Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

You are not going to win by fine-tuning Republican ideas, and if you try the public will rightly find you guilty of having a weak spine and weaker head.  You want to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory?  Just get out there and argue about how to fight the war on terror.  Talk about port security and border patrols.  Just tell everyone how you're going to get the space suits to the towns that really need them.  Tell them you're going to put even bigger walls around every national monument,  scan for scary molecules at every airport, put a camera on every street corner, and search every henhouse, dog house, and outhouse.  You'll have plenty of time to talk about it, because you won't be weighed down with other things - like holding an elected position.

You can't beat these guys by offering suggesting on their war, and you can't try to out-extreme their rhetoric.  Republicans are already calling people "fascists."  Where are you going to go from there?   Unless you're prepared to give a speech in which your opponents have untoward relations with dead nuns and orphans, let it go.  Fascist wins, and that's the trump they intend to play over, and over, and over.  The Republicans are making absolutely no secret of their direction.  They're going to pound the podium 24/7 from now till election day.  They're going to scream about the end of the world.  They are going to coat every stage in righteous spittle and play every tune in the John Phillips Sousa "songs to burn cities by" hit parade.  They are running full-throttle on the war on terror.  They have bet their political lives on this war.

As a Democratic candidate, there is only one thing you can do that will completely blow this strategy away, one thing the Republicans would never think to do themselves -- show real bravery by pointing out that the "war on terror" is a total farce.

Point out that in their actions, the Republicans are doing exactly what Osama and his pals want them to do.  Before 9/11, Al Qaeda was a tiny collection of nut cases, about as well regarded in the Arab world as the KKK in the United States.  After 9/11, they were a small collection of nutcases who everyone hated, including their fellow Muslims.  But what did Republicans do?  Instead of taking out these bozos, they blundered around, killed tens of thousands, and turned Osama into a folk hero.  We've held a five year fund-raising and recruiting drive for Al Qaeda while pouring out American blood and America dollars like both are in endless supply.  The whole thing is a joke - a very sick joke.

From the beginning, smart folks like Wesley Clark and Russ Feingold realized that the best way to handle the "post 9/11 world" was not through military action, but by treating these people as what they are: thuggish criminals.  Just because Bush went skipping along the yellow brick road to Armageddon doesn't mean the country has to play Toto to his Dorothy.  It is not too late for cooler heads to prevail.

You want to beat the Republicans?  You're not going to do it with more spit.  So let them keep slinging the fire and brimstone.  Let them spout "fascist" until the word has all the integrity of a damp paper towel.

Instead, offer the American people a refreshing breeze of sanity.  Give them the cool, thoughtful hand at the tiller.  Point out that Al Qaeda and all the wanna-bes put together are a minuscule threat to this country.  They're nothing to get down on our knees and cry about.  They're not the Nazis.  They're a mouse.  America should not be afraid of a mouse.  Oh, and cluck your tongue a few times over your trembling Republicans colleagues.  The poor frightened little things.

We are the most powerful country that the world has ever seen, equipped with unmatched resources and peopled by brave, inventive, optimistic citizens.  We fear no one, and we'll not surrender our rights just because the Republicans want to hide under the bed.

Let the voters know that it's time to get up off our knees, raise our heads, and stop jumping at shadows.  Tell them how you're going to remove ugly concrete barriers from our streets and our parks because in reality they offer no safety.  Tell them America isn't afraid to obey the law, because obeying the law makes us stronger, not weaker.  Tell them you're not going to waste billions trying to protect every truck stop from non-existent bad guys.  Tell them they can keep their damn shoes on when they board a plane.

Tell them that you won't fight the war on terror better, you will end a silly program that was never a war, never had a real plan, and whose only beneficiary was our enemies.

Tell them it's time to be Americans again.