How Fear Won the GOP Debate

Republican US presidential candidates insist they are ready to attack Islamic State extremists with full force. Some suggest banning refugees, and others go suggest a broader ban on Muslims, extreme measures considering the world has more than a billion Muslims and the CIA estimates that the Islamic State extremists total no more than 50,000. Moderators of the fifth debate bear blame for avoiding questions about public debt, jobs, education, health care, climate change and other economic issues. Candidates and moderators alike ignored President Barack Obama’s call for calm. Instead, the debate centered on terrorism and “how much Americans should be freaking out about it,” suggests Michael Grunwald for Politco. “Nobody really explained how all that belligerence would defuse a threat that can manifest itself in homegrown Americans, like the health inspector who killed his colleagues in San Bernadino.” The Republican candidates are divided over intervention versus isolationism. Security comes in many forms, and over-reacting about a handful of religious extremists may do more harm than good. – YaleGlobal