So, rather than regarding Hezbolah as a minor irritant to the United States, they are part of the “existential threat” to America. In order to legitimize diplomacy, one must concede that the individuals who make up Hezbolah are not, primarily, concerned with the destruction of America (as if they could) but with personal power and aggrandizement. Hezbolah uses the West as a bogeyman to scare up support, but if it was more profitable in terms of wealth and power they would agitate against Russia (see Afghanistan, ~1978).

Acknowledging that A) terrorists cannot destroy our country and B) don’t really care, deep down, if they do, totally undermines every argument the party has made in the past 6 years. They simply cannot admit it, even to themselves. They cannot see themselves in such a devastating light. And so the drum beat goes on, and these folks buy into the delusion that they are saving the world from the Defeatocrats.

Finally, I would add that the Republicans have had a long flirtation with macho authoritarianism, and allowing that the intellectual pursuit of diplomacy might be an effective tool runs counter to the grain of their “brand” – cowboys and soldiers will fix the world with grit and bombs. All of this adds up to a fundamental belief that “talking to terrorists” must equal appeasement because “they hate our freedoms” and terrorism is “an existential threat” to the nation.

Who could have read or heard the lines given above and thought, “Oh, that’s some appeasement right there”?

Well, I can find you one person who would have thought that.

What a world.

Moral clarity. You forgot the moral clarity. That’s important also.