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迪克·波尔曼：世界着火了，但美国却陷入了对破坏者和骗子的功能失调的崇拜中
作者：迪克·波尔曼 2023 年 10 月 17 日
上周，美国众议院的“MAGA”小子们驱逐了他们的议长，并基本上冲毁了众议院，因为这就是虚无主义者所做的，他们寻求并摧毁。 但现在后果来了。
一场重大的中东危机震惊了世界，对于那些无法治理的帮派来说，玩耍的时间突然结束了。
众议院外交事务委员会的共和党主席迈克尔·麦考尔（Michael McCaul）是这个愚昧无知的议院中的成年人之一，当美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）被问及他和他的同事是否能够做出充分回应时，特别是在最大程度的财政援助以色列方面，他说得很好。
“我审视这个世界以及那里存在的所有威胁，当我们无法治理、当我们功能失调、当我们甚至没有议长时，我们正在向我们的对手发出什么样的信息？ 房子？” 麦考尔说道。 “我的意思是，当中国的习主席说民主行不通时，他如何看待这个问题？ 在知道我们无法正常运作的情况下，阿亚图拉对此有何看法？ 我认为这传达了一个可怕的信息……我们现在正处于一个太危险的时刻，不能与国家安全玩游戏。”
不开玩笑。 但这就是当邪教获得一点权力时就会发生的事情。 它削弱了它自称热爱的国家，尤其是当国际危机爆发、西方世界指望我们的领导——理想情况下是两党的统一领导时——这种情况最为明显。 相反，我们不仅受到功能失调的众议院小丑的阻碍，还受到参议院方面的两个小丑的阻碍——最著名的是愚蠢的运动员汤米·图伯维尔，他对军事晋升的封锁使我们失去了海军作战部长， 现在看来有点重要的工作。 还有新冠阴谋论者兰德·保罗(Rand Paul)，他一直在阻止一系列大使任命——这意味着，在这个紧急时刻，我们没有美国驻以色列大使。 或者去埃及、约旦或黎巴嫩。
尽管如此，邪教分子却对战争的爆发喋喋不休，并以谎言为避难所。 最大的弥天大谎 — — 你可能已经听说过，因为它通过无情的邪教重复而登上了主流媒体 — — 是拜登总统资助了哈马斯的恐怖袭击。 因为他（据称）向伊朗行贿，向伊朗提供了 60 亿美元美国纳税人的资金，让伊朗最近释放了一些拥有美国双重国籍的囚犯； 伊朗随后（据称）将这笔钱交给了哈马斯，然后哈马斯（据称）用这笔钱资助其恐怖袭击。
都是废话。 这 60 亿美元不是美国纳税的钱，而是美国冻结的伊朗石油收入。 这笔钱没有返还给伊朗政府，事实上，它甚至还没有被释放——它由卡塔尔的第三方持有，美国将在监督这笔钱的使用方面发挥作用。 所有这些都专门用于食品和药品等人道主义需求。
但谎言仍在被重复使用，因为它比实际做事容易得多。
曾经有一段时间，双方在国际危机后共同努力，但如今这种精神已经像录像带一样过时了。
一些共和党国会议员似乎了解当前的紧迫性。 纽约众议员布兰登·威廉姆斯在社交媒体上写道，“世界上的国家需要美国国会发挥作用”，而纽约州众议员迈克尔·劳勒则警告说，“美国的不确定性和混乱会在世界各地滋生脆弱性。”
很明显，最具破坏性的邪教分子可以使用大量的詹姆斯·麦迪逊。
在第十期《联邦党人文集》中，宪法的制定者哀叹说，那些利用“人类激情”的狂热分子常常“将人类分裂成不同的党派，煽动彼此的敌意，使他们更倾向于互相烦恼和压迫，而不是 为了共同利益而合作。” 他预计国会将平息这种热情。 这将是“一个由精选的公民组成的团体，他们的智慧最能洞察国家的真正利益，他们的爱国主义和对正义的热爱最不可能因为暂时或片面的考虑而牺牲它。”
那样就好了。 但是，正如已故创作型歌手南奇·格里菲斯 (Nanci Griffith) 曾经写下的那样，“如果愿望是改变/我们都会生活在玫瑰之中。”
迪克·波尔曼 (Dick Polman) 是一位驻费城的资深国家政治专栏作家，也是宾夕法尼亚大学的驻校作家，在 DickPolman.net 上撰稿。 给他发电子邮件：dickpolman7@gmail.com
Dick Polman: The world’s on fire, but America is stuck with dysfunctional cult of saboteurs and liars
BY DICK POLMAN Oct 17, 2023
Last week the MAGA brats in the U.S. House ousted their Speaker and basically crashed the chamber because that’s what nihilists do, they seek and destroy. But now come the consequences.
A major Middle East crisis has rocked the world, and, for the gang that can’t govern, play time is suddenly over.
Michael McCaul, the Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, one of the adults in that benighted chamber, said it well when asked on CNN whether he and his colleagues can adequately respond, especially by aiding Israel to the fullest financial extent.
“I look at the world and all the threats that are out there, and what kind of message are we sending to our adversaries when we can’t govern, when we’re dysfunctional, when we don’t even have a Speaker of the House?” McCaul said. “I mean, how does Chairman Xi in China look at this when he says democracy doesn’t work? How does the ayatollah look at this, knowing that we cannot function properly? And I think it sends a terrible message… We’re just in too dangerous of a time right now to be playing games with national security.”
No kidding. But this is what happens when a cult gets a whiff of power. It weakens the country it purports to love, and never more glaringly than when an international crisis flares and the western world looks to us for leadership – ideally, unified bipartisan leadership. Instead, we’re hampered not only by the clowns in the dysfunctional House, but by a pair of clowns on the Senate side – most notably dumb jock Tommy Tuberville, whose blockade of military promotions has left us without a Chief of Naval Operations, a job that seems a tad important right now. There’s also Rand Paul, the Covid conspiracy theorist, who has been blocking a string of ambassadorial appointments – which means that, in this urgent moment, we don’t have a U.S. ambassador to Israel. Or to Egypt, Jordan, or Lebanon.
Nevertheless, cultists have been quite voluble about the breakout of war, taking refuge in lies. The biggest whopper – which you’ve likely heard because it has landed in the mainstream media via relentless cult repetition – is that President Biden funded Hamas’ terrorist attacks. Because he (supposedly) bribed Iran to recently release some American-dual citizen inmates by giving it $6 billion in U.S. taxpayer dollars; Iran then (supposedly) gave that money to Hamas, which then (supposedly) used it to finance its terrorist attacks.
All nonsense. The $6 billion wasn’t U.S. tax dollars – it was Iranian oil revenue that the U.S. had frozen. The money didn’t go back to the Iranian government, and, indeed it hasn’t even been released yet –it’s being held by third parties in Qatar, and the U.S. will have a role in overseeing how it’ll be spent. And it’s all earmarked for humanitarian needs like food and medicine.
But the lie is still being recycled because it’s so much easier than actually doing stuff.
There once was a time when both parties worked together in the wake of an international crisis, but today that ethos is as archaic as the videocassette.
Some Republican congressmen seem to understand the urgency of the moment. Rep. Brandon Williams of New York wrote on social media “the nation in the world needs America’s Congress to be functioning,” while fellow New York Rep. Michael Lawler warned “uncertainty and chaos in the U.S. breeds vulnerability around the world.”
It’s clear the most destructive cultists could use a good dose of James Madison.
In the 10th Federalist Paper, the architect of the Constitution lamented that zealots who exploit “human passions” have all too often “divided mankind into parties, inflamed them with mutual animosity, and rendered them much more disposed to vex and oppress each other than to co-operate for their common good.” He envisioned that a Congress would quell such passions. It would be “a chosen body of citizens whose wisdom may best discern the true interest of their country, and whose patriotism and love of justice will be least likely to sacrifice it to temporary or partial considerations.”
That would be nice. But, as the late singer-songwriter Nanci Griffith once penned, “If wishes were changes/ We’d all live in roses.”
Dick Polman, a veteran national political columnist based in Philadelphia and a Writer in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania, writes at DickPolman.net. Email him at dickpolman7@gmail.com
