I’m not sure anything better captures the GOP’s inability to grasp what’s happening to it than the House Freedom Caucus wrestling with how to grapple with the rise of Donald Trump and how to resist his candidacy. Donald Trump is the Freedom Caucus. You might even say, in the beginning was the Freedom Caucus. And then the Freedom Caucus became flesh and walked among us. And his name was Donald Trump.
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From John Judis ...
Another terrorist attack, this time in Brussels. I don’t see an end to these, and at the same time I don’t think Americans or Europeans will accept a strategy of letting them play out on the grounds that less people die in terrorist attacks than in highway accidents or bathtub electrocutions. They will strengthen the hand of interventionists, but not sufficiently so that the threat can finally be eliminated rather than exacerbated. They will draw the United States and Europe into a conflict that it is not prepared to fight to the end, which would involve not just the military, but unprecedented diplomatic moves that would undo 150 years of Western intervention in the Middle East and North Africa.
Several points here:
After you read this, you might miss Dick Cheney’s credulous legalisms, squirmy rationales, and unconvincing denials on torture.
TPM Reader RM responds to John Judis:
I disagree with John Judis’ analysis regarding the terrorist attack in Europe. I think he conflates issues in the Middle East with those of the Muslim community living abroad. I don’t think the two are linked as closely as he assumes. I also think he conflates terrorism (a tactic) with the ideology of militant Islamic fundamentalism.
Utah teen injured in the Brussels airport attack was also about a block away from the Boston marathon bombing.
Tierney Sneed is at the Supreme Court for us this morning for oral arguments in Zubik v. Burwell, better known as the Little Sisters of the Poor case. This is the challenge to the Obamacare contraception mandate in which religious-affiliated employers claim that even filling out the form to opt out of providing contraception coverage amounts to a violation of their religious freedom. Here’s Tierney on what to watch for.
This story understandably was a little buried by the Brussels coverage yesterday, but you really should read about how House Republicans are following up on the criminal indictments against the Bundys et al. As one reader put it: Militia Lives Matter.
The backlash against Ted Cruz’s call to “patrol and secure” Muslim neighborhoods was immediate and from mostly expected quarters. But the NYPD got in on the action, John Kasich joined in, and even Fox’s Bill O’Reilly grilled Cruz. And if you look at the series of caveats and hedges issued by his campaign and Cruz over the course of the day yesterday, it’s as close to a capitulation as you’re likely to see with Cruz.