Yesterday, Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy tweeted a disturbing photo that, because of its image, got a very powerful message across:
To my colleagues: don’t ever again lecture me on American moral leadership if you chose to be silent today. pic.twitter.com/XW7sjmCcXh
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) January 28, 2017
Sen. Chuck Schumer yesterday called Trump’s Muslim ban “one of the most backward and nasty executive orders.” Today, in a series of tweets, Murphy schooled those who compared “Obama’s reluctance to militarily intervene in Syria and the #MuslimBan” imposed by Donald Trump:
Few more thoughts: 1/ There is no moral equivalence between Obama’s reluctance to militarily intervene in Syria and the #MuslimBan.
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) January 28, 2017
2/ Obama reasonably believed military force would make Syria worse. #MuslimBan reverses decades of policy based on illogical, racist fear.
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) January 28, 2017
3/ I have been a critic of Obama policy in Syria, but there is a legitimate debate about US intervention would have made it better or worse
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) January 28, 2017
4/ But until yesterday, the idea that America rescues those fleeing terror and persecution stood firm despite these disagreements.
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) January 28, 2017
5/ If you can’t agree on how to put out a fire, you should at least agree to stage a rescue of those trapped. Now we aren’t doing either.
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) January 28, 2017
Of course, Donald Trump has vowed to exterminate “Islamic extremism” and would argue that he is putting out a fire. The Iranian Foreign Ministry has already pointed out that, on the contrary, “despite claims of being made to combat terrorism and protecting the people of the United States, it will be recorded in history as a great gift to extremists and their supporters.”
Meanwhile, people are dying. Refugees are dying. People who, like the Jews fleeing from Nazi Germany in the 1930s, and who were refused entry into the United States, will die instead. Chris Murphy is right to condemn American moral leadership. It has none. That disappeared on the day President Barack Obama left office. We are left with a moral void named Donald J. Trump.
