TheNextReport

The GOP is in the starting blocks, heralding the arrival of its Congressional majority by proclaiming President Obama's budget/legislative proposals as "dead on arrival." They say that the president's program is simply incapable of making it through the Republican dominated legislature. The implication of their message to the American people seems clear: why bother discussing any legislation at all? The argument is similar to the injury suffered by our democracy every time polls are taken and results presented to the country in advance of an election. Why bother debating competitive ideas when the decision is already made? The dream of representative democracy is lost, dead on arrival, as Jefferson and Madison turn over in their graves.

Identity is the problem. Does the fight witnessed by the world commiunity this weekend with the murders in Paris represent a true clash of civilizations, or is this a muderous game played out on social media for the benefit of hidden financiers? It would appear that what we are seeing is a battle between one group that is civilized and another that is far from it. As the west attempts to drag radical Islam kicking and screaming into the 21st century, the world trembles. As we rightly condemn the barbarism of the extremists whose monsterous acts are poised to turn the world's democracies into a large police state, one is tempted to ask--what did you expect? Islam -- radical or otherwise -- is firmly rooted in its medieval traditions and beliefs. If the homicidal psychopaths who carried out the atrocities in France are truly acting with the blessings of faith, they simply have no context to accomodate the tenets of liberal democracy and other western ideals. To expect them to do ot