[Peace-discuss] Demagoguery from Duckworth

[Robert Naiman]

I'm not in love with the Russia thing, but this is not something that
Duckworth in particular is promoting, this is something that Trump did that
is so controversial in mainstream U.S. discourse that even Trump backed off
of it. It must have been pretty extreme for Trump to back off of it, given
all the outrageous things that he's not willing to abandon.

Kirk was a principal, vigorous opponent of the Iran nuclear deal and has
been a longtime Iran warmonger; he was an Iran warmonger before it was cool
to be an Iran warmonger. Kirk is more AIPAC than AIPAC. He actually
attacked AIPAC during the #IranDeal fight for not being vicious enough in
its attacks on the deal. Duckworth voted for the deal. Every national peace
group supported the deal and opposed Kirk's efforts to kill it.

Trump, of course, is against the deal, as is virtually the whole GOP. This
is part of their play to pander to the extreme right wing of the Israel
Lobby.

Hillary supports the deal.

I expect to have problems with Hillary when she is POTUS. If she tries to
lead a regime change war in Syria I will fight her all the way; in fact,
I'm already fighting with people on Team Hillary who want her to do this.
But so far Hillary is being careful only to emphasize things that Hillary
supporters and Bernie supporters agree on - as she did last night.

Hillary is leading Trump in Illinois by 14 points, according to a recent
poll. No mainstream analyst expects the outcome in Illinois to be in
dispute: Hillary will beat Trump in Illinois decisively. We likely won't
see much campaigning here in the presidential race.

But the Senate race is a very different matter. A recent poll had Kirk
leading Duckworth. I suspect this result is driven by the fact that many
people in Illinois have no idea what a right-wing goon Mark Kirk is. He has
carefully worked to cultivate an "independent" image - denouncing Trump,
calling for a confirmation hearing for Garland, etc. But on the Middle
East, Kirk is no moderate. He is more AIPAC than AIPAC.

Duckworth voted for banning the transfer of cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia.
Where is Mark Kirk?

The election that put Kirk in office was extremely close. Champaign County
could make the difference this time.

A vote for Mark Kirk is a vote for AIPAC.

Tammy Duckworth yard signs are starting to spring up around town. This is a
development we should all encourage.

===

Robert Naiman
Policy Director
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
(202) 448-2898 x1

On Fri, Jul 29, 2016 at 7:00 AM, Carl G. Estabrook via Peace-discuss <
peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote:

> [Politico.com] "U.S. Senate hopeful Tammy Duckworth used her moment in
> the spotlight at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday to take it
> to Republican nominee Donald Trump. Speaking to the convention's delegates,
> she assailed Trump for his controversial comments asking Russia to find
> Hillary Clinton's deleted emails [sic]… Duckworth said, 'By the way, Donald
> Trump, I didn't put my life on the line to defend our democracy so you
> could invite Russia to interfere in it.' 'You are not fit to be
> Commander-in-Chief.’"
>
> Duckworth, who if she is elected to replace Illinois senator Mark Kirk,
> will be a reliable vote for more Obama-Clinton war in the Mideast and
> elsewhere, asserts all of Hillary Clinton’s political program:
>
> (1) the president’s primary description is commander-in-chief: the
> principal job is to make war; and
> (2) Clinton’s primary qualification is “I am not Donald Trump!”
>
> —CGE
>
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>
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