Just Like With Benghazi

The announcement of president Barack Obama’s executive order on immigration whipped a sizable number of Republicans into a familiar frenzy of hysteria, in which any sense of reality gives way to high-sounding words.

What better example than the reaction to the September 11, 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, which left three Americans dead, including the U.S. ambassador.

The event prompted many highly-publicized hearings in the House of Representatives. It was said that the White House mislead the public about what happened in order to win Obama’s reelection, and that the cover up was anti-constitutional and worse than Watergate. All of the attacks were directed at the administration, specifically then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton – probably the most hated figure by republicans after Obama, more so because of her 2016 presidential aspirations.

Last Friday, the House Intelligence Committee quietly unveiled its report about what happened. It held the administration Obama completely blameless. So a GOP-controlled panel rejected all the loud accusations repeated for months.

It would seem that, either out of ignorance or bigotry, a Republican sector is unable to hear and objectively analyze anything outside that hysteria.

Today we hear, for example, that the executive action will bring violence, a constitutional crisis, or that a foreign majority could engage in an “ethnic cleansing” of Americans. Also, that the border is weak and that there is a dictatorship – some have even compared Obama to Hitler.

What the President did was to prevent the separation of families, and eliminate the possibility of an American – or legally resident – child ending up on public assistance because of the deportation of his or her parents. Just like with Benghazi, today’s accusations have nothing to do with reality.

Maybe the millionaire number of beneficiaries has clouded the opposition’s common sense this time. However, their blinding rage betrayed them on Benghazi and, if they don’t change, will betray them on immigration, too