Why Republicans Keep Losing Ground

Ever heard of beaten-dog syndrome?  This is, in brief, the tendency of beaten dogs to stick with their abuser, both expecting and fearing the abuse while missing the attention that it gives them when they don't receive it.  Obviously, such a relationship is both deeply unhealthy for the dog and corrosive to the humanity of the abuser.

Why, then, do Republican politicians persist in behaving like beaten dogs, and Republican voters tolerate this behavior in their so-called leadership?  The Left and its media acolytes can throw literally anything at Republicans as a slur, including flat-out lies and totally made-up words, yet the instinctive response of just about every Republican is to cower in preemptive submission and apology.  Republicans who'll stand up for themselves, voters and leaders alike, are so rare as to be individually nameable - starting with Donald Trump, now including the Covington schoolboys with their monster lawsuit against media abusers, and... well, maybe Ann Coulter, and that's pretty much it.

As regular as the morning sun, from West Virginia comes yet another story of Democratic scurrility and Republican pusillanimity.  NBC News brings us this shocking report:

Angry arguments broke out in the West Virginia statehouse on Friday after the state Republican Party allegedly set up an anti-Muslim display in the rotunda linking the 9/11 terror attacks to a freshman congresswoman from Minnesota.

One staff member was physically injured during the morning's confrontations, and another official resigned after being accused of making anti-Muslim comments.

The display featured a picture of the World Trade Center in New York City as a fireball exploded from the one of the Twin Towers, set above a picture of Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, who is Muslim.

"'Never forget' - you said. . ." read a caption on the first picture. "I am the proof - you have forgotten," read the caption under the picture of Omar, who is wearing a hijab.

How Many Times Can You Get Framed?

Firstly, as even the media had to admit, nobody seems to know exactly who set up the suspect poster.  Perhaps it was Republicans.  Perhaps it was Democratic agents provocateurs - after all, this was standard practice against Trump supporters and there's no reason to suppose they've given up that nasty habit.

It's almost a scientific certainty, though, that it was not "the Republican party" as the media suggested.  Since when has any official Republican party organization been openly anti-Islam?  It wasn't even a week after a group of fundamentalist Muslims murdered thousands of innocent Americans, that President George W. Bush twisted the Koran to falsely portray Islam as "a religion of peace."  Republican officialdom have followed in his footsteps ever since.

This doesn't stop the media from framing Republicans as Islamophobes every day; and each and every time, the Republican response is abject submission and apology.  When will they ever learn that the media isn't looking for an apology, and saying sorry won't make the false accusations go away?

The only way to deal with a bully is to punch them in the nose.  President Trump, to his credit, has given us a years-long demonstration of how it works.  He hasn't managed to change the liberal media at all - they are every bit as biased against him as they ever were - but by stating the truth regardless of opposition, he's reduced their power.  Nearly half of all Americans believe "that when most reporters write about a congressional race, they are trying to help the Democratic candidate", more voters blame the press for our country's divisions than blame Mr. Trump, and trust for the media is at record lows.

If You Don't Stand For Something, You'll Fall For Anything

What's the takeaway from this disgusting display of defeatism?  Nearly all Americans who notice these news reports will get the impression that Republicans are bigoted, wimpy, and stupid - just the way they're portrayed on the news every day.

Why don't we try something else for once?  How about if, say, the Republican speaker of the West Virginia legislature, instead of wringing his hands and promising investigations, slammed the lies with some hard-hitting truths?  Just for starters:

"Muslim" isn't a race, that people are born with and can't change.  Islam is an ideology - in the main, an inherently anti-American ideology - that people choose to adopt, remain in, or reject.

The poster didn't show a generic Muslim.  It shows a very specific, prominent Muslim, Rep. Ilhan Omar, who is currently being censured by her own party for anti-semitism; who has voted to provide life-insurance benefits to suicide terrorists who murder Americans; who has asked for "compassion" in sentencing ISIS recruits; and whose romantic past makes Donald Trump's look an exemplar of traditional morality and immigration legality.

In other words, while nobody is claiming that Rep. Omar has personally murdered anybody, there can be no doubt from her own words that she supports and defends those that do.  President Bush contradicted his previous statements on Islam when he further said, "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists" - and Rep. Omar clearly has chosen the latter.

So the poster, far from being generally bigoted, is a very specific and fact-based accusation against an individual who has no business being in any place of American power, or arguably in this country at all.  Fifteen years after WWII, would we have countenanced an unrepentant Nazi in Congress?  Or one who regularly wore the uniform of our enemies, as does Rep. Omar, even on the floor of "the People's House"?  Of course not!

Have we forgotten exactly who perpetrated 9/11, exactly why, and their determination to do it again?  Obviously - indeed, as a country we seem to want to bring about their objectives via cooperative peaceful means.

Since the Republicans are going to get pilloried no matter what they do or say, why can't they at least fight back with the truth?  Yes, there is every reason to believe that Rep. Omar is anti-American; yes, the murders of 9/11 were performed by Muslims obeying the evil diktats of their religion as defined, not only by themselves, but by the world's leading Islamic scholars and clerics; and above all, yes, it is not possible to believe in Islamic sharia law and also believe in the America of our Constitution and Founding Fathers.  In short, the poster is true on its face; we might as well just go ahead and say so rather than just bend over and take it!

As Obama bin Laden pointed out, "When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, they will naturally want to side with the strong horse."  Is it any wonder the Republicans so specialize in snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, and won't support their best fighting leader of our lifetimes?