My State’s Republican U.S. Senate primary in 2018 featured three candidates bidding up the level of servility promised to King Donald were they elected. The one who seemed to me most servile, Mike Braun, won the nomination and the election, and proceeded mostly to disappear into the D.C. swamp.
Now he has become a bit visible again. First, he expressed his preference for some impeachment trial (not summary dismissal of the articles of impeachment), contrary to the position Trump had just taken. So far, so good.
But then he joined Tom Cotton and the odious Ted Cruz in trying to get the Justice Department to investigate the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) on baseless suspicions of being agents of the Iranian government.
There’s little I detest more than thinly-veiled attacks on free speech, and this is one such attack:
The attack on NIAC is a symptom of a deeper pathology in our foreign policy debates. Supporters of hard-line policies routinely accuse critics of taking the side of other governments because those critics consistently best them in argument and demonstrate that those policies are harmful to the United States and the affected country. It is no coincidence that this latest attack comes in the wake of the complete failure of the Trump administration’s Iran policy. Sens. Cotton and Cruz in particular have been some of the loudest supporters of that policy, and its failure will expose them to considerable ridicule.
Hard-liners seek to impugn the integrity and loyalty of their critics, but in their ham-fisted attempts to attack their opponents they simply demonstrate their own lack of integrity. Advocates of a more peaceful and restrained foreign policy are no strangers to being falsely accused and misrepresented. We should stand with NIAC when they are being insulted and maligned in this way.
Shame on Mike Braun.
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All Christian readers could benefit from listening to the podcast The Struggle Against the Normal Life. It’s a short (11:05) detox for our toxic faux Christian environment.
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Tipsy Teetotaler ن 