What do the presidential candidates think the United States should do about admitting Syrian refugees to this country? It breaks down into three groups.
On the yes, admit refugees side:
- Hillary Clinton, who called on the U.S. to take in up to 65,000 refugees, with “as careful a screening and vetting process as we can imagine.”
- Martin O’Malley, who similarly called for 65,000 and stressed screening.
- Bernie Sanders, who didn’t know “what the magic number is.”
On the absolutely not, no refugees whatsoever side:
- Donald Trump, who, if elected, would kick out any refugees the Obama administration had vetted and cleared to settle here.
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Ben Carson, who thinks humans have “big frontal lobes” to prevent us from making the terrible mistake of sheltering vulnerable victims of war.
- Marco Rubio, who would totes like to accept refugees but just doesn’t think we can. (He doesn’t really want to.)
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Chris Christie, who wouldn’t even admit orphans under five.
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And also Carly Fiorina, John Kasich, Rand Paul, George Pataki, Lindsey Graham, and bonus points to Mike Huckabee for “The Statue of Liberty says bring us your tired and your weary. It didn’t say bring us your terrorists and let them come in here and bomb neighborhoods, cafes and concert halls.” So screw the tired and weary.
Are you noticing a pattern about which party’s candidates hold which position?
And then there’s the third position: let in Syrian Christians and that’s it. That position is held by the odd couple of Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz. Bush seems to be trying to walk his usual line—he’s not flatly ruling out admitting others, but thinks “our focus ought to be on the Christians who have no place in Syria anymore.” Cruz, on the other hand, is explicitly saying Muslims over there, Christians over here. Bear in mind this is a former Supreme Court clerk arguing that the U.S. should put religious tests into law. But it’s probably an A+ move as far as pandering to terrified bigots.
Sign and send the petition to the White House: I support admitting Syrian refugees into the United States.