Republicans are the party of torture. Audience applauds waterboarding, doubling of Guantanamo

America has officially lost any moral authority it had. Not just politicians and pundits, but audience members as well -- citizens, civilians, everyday Americans -- seem to have gone so insane with fear and revenge that they are willing to give up the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, and just plain basic "everything I need to know I learned in kindergarten" morals. It seems that there is no longer any morality at all to them. And perversely, this comes from the party that declares itself to be the morality police for the rest of us, telling us that homosexual marriage will harm the institution of marriage (and is "morally wrong"). I'll tell you what's morally wrong, and it isn't homosexual marriage -- it's torturing people.

Think Progress has an excerpt from Tuesday's Republican presidential debates (see YouTube video above) in which candidate Rudy Giuliani endorses waterboarding and "every method they can think of":

HUME: Mayor Giuliani, the former Director of Central Intelligence, George Tenet, the current head of the CIA have both said that the most valuable intelligence tool they have had has been the information gained from what are called “enhanced interrogation techniques,” to include, presumably, waterboarding. What is your view whether such techniques should be applied in a scenario like the one I described?

GIULIANI: In the hypothetical that you gave me, which assumes that we know there is going to be another attack and these people know about it, I would tell the people who had to do the interrogation to use every method they can think of. Shouldn’t be torture, but every method they can think of.

HUME: Water boarding?

GIULIANI: I would say every method they could think of, and I would support them in doing that because I have seen — [applause] — I have seen what can happen when you make a mistake about this and I don’t want to see another 3,000 people dead in New York or any place else.

Republican presidential candidate Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) endorsed "Jack Bauer" techniques, saying "we are the last best hope of Western Civilization".

TANCREDO: I just say that it’s almost unbelievable to listen to this in a way. We are talking about it in such a theoretical fashion. You say that nuclear devices have gone off in the United States, more are planned, and we are wondering about whether waterboarding would a bad thing to do? I’m look for Jack Bauer at that time, let me tell you. [applause] There is nothing — if you are talking about — I mean, we are the last best hope of Western Civilization. So all of the theories that go behind our activities, subsequent to these nuclear attacks going off in the United States, they go out the window. When we go under, western civilization goes under. So you better take that into account and you better do every single thing you can as President of the United States to make sure, number one, it doesn’t happen, that’s right. But, number two, you better respond in a way that makes them fearful of you, because, otherwise, you guarantee something like this will happen.

As Think Progress notes,

During the debate last year over loosening the definition of torture, Gen. Colin Powell declared, “The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism. To redefine Common Article 3 [of the Geneva Conventions]... would put our own troops at risk.” Earlier this year, the U.S. Army dispatched a general to tell producers of the television show 24 that its promotion of torture “was having a damaging effect on young troops.”

I simply don't understand people who endorse torture. How can they not realize that they give up any moral authority whatsoever as soon as they do so? How can they even criticize terrorism? How can they say "we are the last best hope of Western Civilization", when our country practices torture? A kindergartner would know it was wrong.

See this article from USA Today about the television show 24's glorification of torture.