Ark's Ark

This is the latest official advert from the leaders of the Republican party. Really. :

Since you’re asking, why yes, I do feel safer. I feel safer because I believe the new President will actually consider reality before he makes decisions, and I feel safer because I do not think that he will use violence as his favoured method of dealing with the world’s issues. His willingness to talk to people who disagree with him, and to consider their points of view, make for a pleasant change to the insanity of the last four years.

The GOP is stuck in a behavioural loop. It failed to win the election by trying to incite terror of “The Other”, but that seems to be all it knows how to do any more. At the moment, they’re just engaging in self-parody. I’m surprised they didn’t stick a picture of a rabid fanged pig, Megatron, and some Goa’uld in there, just for good measure.

The GOP seems to think that they can bravely make the principled argument for torture, without disgusting the majority of Americans, and Planet Earth. “It’s alright when the US does it, because we’re the greatest country in the world.” is the belief that lies behind so much of the US foreign policy of the last few decades, but it is not an argument that has much traction outside of the US.

Incidentally, this advert has caused a bit of a kerfuffle, due to one of the pictures showing Obama meeting with the Hispanic caucus. Why Obama meeting with the grouping of Hispanic members of congress should be remotely frightening to anyone speaks volumes about how the GOP leadership’s minds work. Of course, they’re now saying that that picture was put in their advert accidentally. Bloody stupid mistake if that’s true.