A growing meme?From a
reader to Sullivan:
... the elation on the right regarding Palin's nomination made clear to me that none of them has ever been remotely serious about national security, either. On the contrary, as the left has insisted for years, for [the right] it really has all been about political advantage, noise and bluster and ugliness with no core of principle, no genuine strategic commitment.
I've also encountered that sentiment in a flurry of blog posts (sorry, can't find them at the moment). But basically, it's that the War on Terrorism is mostly about keeping Republicans in office. This goes from the color-coded terror warnings issued in 2004 - and discarded shortly thereafter! - to the present day "security theater" at airports. (And as this blog has pointed out, terrorism is not an existential threat to the nation.)
In any event, the Palin pick has caused observers to note again ,that in many ways, when it comes to actual national security (e.g. recruiting Arabic speaking linguists) Republicans are often found wanting. But they sure do like them charges that Democrats are wusses when it comes to fighting terrorism.
posted by Quiddity at 8/31/2008 01:33:00 AM
The republicans do only seem interested in winning elections - at all costs - and not in actually governing. So, it makes sense that they are good at winning the elections but bad at governing. For them it's a game of Capture the Flag. Like the game, once you have the flag, what do you do with it?
Check out this site for a review of a new book on Republican dirty tricks from the 1968 election onward.
It's never been a war on terrorism. It's a war against liberalism. Republicans fear Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Ted Kennedy, et al., far more than they've ever feared Osama bin Forgotten.
