Republicans Should Stay Silent on ISIS?

According to a front page article on the Daily Beast this week, Republicans are winning over voters only by “pressing the ISIS fear button,” convincing the public that Democrats are not equipped to handle the coming war.

My response: are they wrong?

First of all, it’s an election year, so to feign surprise that one party or the other is hammering weak points is disingenuous at best. That’s what politics are all about. When it comes to ISIS, though, this is no phantom issue. Under Obama’s leadership, the terror group has formed, grown strong, and is now poised to undo everything we accomplished in Iraq. That’s only the beginning. If we can’t get our borders under control – if we can’t get serious about stopping Americans from joining the group – we could see another major catastrophe at home.

Democrats and War

No one trusts the Democrats to run a war of this scale. They don’t have the heart for it. The liberals that form the base of the party want to concentrate on anything but national security. We have now an awkward situation where the same people who wanted nothing to do with Iraq are praising the president for his airstrikes. Even so, there is mounting evidence that warfare from the skies will not be enough to dismantle this former branch of Al Qaeda.

The DB article is one of many that criticizes Scott Brown and Tom Cotton for warning that ISIS may be using our southern border as a point of entry, but where is the proof that they’re wrong? Why is that so unimaginable to a liberal? Because the government says officially that it’s not happening? The administration has more than enough reasons to downplay any threat at the border, not the least of which is Obama’s impending amnesty.

Misrepresenting the Facts

It’s not the substance of these articles so much as the tone. Consider this sentence from the Beast article: “In recent weeks, GOP campaigns and outside groups, looking for any voter trend to capitalize on in the homestretch, have seized on Democratic incumbents’ records on foreign policy and their past support for Obama administration policies.” That paints the picture of a desperate GOP grasping at straws. Why are these invalid topics in 2014?

If you want to talk about election year desperation, you need look no further than Wendy Davis’ disgusting “wheelchair ad.” But if you needed more evidence, you could also look at the Dems newest strategy: blaming Republicans for Ebola. This is true desperation and Americans are too smart to fall for the idiocy.

All of this comes at a time when the situation in the Middle East is growing more dire by the day. That isn’t “pressing the fear button”; it’s simply reviewing the facts. A recent report showed that ISIS has used Saddam Hussein’s old chemical weapons against the Kurds in Kobani. And despite a 60-country strong coalition, ISIS continues to take new ground in Iraq. There is, in fact, little evidence that our current military campaigns are having any effect at all on their progress.

If Republicans didn’t play the ISIS card, they would be irresponsible. Voters deserve to know which party will better protect the country.