By  Mowahid Hussain Shah

Decemember 02 , 2011

Republican Race

 

Those who look to Washington for direction and protection need to look again because — as the 2012 race for the White House reveals — the political landscape there is itself in a state of disarray.
The Republican Presidential candidates present a sorry spectacle. Newt Gingrich is openly mortgaged to corporate interests and displayed his moral timbre when discussing divorce terms at the hospital bed of his first wife, Jackie, while she was fighting for her life after cancer surgery; Herman Cain is involved in accusations of Eve-teasing and is so unknowledgeable that he confused Libya with Afghanistan, suggesting that the Taliban were dominating Libya; Rick Perry frequently fumbles during debates and has a provincial mindset stuck in his home state of Texas. Front-runner Mitt Romney is spurned by many conservative Christians because of his Mormon faith.
According to a New York Times letter of November 11, the bleak landscape “is an inevitable result of elevating the unlearned, unqualified and uninterested to positions of authority.”
Obama is fortunate in facing such opposition.
Indicators are that the Republican Party is becoming an angry white party centered in the old slave-owning states of America’s Deep South.
The Republican Presidential debates remain inflexible in their lack of intellectual honesty. It has been the same old tired attacks on Iran, the hollow praise of Israel, the shirking of self-critique, and the pandering to anti-Muslim hate and fear. Absent from the picture are the names and faces of Muslim grief and suffering.
Washington may itself need a strategic shift in its own political culture.
A favorite Republican target — under the garment of enforcing laws and curbing the influx of undocumented migrant labor — has been the immigrant community. It has the potential dual impact of not only devastating the US economy, which is heavily dependent on cheap Hispanic labor from neighboring Latin America, but also fanning the embers of racial exclusion and bigotry. This is happening because the 50 million strong Hispanic community, out of a US population of 300 million, remains timid, disorganized, and leaderless.
In contrast, the Republican Party, which used to criticize the gay community for undermining family values, is now afraid of them. As the influence of the gay lobby in the power centers of America has grown exponentially, Republicans now feel compelled to solicit gay support.
There has been a misplaced belief that the Republican Party is more pro-Pakistan. This has been dispelled during debates on foreign policy, where, as never before, Pakistan came under withering criticism, with none of the front-line candidates opposing drone attacks or bothering about the innocent victims. In this connection, Islamabad has to be held accountable for the bankruptcy of its planners and diplomacy, which exposes the Pakistani nation to easy targeting.
Despite the military misadventures in Iraq and Afghanistan, top Republican Presidential candidates feel no shame in advocating a yet another attack on a Muslim nation. Headlined in the conservative daily, Washington Examiner, of November 14, was a commentary: “Obama’s best act could be striking Iran.”
Missing from the picture is the realization that violence against Muslims will instigate more violence against the West.

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PREVIOUSLY


Clash or Coexistence?

The Radical Behind Reconstruction

POWs & Victors’ Justice

Islam on Campus

Community of Civilizations

Rule of Law or Rule of Men?

Unpredictable Times

The Quiet One

Turkish Model & Principled Resignations

Live and Let Live

Leadership & de Gaulle

Dark Side of Power

2002: The Year of Escalation

Whither US?

Politics, God, Cricket & Sex

The Company of Friends

Missing in Action : The Kofi Case

Accountability & Anger

Casualties of War

A Simple Living

The Nexus & Muslim Nationhood

The Kith and Kin Culture

It Is Spreading

Road to Nowhere

Misrepresenting Muslims

The value of curiosity

Revenge & Riches

The Media on Iraq

The Perils of Sycophancy

Legends of Punjab

Mind & Muscle

Islam & the West: Conflict or Co-Existence?

The Challenge of Disinformation

Britain on the Backfoot

Paisa, Power and Privilege

The Path to Peace

On Intervention

Countering Pressures on Pakistan

A World at War?

Raising the Game

The Argument of Force

Affluence withtout Influence

The Shawdow of Vietnam

Heroes of '54

The Imperative of Human Decency

Hollywood and Hate

Living in Lahore

Fatal Decisions

Singer or the Song

Arrogance

The Power of Moral Legitimacy

The Trouble with Kerry

Green Curtain

A Nation Divided

Election 2004: Decisive but Divisive

Muslim Youth & Kashmir in America

The Big Picture: Wealth without Vision

Oxygen to Global Unrest

Punishing the Punctual

Change without Change

Don’t Be Weak

Passionate Attachment

The Confidence of Youth

The Other Side of Democracy

Campaign of Defamation

Pakistani Women & the Legal Profession

A Pakistani Journey

Farewell to Fazal

Mukhtaran and Beyond

Revamping the OIC

7/7 & After

Nuclear Double-Standard

Return to Racism

Hollywood – The Unofficial Media

The Sole Superpower

The UN at 60

A Slow Motion World War?

Elite vs. Street

Iqbal Today

Macedonia to Multan

Defending our Own

2006 & Maulana Zafar Ali Khan

Error against Terror

The Limits of Power

Cultural Weaknesses

Aggressive at Home, Submissive Abroad

Global Storm

The Farce of Free Expression

The Changing Mood

Condi & India

Xenophobia

Looking inward

Re-Thinking

A Tale of Two Presidents

Close to Home

Flashpoint Kashmir

The Spreading Rage

Confronting Adversity

The Illusion of International Law

Other Side of Extremism

Five Years after 9/11

The Educated Ignorant

The Decline of Humor

Icons

Six Years of Insanity

The War Not Being Fought

Munir Niazi

Compliance & Defiance

Counter-Message

Miscast

The Goddess of Wealth

The Meaning of Moderation

The Tora Bora of Fear

Clash of Civility

The Early Race

Challenge & Response

Will & Skill

Zealotry

Movie-Media and Pakistan

Hug with a Thug

Quest for Integrity

Unconquered

Vanity

Bringing Back the Past

Stuck in Iraq

Islam, Science and the West

Turmoil over Turkey

Leaders versus Leadership

Might Does Not Make Right

Kursi First

Vision & Will

Battle of the Billionaires

Assassination Alley

Extremism and Change

Rosy Expectations

Short-Term Gain, Long-Term Pain

Not Winning

Beyond Baghdad: Five Years after

The Hijab of Democracy

Hate, Fear & Hope

Weapon of Words

Hide N’ Seek

Yanking in the UN

Obama’s Breakthrough

Let Lahore Be Lahore

National Mood & Sports

Flirting with Fire

Trips Abroad

Georgia on the Mind

Duel for the White House

Zia to Zardari

Palestine: Avoiding the Unavoidable 

Not Working 

In the Ring 

Obama’s America

Smiles & Dreams

Quiet Deeds of Good

Crime and Indifference

Journey of Understanding

VIP-hunting

Terror via Counter-Terrorism

Umpires or Vampires?

The Long Road

Yesterday’s Reminder

Appeasement and the Real Threat

Israel’s Washington Agenda

New Challenges

Cairo and Beyond

Re-fighting Old Battles

America ’s Super Villains

Activism in America

Style without Substance

Overcoming Barriers

Ashes to Afghanistan

The Looming Change

Fear and Possibilities

What Is Not Debated 

Hired Guns

Rampage at Fort Hood

Manmohan in Washington

The Long Duel

Green Nukes

Vision and Division

Avoiding Why

Striving to Matter

Shame-proof

Anxiety and Opportunity

Putting Iraq in America

The Right Strategy

Looking Beyond

Rot at the Top

Strategic Folly

Daring & Caring

Over-Stepping on Turkey

Sudan : Perils of Provincialism

Old Fears, New Target

Europe ’s Stain

The US-Pakistan Enigma

The Status Quo Is Unacceptable

9 Years after 9/11

License to Steal

US Muslims at the Crossroads

Tumor of Terror

An Arab Voice

Disastrous Decisions

Double Game

Sticky Wiki

What Quaid Was Not

Money Conspiracy

Pharaohs & Pirates

Greed and Cricket

Change & Challenge  

Forty Years after 1971

Abandoning Our Own

Rewarding Failure

Osama and Obama

Tsunami of Tolerance

Representation and Presentation

Meek and Weak

Change or the Same?

No Easy Exit

Nation to Non-Nation

10 Years after 9/11

Shining India?

Big Power, Small Politics

Rule of the Gun

Proxy of the Powerful

Fight for Fairness


2001

 

Editor: Akhtar M. Faruqui
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