A recent poll found that a majority of Americans believe climate change is real and want the United States to lead in fighting it. In the conference on climate change held in Paris during the past two weeks, President Barack Obama — and many others from around the globe — are providing leadership on this critical issue. Even Russian President Vladimir Putin has changed his tune from thinking that global warming was not a concern for Russia (because, he said, it was so cold there) in 2003 to stating during the Paris meetings that "climate change has become one of the gravest challenges humanity is facing."
Meanwhile, back at home, Republicans continue to keep their heads in the sand. They are doing all they can to undermine the world's efforts to address climate change and our nation's leadership in this area. They are now the only governing party in the world not on board with addressing climate change.
Republicans are quick to slap Democrats with always wanting to be "politically correct." Yet on the issue of climate change, who is trying to be politically correct? As David Brooks, a Republican columnist for The New York Times, writes, "on this issue … a vast majority of Republican politicians can't publicly say what they know about the truth of climate change because they're afraid the thought police will knock on their door and drag them off to an AM radio interrogation." Republicans have their own political correctness, especially when it comes to issues like climate change and gun control.
Terrorist attacks in Paris gave us a glimpse of how our presidential candidates might respond to a crisis if they were president. Many of them panicked, and in their panic they were quick to dump our values and democratic principles. They were small-government politicians who, all of a sudden, wanted a big-government response. In a flash, they were willing to give up on basic American concepts, such as religious freedom, and discriminate against all 1.5 billion Muslims in the world based upon the behavior of a small minority of bad actors.
Meanwhile, back at home, more than 30,000 Americans are being killed each year because it is not politically correct for Republicans to talk about reasonable gun controls. Interestingly, the same politicians who are willing to restrict religious freedoms are afraid to restrict gun ownership. The same politicians who want to protect us from harmless refugees from Syria are unwilling to outlaw the purchase of guns and ammunition by terrorists on the government's watch list. We don't want terrorists in America, they say, but if they come, Republicans insist on protecting their right to buy all the weapons and ammunition they want.
Republicans have conducted — and want more — research on what happened in Benghazi, Libya, where four Americans died, but have determined that it is not politically correct to use federal funds to conduct research on the killing of 30,000 Americans every year from guns.
I didn't see President Obama running around the TV networks screaming that the sky was falling after the Paris attacks. Unlike some candidates who are seeking his job, Obama didn't advocate for more torture or the invasions of more foreign lands or the closure of religious institutions. He didn't advocate for the discrimination of Americans based upon their religious beliefs, or the closure of our borders to refugees seeking freedom from terrorism. He didn't advocate for the rounding up of all the Muslims in our nation and placing them in internment camps, as we did to Japanese-Americans after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Nor did he advocate for putting identification badges on Muslims, as the Germans did to Jews in Europe during World War II.
The lack of panic on Obama's part is not evidence of a lack of concern or detachment or political correctness, but of maturity and perspective. As stated by Simon Maloy, Salon.com's political writer, "I actually think Obama is providing a valuable service in modulating his response and not succumbing to the alarmist temptation. This is actually empowering [for the terrorists] and … it treats terrorism for what it is: an act of spectacular violence intended to impel us to change our behavior. They want us to overreact, so don't give them what they want."
American politicians made significant mistakes during World War II and after the attacks on 9/11 when the men in the White House acted out of fear and panic and, in the process, discarded our nation's values. I'm glad to see the current occupant not repeating those blunders. Some might categorize his behavior as trying to be politically correct; I call it responsible leadership.
Tom Zirpoli writes from Westminster. His column appears Wednesdays. Email him at tzirpoli@mcdaniel.edu
