Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

I recently wrote a diary on Lincoln's Lyceum Address, which I regard as one of the greatest speeches in American history, and an astounding début for a young man just moved to "civilization" from the frontier.   That speech includes the stirring pronouncement of American security.  

All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth their military chest; with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years... If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.  

Lincoln's is only one example of a speech intended to unite, lift, and propel an audience toward action.  That action can be political, social or military, and the speakers as diverse as William Jennings Bryan, Winston Churchill, or Robert Kennedy.  Real life conflicts don't leave all that many opportunities for those eve of battle rallying cries, but fiction, has given us a thousand stirring moments from Antony telling his men to "cry havoc" and Henry's stirring evocation of "we band of brothers" up to Aragorn telling his troops that they may one day from a fight, but "not this day."

In his top-rated diary, New Deal Democrat called for a modern evocation of this sort, a rallying cry which can lift the country out of confusion and make clear the stakes of this current contest.  It's an excellent idea.  A necessary idea.  It's an idea for which I personally will put up $1000.  Here it is, Dr. Dean. Come and get it.

But while I'd love to hear such a inspiring call, and have on occasion tried, and failed, to craft something that brought forward those same emotions, that's not the purpose of this diary.  Instead, I want to bring you a simpler message.  A message loaded with less noble sentiments, even though I believe it is for noble purpose.  While I hope our party's leaders do create that single ad that becomes a nationwide clarifying moment, we troops in the field are called to another duty.

Through too many elections seasons, we've played defense.  We've shivered through September and October, looking at unfriendly polls and hoping for a last minute reprieve.  We've sweated at the surprises and plain old dirty tricks tossed our way by Republican operatives.  That's not this year.  This year, we're on offense.

Right now, Republicans are in the uncomfortable positions of people who are so used to winning, they don't know how to respond to failure.  At the opening of the American Civil War, the weaponry had advanced but the tactics were still the same as they had been for almost a century.  The result was casualties that were astoundingly high.  The Republicans are in the same position this year.  They're still pitching the same brand of fear and confusion that has seen them through since 1980, but the public is no longer buying.

The opportunity here isn't for a narrow victory.  It's for a slaughter.  

In the words of a thousand war-weary artillery commanders on a thousand smoky battlefields, we have to pound them.  We must harry them at every step.  Worry them on every front.  We can't let them recover.  We can't give them space.  We can't let them breathe.  

We have the reputation, and I think justifiably, of being the kinder of the two parties.  We don't have the vindictiveness and callous self-assurance of the right.    We find it more difficult to look on our fellow Americans as traitors and tend to see them as misguided souls who can yet be convinced of their error.

But for the next three weeks, we need to think of the words of Stonewall Jackson.  We need to hurl all our force on the weakest part of the Republican lie.  We need to attack them on Foley, expose the lies on Iraq, rip off the curtain covering the myth of Republican economic theory, hit them on every front, and when they think they know where we're going to hit next, come in and hit them from a whole new direction.

The Republicans are fond of declaring war on everything from drugs to terror, but from now until November 7, we have to consider ourselves at war with the forces that want to erode our rights, enrich the already rich at the cost of everyone else, and sponsor lies, torture, and fear.  We need to turn back to Shakespeare's Henry V for more good advice.

In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage.

That blast is blowing now.