Don't lock them up

By Ben Crystal

Don't lock them up

Ever since the "Lock her up!" chant hit the charts at the GOP National Convention in July of 2016, it has been more than just the bane of the old lady who lost to President Donald Trump that fall, it has become the go-to catchphrase for near everyone who is in any way dissatisfied with near anyone in the loftier zip codes of the political food chain. As often as not, it seems a little like overkill. Should Hillary Clinton have done a stretch in the big house for multiple bullet points on her resume? What about Trump? What about the Senator caught with his hand in the cookie jar or the Representative caught with his hand on the intern? And what about Democrats who actively work to defeat America's foreign policy?



Should the Democrats be rounded up and thrown in the pokey for their unabashed attempts to grab the wheel and spin us back into the Iran Deal negotiated by President Barack Obama in 2015? Former Secretary of State John Kerry has engaged in a personal effort to lobby European governments to punish the United States over Trump's decision to exit the agreement. Nearly every major foreign policy player from the Obama administration — many of whom have ridden the Democrat career track into cushy jobs with outlets like CNN andThe New York Times — has made a point of not only deriding Trump's withdrawal order, but siding against him and, by extension, their own country.

The Iran Deal, a porous joke of an agreement, was supposed to ensure the mullahs who have turned Iran into an Islamofascist fever dream don't make the leap to the nuclear big leagues. It was supposed to have done so by: 

• Giving the mullahs billions of dollars.
• Taking them at their word that they wouldn't use those dollars to build nuclear weapons.

The inspections were toothless; they gave Iran enough lead time to not only hide the goodies, but send them on vacation. The fiscal concessions threw enough money at them to continue funding terrorist activities in style. The "deal" was such a stinker, Obama didn't bother submitting it to the Senate for approval; he knew that not only would the 54 GOP Senators tell him to get bent, as many as two dozen of their Democratic colleagues — including current Minority Leader Chuck Schumer — would join them. The whole thing was predicated on the mullahs being true to their word; a leap of faith even ardent Obama apologists admit is as likely as Iran sending Israel a nice Hannukah card. And Obama's flacks lied to us about how it was structured, who was involved and how it was sold; a strategic house of lies constructed as, in the words of Obama spinmeister Ben Rhodes, "an echo chamber (the media) ... were saying things that validated what we had given them to say."

The craven partisanship which has overtaken the American left defies logic, decorum and common sense. Logic would dictate that some of their behavior — Kerry's in particular — constitutes a Logan Act violation. Decorum would dictate that others' behavior is at best unseemly; Obama slamming Trump represents a marked departure from past presidents' reticence on the topic of their successors. Common sense would dictate that finding yourself on the same side of a major policy debate with guys who think crucifying homosexuals is a great way to unwind from a long day of funding global terrorism ought to at least raise a red flag or two.

But should we "lock them up?" I say "no." Excepting Kerry, their shrieking is appalling, but protected by the 1^st Amendment. Besides, locking them up would subject the other prisoners to them, and those other prisoners are protected by the 8^th Amendment. Just because Tico is a button man for MS-13 doesn't mean he deserves being locked in a cell with Ben Rhodes, who will yammer incessantly about how Trump has damaged America's global image. Moreover, if you think Tico is a bad guy now, wait until he's spent a few years inside, listening to one of the "Pod Save America" bros explain how the Iran Deal should supersede the Senate's treaty authority. But most of all, locking up the Iran Deal bloviators would muzzle them, and I hope they keep bellowing their "mullahs first" strategy, right through election day.

— Ben Crystal