Ever since Paris was attacked by muslim radical jihadists, the Republicans in this country have steadily beaten the drums about how dangerous refugees are. Republican governors are saying they don't want any Syrian refugees in their states, and the Republican-controlled House of Representatives has passed an onerous bill that would, in effect, make it impossible for this country to accept those refugees.
It doesn't seem to matter to them that all refugees are screened in a two-year process (and any refugee can be banned by the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security, or the FBI). It doesn't matter to them that the United States has never had any problems with the refugees they accepted (including the 750,000 refugees we have taken in since the 9/11 attacks). It doesn't matter to them that Americans have a much better chance of being hit by lightening than being hurt by a terrorist (and have a much better chance of being hurt by a home-grown, right-wing terrorist than by a muslim jihadist).
Facts don't matter to them -- including the fact that we are a nation made up of immigrants and refugees, and their descendants. They are playing a political game. They are fear mongering in the hope they can scare Americans into voting for them in the next election. They are trying to pose as the party that will keep this country safe -- even though it was a Republican administration (Bush/Cheney) that laid the groundwork for the problems we now have.
And it looks like their fear mongering is working. Note in the chart above 51% of the public says we should not take any Syrian refugees. And even worse, 54% say we have no obligation to take refugees from anywhere (see chart below).
We might as well dismantle the Statue of Liberty, and remove the plaque from it. We are no longer a nation of brave defenders of liberty, who holds out hope for the world. The Republicans have made us a nation of cowards who want to close our borders, and deny freedom and opportunity to the downtrodden of the world.
Making our shame even worse, France is willing to accept at least 35,000 Syrian refugees -- and they were the nation actually attacked. Meanwhile, residents of the United States, one of the safest nations on Earth, cringes in fear.
These charts show the results of a new YouGov Poll -- done between November 17th and 19th of a random national sample of 1,000 adults, and has a margin of error of 4.1 points.
