Seriously, Folks

It's oh-so nice to see Jeb! Bush (R-FL) call for troops on the ground to fight ISIS.  No plan, mind you.  No military strategy, mind you.  No exit strategy, mind you.  No post-war strategy.  Just, hey, let's send the U.S. military storming into the Middle East.  Oh, those wacky Bush Boys.  This worked so well the first time around with Iraq with his older brother, didn't it?  

And oh-so-nice to hear Donald Trump (R-Trump Towers) taking out a hysterical radio ad ranting about hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees into the U.S. and bombing the hell out of ISIS and building the military until it's SO large that no one would dare attack us.  Because that's exactly the sort of thing that frightens off terrorists.  And no plan, mind you.  No strategy, mind you.  No exit strategy, mind you.  Just, hey, let's get involved in yet another massive war in the Middle East with no forethought.  What could possibly go wrong there??

And never mind asking where on earth did Mr. Trump come up with the Islamaphobic figure of hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees?  The last figure bandied about by government officials was a paltry 10,000.  At most, there have been calls for 60,000.  But why quibble over facts and reality when your in the midst of racist pandering to fear and hysteria?

And hey, over there, look it's Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) doing his best to pander to the most agonizingly fearful by insisting he wouldn't even let in three-year-old Syrian orphans.  Because, of course, they would...okay, sorry, I don't know why.  Maybe he thinks someone might have sneaked a bomb into their diapers that border security would miss, or maybe he thinks they'll grow up to hate the country that saved their lives, or perhaps he thinks saying anything less would make him look weak, as opposed to cruel and pandering.

And there are Rand Paul (R-KY) and Mike Huckabee (R-Fox News) insisting that no visas at all should be given to anyone from any Middle Eastern country.  Because that doesn't send a message to the world, to the Middle East, to the destitute and disenfranchised that Americas doesn't hate, hate you all -- hate you!! -- doesn't trust any last one of you because you look different, believe different, are different, and that America isn't at war with you all, with every last one of you, does it because you might be extremist an extremist terrorist, or know an extremist  terrorist, or live next to an extremist  terrorist, or heard about terrorists, or had your entire family and village and lives destroyed by extremist terrorists?  No reason for you all not to distrust and hate America from all that, is there?

​There are clearly serious global political issues in the world right now.  I would guess that most people agree with that statement.  The thing is, serious global political issues call for serious people and serious thought.  That would seem to be a given.  This is not a time for lightweights.  And lightweight ideas.  And lightweight solutions.  It is not a time for TV reality stars, real estate moguls and former neurosurgeons, and those trying to resurrect the tarnished legacy of their brother who helped get us into this mess and worsen the situation, creating the dysfunction that allowed ISIS to come into existence in the first place, or a time for any other demagogue trying desperately to pander fear and racism because they're so far beyond in the polls and need to look fake-tough and get some attention.

It is a time for actually serious people, who are able to deal with actually serious problems.

Serious global problems that right now are far more at issue for others many thousands of miles away, who right now have far more at stake than the United States does, with whom serious people can work to find a serious resolution.