Vigilance: Why We Must Resist Demagogues

Guest blogger:  Jeffrey Krasnoff, J.D. Candidate 2016 University of San Francisco School of Law

The world faces a moment of inflection. As violence flares and powers align against each other, refugees are at great risk of becoming pawns and scapegoats. The rise of ISIS and the recent attacks in Europe and the Middle East coincide with a deluge of asylum seekers not seen since the mid twentieth century. Syrians are hemorrhaging out of their country, pummeled by 4 years of brutal attrition. The promise of popular uprising against the Assad regime turned into a chronic nightmare that likely would have resolved itself years ago if not for the intervention of outside parties pouring resources into their chosen proxies. In this anarchy rose an entity that has no precedent; a twenty first century theocracy fueled by an ideology of contrarianism. ISIS (or DAESH, this writer doubts his usage will lend the group any more or less legitimacy) purports to be the vanguard of a new order, one that will be the counter-point to the established order. It calls to the disaffected youth of the world. It promises young people who struggle to find meaning for their lives in the repressive Middle East or in stagnating Europe the chance to build something, to be part of something, to turn their rightful feelings of superfluity into feelings of efficacy. Part of the narrative they weave is one in which the west has no desire to live peacefully with the Muslim world but is content to watch it burn (so long as the destruction can be contained). To further their narrative they turn to violence. The attacks this month in Paris highlight their sophistication. They must turn Europeans against the refugees in order to isolate them. If Europe is too afraid of potential attackers among the huddled masses to integrate them, there will be huge populations adrift within the Eurozone with nowhere to turn but to the extremes. The likely intentional placement of a Syrian passport at one of the attack sites is a savvy attempt to turn the inevitable knee-jerk reaction against the most vulnerable in Europe.

Likewise, the United States faces difficult choices on how to react to recent events. In an effort to burnish their conservative credentials many Republican Governors have promised to block the resettlement of Syrians to their states citing safety concerns. Presidential candidate and former governor Jeb Bush has said that only Christian Syrians should be admitted, and the House has forwarded legislation that would force the directors of the national security infrastructure to personally sign off on each and every refugee before they can be admitted to the country. The number of refugees from Syria being accepted by the United States is paltry and nominal—even with an increase to 10,000 in 2016—out of the millions displaced. President Obama has indicated he would veto any such legislation and has rightfully called these reactionary sentiments cowardly and un-American. This dynamic illustrates something interesting, however. There are instincts within the right wing of western society that share the same goals as ISIS. ISIS wants us to shun Muslim refugees and attack the Middle East just as much our own right wing does. Both of these entities see that war and chaos strengthen their hand and help silence their political adversaries. We have seen this before, in a sense we are inoculated against it. The American experience over the last 14 years has been defined by the manipulation of our fear following the 9/11 attacks. We know what we must not do. We must not allow the demagogues in our own tent to exploit our fear of The Other. In a word, we must be vigilant.

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