expects that he will inherit the Trump supporters. This only works if Cruz doesn’t get on the wrong side of Trump and friends so Cruz is being very careful. For some conservatives, practical considerations trump principle every time.