The Friday the 13th massacres have dominated world news. Like 9/11, this event has the capacity to redefine contemporary societal function. Change in policy surely will occur in ways that won’t even be fully observable until a decade from now, when hindsight makes obvious the difference between before Nov. 13, 2015 and after it. One change that will have immediate manifestations will occur in the United States Presidential Race.
Before Nov. 13, 2015, discussions regarding the 1 percent, debt management and police brutality defined the race. Now, the capacity to be a wartime president is the new standard by which candidates will be judged.
War is a scary word. The United States Congress has not declared it since 1942. When President Barack Obama addressed the nation after the attacks, he deliberately avoided using the term.
In contrast, the French president, François Hollande, made a point in his address to distinguish the aggression shown by the Islamic State as an act of war.
ISIS has promised future attacks on both France and the United States. It is time for voters to consider their ideal presidential candidate as competing to be the Commander and Chief of the world’s greatest military during what forebodes to be a bloody global conflict.
It now seems far less significant that Rand Paul stands for legalizing marijuana. His most important platform now is his stance of isolationism. Likewise, Carly Fiorina was defined before as being the former CEO of a Fortune 500 company. In the context of a full-out war with ISIS, this is trivial considering her inexperience in foreign affairs and her notably aggressive rhetoric in dealing with Vladimir Putin.
Russian relations has also moved to the forefront of relevant policy issues. The Islamic State has boasted shooting down Russian Metrojet Flight 7K926, and Russia is calling for solidarity against Muslim extremists.
It is a tricky situation, and it must be handled with diligent foresight and utmost care. The solidarity achieved during World War II is what gave the Soviet online casino Union the necessary momentum to begin its conquest through Asia and Eastern Europe. Our current situation bears an uncomfortable resemblance. There is no time for inexperience when history could repeat itself, potentially rending the fabric of international relations even after the Islamic State threat has been neutralized. It brings new meaning to Fiorina’s Syrian no-fly zone and to Clinton’s comparative lenience.
The attacks beg the question: who is the most fit to lead our nation to war? France is our oldest ally. They were crucial in our revolution, and we were there to help beat back German lines in two World Wars. We will not ignore their suffering now. We will be the first to their aid.
First off, it seems that Trump and Carson are out of the conversation, and Fiorina, too. I predict that we will see a shift toward the Washington elite class, a demographic that, to this point, has been widely rejected by an electorate exhausted by bureaucracy and lack of compromise.
I myself have felt a steady “Bern” for the past few months. It started as a little flicker and has grown to a flame with every captivating speech by Sanders on toppling the American oligarchy. But as every voter should, I’m reevaluating my stance after the attacks.
Don’t get me wrong, I will still be voting for Bernie in the primary. But after Friday the 13th, I will be more satisfied if Clinton receives the nomination. No candidate has a better résumé when it comes to dealing with foreign conflict as she. I trust the Secretary’s diplomatic capacity in regard to Putin, and I trust her ability to make difficult decisions abroad.
Hilary has never deployed troops, but what other candidate has as any comparable experience in representing the United States in the face of international tension?
Lastly, it’s time for the GOP to put the Trump Circus out of its misery. Donald Trump is an irrational, inexperienced hothead who couldn’t match the names of world leaders to their faces if his final grade depended on it. He wasn’t the answer before Friday the 13th, and he certainly is not now. It’s time for both parties to nominate a wartime president.
Reid Haynie is a senior history major from Jackson.
