The Terror Hypocrisy

Steve Benen nails one out of the park taking out Neil Boortz and the Pretty Hate Machine.

Specifically, Boortz argued, "ObamaCare will do more damage than a successful terrorist bombing of an airliner ... and kill more people as well." [ellipses in the original]

Obviously, no sane person seriously believes this. But I can't help but notice how frequently far-right voices compare terrorism to other policy developments, and consider terrorism less dangerous.

Terrorism is bad, conservatives say, but Democrats are worse.

Terrorism is bad, conservatives say, but health care reform is worse.

Terrorism is bad, conservatives say, but unionized TSA employees are worse.

Terrorism is bad, conservatives say, but liberal federal judges are worse.

There seems to be a disconnect within the right-wing worldview. On the one hand, the standard conservative line insists that the threat posed by violent religious extremists, determined to kill Americans through acts of terrorism, is the existential threat facing the West in the 21st century. On the other hand, it's surprisingly common to hear conservatives suggest terrorism isn't as threatening as whatever issue has Republicans worked up on a given day.

It can't be both.

The right should make up its mind, because at this point, it seems as if far too many conservatives aren't taking U.S. efforts to combat terrorism seriously.

Nice.  Absolutely frackin' beautiful, even.  Terrorism has alwyas, always been a political football for the Republicans.  The reality is that we should be laughing at any Bush-era Republican who says they are strong on national security, because they failed us and the country before and on 9/11, it's that simple.  Bush was president, and Americans died because he ignored the intel.  Then he went and started wars to compound his failure.

Now Republicans somehow believe they have a better record than Obama on terrorism, which is laughable. Benen nails the GOP to the wall.