The 'Isolationist' Smear

National Review ^ | December 18, 2015 | David Harsanyi

[JSDude1]

After the latest Republican presidential debate, the Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin argued that Ted Cruz had undone himself “courting” the “​Trumpkin base,” sinking “further into the far-right brew of isolationism and xenophobia.” And to prove this contention, Rubin grabbed hold of two words Cruz used, “​America”​ and “​first,”​ to claim that the senator from Texas was signaling support for 1930s/’​40s-style isolationism.

This is a pretty popular accusation on the hawkish Right. Marco Rubio has also called Cruz an isolationist. Having watched the debate, though, as Donald Trump might complain, I think it is unfair. What I heard was not a case for isolationism but one against Middle Eastern democracy building — a project that’s been a persistent and bloody failure, one that’s sidetracked foreign policy from its “first” task, which is defeating the enemy.

You can certainly disagree with my assessment, but I’m relatively sure that merely holding a skeptical view of entanglements in the Middle East doesn’t make anyone a potential America First Committee recruit. Yet here’s the American Enterprise Institute’s Danielle Pletka quoted in Rubin’s piece: “Good for Ted Cruz for being honest. He doesn’t want to be anywhere in the world, doesn’t want America to lead, and harkening back to the likes of Pat Buchanan and Charles Lindbergh is truth in advertising for him.”

Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/428686/ted-cruz-falsely-labeled-isolationist

[MNJohnnie]

As Ann Coulter said in her latest column

It's as if there's a law of toughness conservation: The weaker a candidate is on protecting our borders, the more aggressively he talks about bombing foreign countries, a move known as "the Lindsey Graham"

[JSDude1]

Ok, and this has to do with Cruz how?

[Mariner]

Everyone knows that anyone who does not want Nuclear War with Russia is a Putinista or Putinbuttboy.

Just ask any of the Neo Conservatives on FR. They'll tell ya.

[Will88]

Isolationist, xenophobe, protectionist, nativist, restrictionist. Just some of the slurs and smears used by the GOPe and globalist, open-borders sorts. They use those slurs the same way the reverends Jesse and Al use racist and the same way Muzzies use Islamophobia.

All cheap, empty-headed name calling used to
avoid objective discussion of issues they can’t defend rationally.

[1rudeboy]

And if you ask the FRussians, if you dislike Putin you support Obama. Fair’s fair.

[MNJohnnie]

The more bombastic and bellicose a GOP candidate is on Intentional Relations, the weaker they are on the serious domestic issues we face. This is why you get all the bombast and hysterics from pseudo intellectuals like Rubin et al. It a pathetic attempt to divert and distract voters attention away from the fundamental political incompetence of their GOPe candidates du jour.

[JSDude1]

All True.

[MNJohnnie]

Neither Trump nor Cruz have made any bellicose demands to impose a Syrian NO FLY zone and shoot down Russian Jets.

The rest of GOP candidates have.

[Ohioan]

Precisely! Consider the ridiculous Second Inaugural Address of President Bush II, to appreciate just how absurd is the globalist/interventionist argument: Bush/Washington Debate.

[JSDude1]

Exactly, It’s dangerous to needlessly start WWIII just for the President’s ego in claiming a “No Fly Zone”.

[JSDude1]

To be fair Rand Paul (though he is much more of an “isolationist” than Cruz, Trump. He’s really not, but he’s closer..) also supports the position it’s dangerous to support a no fly zone.

[Mariner]

"And if you ask the FRussians, if you dislike Putin you support Obama. Fair’s fair."

Wow.

I haven't seen that one yet.

Certainly as silly as the one I posted.

[1rudeboy]

I see it all the time from our vodka-swilling comrades. Haven’t seen it for about a week, though. I’ll see if I can find one.

[kcvl]

Jennifer Rubin - ‘conservative writer’

Rubin was born in the New Jersey suburbs of Philadelphia, and moved with her family as a child to California in 1968.

She attended college and law school at the University of California, Berkeley.

Rubin was a labor and employment lawyer in Los Angeles, working for Hollywood studios, for 20 years.

[1rudeboy]

Here ya' go. A relatively mild version, but only five days ago.

[Mariner]

Yep, I see the evidence.

But, you were giving as well as you were getting:)

[Socon-Econ]

One can oppose our using military force to topple Assad without being an isolationist or a pacifist

[Peet]

I am always amused when some leftard uses the word “xenophobia.”

Having worked at [NAME OF N.E. UNIV] for some years, I can assure you there is NO ONE more filled with raw, seething hatred for people different than themselves than so-called “liberals.”

[Will88]

One of the few times W surfaced since leaving office was to warn us about all those dangerous “isms”: protectionism, isolationism and nativism. They’re obsessed with it. W wasted a good part of his second term trying to force illegal alien amnesty on the nation and helped pave the way for Obama.