Like the other candidates in the CNN-run GOP debate, Donald Trump and Rand Paul discussed terrorism as if it meant “Islamic terrorism.”
CNN’s debate Tuesday night was billed as a debate focusing on national security, foreign policy and terrorism. As CNN‘s Wolf Blitzer said as he introduced the questioning:
Since you last debated, Americans have witnessed terror attacks in Paris and San Bernardino. The FBI director says the country now faces the greatest terror threat since 9/11. You all have different approaches to keeping the country safe. And that will be the focus of tonight’s debate.
A large part of the two-hour ordeal was consumed by “Islamic terrorism” and the threat posed by the Islamic State, nominally in response to the Paris and San Bernardino attacks. The candidates fell over each other to see who could be tougher on “radical Islamic violence,” pushing for more bombing (in the case of Ted Cruz, more “carpet bombing”), more surveillance, more racial profiling and more curbing of free speech.
Missing entirely from this debate, however, was the very real threat posed by white terrorism. (“Terrorism” is a term thinking people could in general do without, but for purposes of consistency I’ll use it here to describe sub-state political violence.) The justification for this omission is entirely unclear.
Certainly it wasn’t, as some proposed, because the debate was focused on “foreign threats.” Indeed, this would have excluded the San Bernardino attack, which was homegrown, according to the FBI—yet merited 18 mentions. Ben Carson began the debate doing his best James Cameron impression and calling for a somewhat awkward moment of silence for the victims of the San Bernardino killings.
None of CNN’s moderators, nor any of the nine candidates, mentioned the very real threat posed by white political violence. None mentioned the racist terrorism of Dylann Roof, who killed nine African-Americans in Charleston South Carolina. None mentioned the Christian terrorism of Robert Dear, who attacked a Planned Parenthood last month, killing three and injuring 14 others. None mentioned that fact that in the 14 years since 9/11, white terrorism has killed more Americans in the United States than Jihadist terrorism.
In a two-hour debate with over 20,000 words spoken, there was not one mention of “Charleston” or “Planned Parenthood,” or any reference to white or Christian terrorism. For CNN, the issue of terrorism is limited only to those who exercise political grievances violently and also have brown skin.
Also left unmentioned was gun violence and climate change—both a threat to safety and global security. (John Kasich did make a disparaging reference to the recent UN summit on global warming: “And when I see they have a climate conference over in Paris, they should have been talking about destroying ISIS.”) With the exception of Rand Paul, who made a passing reference to Obama flooding Syria with arms, no candidate—and, again, no CNN moderator—mentioned America’s epidemic of gun violence or the pending dangers of global, catastrophic climate change.
This can be expected from the GOP, who live in an alternate reality where neither gun violence or climate change exists, but what’s CNN’s excuse? The cable network prides itself on being “down the middle” and nonpartisan. If this is the case, then why did they accept the deluded Republican premise that the only threats facing the United States are from scary foreigners, Russia, Muslims and homegrown ISIS wannabes?
Adam H. Johnson is an associate editor at AlterNet and writes frequently for FAIR.org. Follow him on Twitter at @adamjohnsonnyc.
Messages to CNN can be sent to here (or via Twitter @CNN). Please remember that respectful communication is the most effective.
Climate Blame Exaggeration Was Liberalism’s Iraq War.
Are you eager “believers” and your climate blame science gods also only 99% certain smoking causes cancer and why do you deny 34 more unstoppable years of climate action delay, debate and global denial?
Abusing vague science wasn’t worth the price of fear mongering billions of innocent children like the neocons you climate drama queens hissy fit hate so much.
A few comments:
“White terrorism” really is a terrible description. What you’re describing is terrorism from non-Jihadist rightists, as opposed to terrorism from Jihadist rightists.
Also glaringly missing from this article is what should have been part of its lede, Rand Paul’s flat assertion that “Every terrorist attack we’ve had since 9/11 has been legal immigration.” In reality, of course, terrorist attacks in the U.S. in that time have come from domestic rightists, with the non-Jihadist rightists claiming a larger death-toll than the Jihadist rightists.
Both the Republican candidates and this author are playing fast and loose with the definition of terrorism.
The author defines it as “sub state violence”. This is wrong in both directions. States engage in terrorism on a daily basis. And all violence below the level of the state is not terrorism.
Saudi Arabia, the United States, Israel, and Iran DO engage in terrorism. Bobby on the playground, who punched Jimmy, does not.
To David Nutzuki:
Climate change is not a ‘Liberalism issue’. It’s a statement of scientific fact. It is not ‘fear mongering’ to point out that it is happening; by and large, people are not declaring it to be the end of the world in the making. They are simply pointing out that it will have – indeed already is having – undesirable consequences that we need to do a far better job of being prepared for.
The science of climate change is not ‘vague’, the evidence to indicate that it is real and human-activity-related is substantial. All suggestions that it is ‘natural’ – a label usually left undefined by the deniers – fail to stand up to scrutiny. Current natural conditions i.e. a very slight reduction in sun activity over the last 40 years, and the tilt and orbit of the Earth projecting away from the sun, should cause a very gradual cooling over the course of centuries. Instead, we are getting the most rapid warming climate-geological studies have ever detected, in the space of just a few decades.
The increased CO2 content of the atmosphere is a giveaway of Man’s involvement. Naturally occurring CO2 tends to be melted from subducted rocks below the Earth’s surface, which is then released back into the air by volcanic eruptions. But most of the increased CO2 since the early-20th Century has been detected as being oxidised i.e. it was burnt and reacted with the oxygen in the air when released into the atmosphere, rather than melted. That shows that it was released by the burning of fossil fuels.
It *is* happening, and it *is* mankind that is the main cause of it. Call me a drama queen if you like, but if I stated anything different, I would simply be telling lies instead.
To Martin Odoni Re.David Nutzuki: Your comment on global warming was as good as they get.Thanks for your scientific knowledge, erudition and … well … sanity.
As for the end of the world in the making, though, well-qualified paleoclimatologists are predicting just exactly that unless mankind reduces its ever-increasing dependence of fossil fuels.
Fair.org
“CNN… The cable network prides itself on being “down the middle” and nonpartisan.”
But surely, CNN is a dictatorship, actually a Republican dictatorship as the dictator owners are among the richest of the rich Republicans. And as all of mainstream media is one grand Republican brainwash, in the grand scheme of things we live in a Republican dictatorship that looks like a democracy.