...It's the only strategy they have left
(Actually, it's the only strategy they ever had.)
Think about it: you're eight months into office and you've decided to pretty much blow off all warnings by the previous administration because, well hell, they're DEMONCRATS who can't keep their pants zippered and you've got you're shiny new neo-con theories. You TOTALLY FLAKE on warnings that bin Laden is determined to strike within the US, cause baby, it's VACATION TIME and there's brush to be cleared. And then, the unthinkable happens -- well not really unthinkable, you were fucking WARNED -- the largest terrorist attack on American soil occurs ON YOUR WATCH.
Watcha gonna do?
Well, for the first couple years, you don't have to worry. America is scared shitless. The
But then, you keep fucking up.
You outsource the capture of bin Laden to warlords and he gets away. You pull troops out of Afghanistan to go to your misadventure in Iraq. You don't plan for an insurgency and now you're bogged down in an ugly civil war in Iraq and Afghanistan ain't looking much better. Meanwhile, everything else goes in the shitter as well -- Katrina, the economy, gas prices -- pretty soon you can't even get any real legislation passed even though you control all three branches of the government.
BUT YOU KNOW THAT FEAR WORKS
So you gin up the fear level whenever necessary: '...a political downturn for the administration, followed by a “terror event” - a change in alert status, an arrest, a warning.'
But after five years, that strategy (combined with bumbling everything else) can only go so far.
Now you're at the point where more than a third of your own citizens suspect that "federal officials assisted in the 9/11 terrorist attacks or took no action to stop them so the United States could go to war in the Middle East, according to a new Scripps Howard/Ohio University poll."
Watcha gonna do, Skippy?
Your poll numbers bite the big one. There's really only one thing you can do. In the time honored Republican tradition:
YOU DEMONIZE YOUR OPPONENTS AND PROJECT YOUR OWN MISDEEDS BACK ONTO THEM.
Yes, folks, it's hard to tell if the talking points are coming from the crazies who call into C-SPAN or if they are parroting their masters.
Caller to C-SPAN's Washington Joural this morning:
"If the Liberals take over this country, we will all perish."
www.gop.com:
(Notice the faint Hitler mustache on Dean from my screen capture?
After you demonize them:
Bill O’Reilly: Lieberman’s Defeat Shows ‘Americans Have No Will To Restrain Iran’s Jihad’You then project back on to them that it's the Democrats who are actually the ones politicizing terror.
Cal Thomas: Lamont's victory "completes the capture of the Democratic Party by its Taliban wing"
John Gibson: On Daily Kos and Michael Moore: "Pol Pots," "Khmer Rouge wing of the Democratic Party"
Bill Kristol: Democrats oppose Lieberman because he is "pro-American"
Ann Coulter: Lamont supporters are "anti-American"
Tom DeLay: Describes the liberal world view as “Can’t we all get along?” and said that liberals’ reaction to a terrorist attack is, “You can’t go after these wonderful people that just killed a bunch of Americans.”
Rudy Giuliani: Give $$$ to the GOP or the terrorist win: "In the middle of a war on terror, we need to remain focused on furthering Republican ideas more than ever before. We can't turn back now...That's why I am emailing to ask you for a favor: will you click here to make a contribution."
Joe Lieberman: On his loss. "If we just pick up like Ned Lamont wants us to do, get out [of Iraq] by a date certain, it will be taken as a tremendous victory by the same people who wanted to blow up these planes in this plot hatched in England. It will strengthen them and they will strike again."
Ken Mehlman: On the Lamont win, "...the Democratic Party has chosen to nominate for Senate a leading proponent of the isolationist, defeatist, blame America first philosophy. "
Dick Cheney: Lieberman Loss ‘Disturbing’ Because al Qaeda Is ‘Betting They Can Break The Will of The American People’
Tony Snow: A Vote For Lamont Is A Vote For Another 9/11
So how are the Rethugs/Bushies actually doing at making sure we don't "all perish?"
As The Huffington Post notes:
In a survey of 100 top foreign-policy experts (both Republicans and Democrats), 84 believed that we're losing the war on terror and 87 thought Iraq has had a negative impact on our efforts to defeat terrorists.
So to recap:
- Largest terrorist strike on US soil occurs on GOP watch
- Under GOP, US continues to blow the war on terror
Conclusion:
It's the Democrat's fault! Vote for Republicans or you'll all DIE!
Yeah, sounds about right...
******************************************
Timeline: A Profile in Politicizing Terror
Snow: Bush approved RED Alert WEDNESDAY
******************************************
Of local interest:
Jim Burn, Chair of Allegheny County Democratic Party, will be on PCNC's Night Talk: Get to the Point this evening and none of the above has been lost on him. (8:00 PM)
10 comments:
That about sums it up.
Good job.
well put. the really telling thing about it is that they get away with this time and time again. what does that say about most members of that party or about us as a whole?
Yup.
And they could actually win again with this line, too.
What infuriates me and many of my fellow conservatives is the way the people on your side of the aisle refuse to acknowledge the danger we all face from the radicalization of the the teachings in the Quran.
There are people who would kill you to watch your blood flow down the street and you act as if their only issue is that we're not being nice enough to them.
Around the world, Islamic terrorists have committed atrocity after atrocity and you folks choose not to recognize that there is a pattern (that is eerily similar to what the Nazis tried in the 1930's).
So, if you guys want to focus your hate on the President by printing unflattering photographs... if you guys want to do everything in your power to undermine the efforts of our troops (and the Israelis) by exagerating every mis-deed... if you guys want to look the other way as 'freedom-fighters' hide behind civilians and UN peacekeepers... if you guys want pretend that it's only a tiny minority of Muslims that want to kill my family and friends... if you guys want to denigrate the efforts of this administration and the British in taking down the latest plot to kill my countrymen... then you deserve every verbal description that the above article details.
My philosophy: When the punch is on its way to my face, the time for civil discussion has ended.
"So, if you guys want to focus your hate on the President by printing unflattering photographs..."
Yes, that picture of Bush frozen like a deer in headlights for several minutes after he was told terrorists had struck the US is unflattering to say the least -- it's frightening! So was his response when he finally left the school to FLEE.
But, you know what's more frightening? Lying your ass off to start a war with Iraq that's only served to distabilze that region even more as you took your eye off the ball in Lebanon, etc. and every other region of the world, like say, Korea.
And I see that you TOTALLY IGNORED the bi-partisan poll of experts who say that this administration is "losing the war on terror" and that "Iraq has had a negative impact on our efforts to defeat terrorists."
But go ahead and live in you little dream world where if you just give up more constitutional rights each day, you can sleep like a baby.
Dream on! (But please don't wet all our beds.)
Thanks, Maria. You made my point. By personalizing your response with your cute bed-wetter line, you clearly pointed out that I am the enemy.
You really need to learn how to have a civil conversation.
I don't need polls to construct, nor validate, my point of view. And my face was as blank as his when I heard what was going on at the WTC, a mere five miles from my home.
Have a nice day.
Yes, you made your point:
"... if you guys want pretend that it's only a tiny minority of Muslims that want to kill my family and friends... if you guys want to denigrate the efforts of this administration and the British in taking down the latest plot to kill my countrymen..."
"an american man"
Your point is the same as the Bushies and far too many Republicans -- that YOU are the only Real Americans.
"I don't need polls to construct, nor validate, my point of view."
And, your other point that you don't need any silly thing like facts to get in the way of your "reality."
Geez, I thought that it was Liberals who were supposed to be the touchy-feely ones.
And then there's your hubris at coming to my "house" and telling me how I should speak in it.
Meanwhile you don't even have the balls to use your name.
Sweetie, you are more than welcome to give up any rights that you want, you just aren't welcome to give up mine.
Must be hard for you to be the minority, huh? The majority of the country no longer buys the lies of this administration and sees it for the bunch of incompetent fearmongers that it is.
And, I bet that federal judge telling Bush today that even he isn't above the law went down hard for you, huh?
Poor baby!
Signed,
An American Woman
PS I lived in Manhattan for 15 years and never realized that CT was only 5 miles away. That isn't you, Joe, is it? LOL
No, Maria. I don't consider myself (nor my family and friends) the only real Americans. I'm proud to number you and everyone else that disagrees with me Americans as well. That's what makes this country truly great. I disagree with you... but I never suggested that you are un-American, nor have I suggested that you are somehow un-patriotic. What I did say was that I don't understand your points of view.
You point to a poll and call it a 'fact'. I'm sorry, I see polls (by their very nature) as opinions.
I never told you how to speak 'in your house.' I told you how I prefer that you speak to me.
As far as the Judge Taylor's ruling goes: If that's the way the judiciary sees the issue, I'm not qualified to disagree. I don't have all the facts that the judge had at her disposal.
I try to see as many sides of an issue as I can before forming my opinion. And, like most people, I tend to believe that the opinion I arrive at is correct. However, I continue to refine my opinion as time goes by. That is the very reason I visited 'your house' in the first place, hoping to try to understand your positions and points of view.
But the timbre of the conversation here seems to be Anti-Bush, not pro-American, which is why I pointed out the dichotomy contained in the opening post of this thread.
I know a lot of people on the left side of the aisle consider the President their enemy and I find that hard to swallow. But I find it even more difficult to believe that those same people don't recognize the threat that faces us as a nation (and the world, at large.)
I'd like to invite you to have a look at this website:
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/
It's a site that tries to encompass the global threat we face.
Another thing I meant to ask about yesterday: Exactly what rights of yours have been trampled on? I hear that over and over, yet my middle-class existance seems to be completely unaffected by this hot-button issue. I'd like to hear a specific example of how your loss of rights has affected you or one of your friends or family or any other American. Maybe you can start to change my opinion in the matter.
And please try to keep the snarkiness out of your tone. I'm being respectful to you, your ideas and people with whom you agree. You're an eloquent word-smith, Maria, but nuance of language is not the object here, trying to understand one another's point of view is.
Until next time... Joe 'I Recently Moved to NYC' L.
PS: If you'd prefer that I go away and not continue this dialogue, feel free to tell me. I wouldn't want to stay here if I am unwelcome.
I guess it's easier to pontificate to the choir than it is to hold an actual conversation.
Wouldn't want something as inconvenient as facts to get in the way of a good rant, huh?
What a shame.
Do you realize that you've been commenting on a post that had already scrolled off the page the first time that you came to it?
I only saw you first comment because I happened across it on my SiteMeter and that only shows the last 100 hits...so if I check it once a day, I have only a 1 in 5 chance of seeing something on an average day.
Believe it or not, I don't regularly go back to things that I wrote weeks ago to see if people are still commenting there.
I'm assuming that you, like me, have a life. And that that life is not dependent on arguing endlessly with strangers.
You're certainly welcome to keep posting comments on this post or to go to the blog and comment on something recent:
http://2politicaljunkies.blogspot.com
...Something I might actually see and read.
But like very other blogger, I don't respond to each and every post -- nothing personal.
Like I said, I have a life.
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