Biden surrendered to the Saudis?
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Pretty sure our whole government has tbh
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Republicans have never given a single fuck about 9/11 or Supporting The Troops or firemen or any of this dumb performative patriotic bullshit. They started a massively unpopular war, lied to everyone about it, and Dems have absolutely no clue what to do with any of that. I guarantee you Biden would go up 20 points in popularity if he threw a shoe at W but he’s too dumb and too cowardly to ever even think about doing that. Just play along with the bad-faith nationalist bullshit and tut-tut Trump as he puts on a boxing match like a fucking boss.
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Democrats have lived in fear of bad faith Republican attacks. Especially now after Trump EVERYONE knows, including independents, that the attacks are bad faith. They still cow tow.
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Democratic voters are beyond desperate for someone to stand up to the bully. These boomer assholes severely underestimate how demoralizing it is to never get any emotionally satisfying reinforcement.
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One of the smartest things Republicans have ever done is to throw W under the bus. It was a ballsy move given how popular he was in the 2000s, but they’ve correctly understood that the public hates the twerp and his useless never ending wars.
Which leaves idiot Hollywood Dems making these dumbass “You gotta hand it to W!” tweets that resonate with no one. Absolute fucking losers, they deserve fifty years of Trump.
https://twitter.com/robreiner/status/1436751059649589251?s=21
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We all remember that America of the past that was… compassionate to Muslims and immigrants? What the fuck are you talking about, Rob?
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We need some social media-savvy young Dems who relish in trolling Republicans.
Just because its an America that he made up in his head doesn’t mean that he doesn’t remember it. I vividly remember my naked frolicking with Scarlett Johansson.
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You don’t remember that immigrant loving Archie bunker ?
Reiner’s memory is fine; it’s not made up in his head. For all his faults and deserved criticism, Bush tried hard to contain the growing anti-Muslim sentiment after 9/11. On 9/15, a Sikh-American in Arizona was murdered in an act of retaliation for 9/11. There was a palpable rise in rage and animosity directed not at Muslim terrorists, but at American Muslims themselves.
Less than a week after 9/11, Bush gave a speech at the Islamic Center in D.C. that is now know as the “Islam is Peace” speech. You can call it empty words and you can say it didn’t work and maybe you’d be right. But the speech was good and the fact that he gave it when and where he did is admirable.
Thank you all very much for your hospitality. We’ve just had a – wide-ranging discussions on the matter at hand. Like the good folks standing with me, the American people were appalled and outraged at last Tuesday’s attacks. And so were Muslims all across the world. Both Americans and Muslim friends and citizens, tax-paying citizens, and Muslims in nations were just appalled and could not believe what we saw on our TV screens.
These acts of violence against innocents violate the fundamental tenets of the Islamic faith. And it’s important for my fellow Americans to understand that.
The English translation is not as eloquent as the original Arabic, but let me quote from the Koran, itself: In the long run, evil in the extreme will be the end of those who do evil. For that they rejected the signs of Allah and held them up to ridicule.
The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. That’s not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace. These terrorists don’t represent peace. They represent evil and war.
When we think of Islam we think of a faith that brings comfort to a billion people around the world. Billions of people find comfort and solace and peace. And that’s made brothers and sisters out of every race – out of every race.
America counts millions of Muslims amongst our citizens, and Muslims make an incredibly valuable contribution to our country. Muslims are doctors, lawyers, law professors, members of the military, entrepreneurs, shopkeepers, moms and dads. And they need to be treated with respect. In our anger and emotion, our fellow Americans must treat each other with respect.
Women who cover their heads in this country must feel comfortable going outside their homes. Moms who wear cover must be not intimidated in America. That’s not the America I know. That’s not the America I value.
I’ve been told that some fear to leave; some don’t want to go shopping for their families; some don’t want to go about their ordinary daily routines because, by wearing cover, they’re afraid they’ll be intimidated. That should not and that will not stand in America.
Those who feel like they can intimidate our fellow citizens to take out their anger don’t represent the best of America, they represent the worst of humankind, and they should be ashamed of that kind of behavior.
This is a great country. It’s a great country because we share the same values of respect and dignity and human worth. And it is my honor to be meeting with leaders who feel just the same way I do. They’re outraged, they’re sad. They love America just as much as I do.
I want to thank you all for giving me a chance to come by. And may God bless us all.
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Republican voters hated that Bush said nice stuff about Muslims. It’s why they hated McCain too (remember “but he’s an Arab?”). It was only a matter of time before someone gave the audience what it wanted - pure, uncut bigotry.
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Bush spent his his entire first term saying nice things about (American) Muslims and was easily reelected. Republicans 20 years ago were superficially fine with “compassionate conservatism” (as an counter to the notion that Dems had cornered the market on empathy and compassion) but now most of those Republicans are dead or radicalized by Facebook and Trump.
“W said nice things about Muslims” isn’t the same as “America was compassionate to Muslims and immigrants”. While W was giving them right purty speeches, Americans were throwing severed pigs’ heads onto Islamic schools. COMPASSION!
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Reiner’s general point was to contrast the general sentiments of 20 years ago vs. today. Is there really any dispute that America 20 years ago was more compassionate to Muslims and immigrants? Regardless of a handful of heinous acts by fringe actors (including murders like the one I already mentioned), I think his point stands.
On the other hand, I just remembered the “Ground Zero Mosque” controversy so maybe I’m crazy.
In 2001 I was still in grad school and wore my beard rather long. This was not common for young guys at the time. After 9/11 guys would regularly yell and threaten me as they drove by in their cars (I am pretty obviously a regular white guy) and would accelerate at me if I jaywalked a block in front of them. This happened a bunch of times, twice guys pulled over to confront me. It was legitimately disconcerting and I eventually trimmed it a lot closer. This was in Austin btw, ostensibly the world’s most liberal city.
If Facebook was ubiquitous in 2001 there wouldn’t be any misunderstanding. X% of Americans have always been absolute shit heads. Its just that now they have a digital megaphone.
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It was superficial and fake, though. It’s like Jack Bauer on 24 having a Muslim buddy so you know he’s not racist. Republicans pre-Trump hated the fuck out of Muslims and immigrants, thought it was awesome when we stripped random Muslims and dog-walked them around Abu Ghraib and waterboarded them. All Trump did was dispense with the bullshit and say what they were thinking all along.
idk if they “hated” it so much as they knew it was kayfaybe. It was dumb performative shit Bush had to say so people wouldn’t call him racist. Republican voters are in some ways a lot more savvy than we give them credit for: they know what’s said in bad faith and what is authentic.
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You don’t even need to expand the circle past Bush. Bush did say a few nice words a few times and then promptly oversaw a huge security state that was infested with racism towards Muslims, created huge Muslim oriented dragnets, framed random Muslim kids who couldn’t barely tie their own shoes, etc.
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