Ilhan Omar and her peers of the young leadership do not believe that they need to make a stand on terrorism. They refuse to denounce terrorism – especially if it comes from the Islamic flavor. She most certainly thinks that terrorists who stand up and “do something” horrible to an American are actually doing something positive. Omar actually can speak about Al Qaeda with a happy intensity, because she indeed identifies with the #1 threat to the American way of life.
How do you deal with a Fifth Column?
“Some people did something.” That line that Omar described to explain 9/11 will never be excusable according to 99% of the United States of America. However, there is indeed a 1% that believes some very scary things like Omar espouses, and was even willing to vote her into the Halls of Congress. She was indeed voted in democratically, like her cohorts in Congress. They are actually wise to stick together – even though they are not identical in ideology. By posing together, they appear to have much more power than they truly have. They all together do not represent more than a fringe. But that fringe is indeed many thousands – if not tens of thousands of people – who voted for them.
That fringe genuinely wants to see the enemies of the United States taking over the United States of America. When they see an Al Qaeda attack on US soil, they cheer. When an Islamic terrorist succeeds, they are happy. When the United States suffers a setback against Iran, then they are also happy.
The natural tendency is to yell, scream, ridicule and call on everyone to somehow bring down these people. “Go back to where you came from,” is a common refrain. I think that is wrong. We need to deal with these radical elements via exposure and arguments. We need to ask them the tough questions that truly expose just how radical their opinions are. Then, we need to argue that these people present an existential threat to all that we hold dear. But most of all, we need to work on immigration laws that restrict people like this coming to our shores in order to bring down the country. It’s not too late if we get our act together. But soon it will be.