“I find it astounding that such rudimentary national security issues such as this and our vulnerability to EMP attack have been ignored for so long.”
In the liberal worldview, and this carries over to those who would fight liberals too, if it isn’t getting you votes in the next election, it’s not worth considering. Also, a crisis is a good thing to have. It allows you to do things you couldn’t do otherwise. So a crisis is a win/win for politicians. Not so much for the poor sods who are bleeding or starving, but, then, they’ll be darned grateful for whatever the government can do for them.
See how all that works?
“The liberal point of view is, if China is willing to sell us the material, let them do it.”