Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Everybody Knows
Everyone knows that 9/11 called for a heroic response that asked and answered big questions: Who are we, How did we get here, Where are we going?
The heartbreak of Bush's response is not only that it diverted resources from technical solutions that would provide a truly robust defense of our borders and critical infrastructure, but also that it has prevented us from acheiving moral solutions that embody the expansive heroic streak that runs throughout our history--the heroism of a Lincoln or an FDR.
Instead, we have been offered Bush's false heroism of "go shopping, display the flag, enjoy your tax cuts, and shut up while I beat the shit out of some people." Muslims saw right through that shit from the get go. Now we've learned that British military intelligence called bullcrap on our Iraq folly early on, too.
The mistake of Democrats in '02 and '04 was to not offer a vision to counter Bush’s faux heroism.
As we head into the ’06 elections, Democrats are keeping us all guessing if, once again, instead of offering a clear alternative, they plan on hoping that voter dissatisfaction with the war and a host of other issues will lead to significant gains in the House and Senate.
Free advice to Dems: The national party needs to envision, or at least hint that it has a glimmer of a vision of an era when the faux heroism of Bushit is recognized as the last venal gasps of the Cold War. To envision that future, we will have to revisit our collective response 9/11 and learn important lessons, perhaps for the first time. No, Rummy, the lessons are not about bucking up for a multi-generational military house-cleaning of geopolitical adversaries.
In order to get of Iraq
- The invasion of
- The better answer to 9/11 was to roll up Al Qaeda and seriously reconstruct
- Bush’s war, from Guantanamo to "Abu Garump," lacks important legal and moral foundations.
- Masked in a rhetoric of "moral clarity," its untruths, brutality, shifting justifications, and partisan uses have been transparent to ally, enemy, and neutral alike.
- The transparent immorality of the war has been self-defeating, acclerating a cycle of rage and vigorous resistance among those whom we are trying to win over.
- Legitimacy matters. Republicans have thrown themselves wholeheartedly behind Bush’s vision and have no credibility in the global communities that matter in combating terrorism. To the extent that we remain a two-party system, only a Democrat can have the legitimacy in the Arab, Muslim, European, and South American worlds to disarm the enemy’s most powerful ideological weapon: righteous indignation towards
- Criticism of the government is not treason.
Today, with the help of grassroots passion and nonprofit strategy, the Democratic Party can glimpse the dim glimmer of such a vision. They've got seven months to turn it into a sharp and radiant shine.
Don't forget: We all know that heroes rushed into the buildings, heroes brought down flight 93, and heroes thought they were bringin justice to those that hit us in the caves of Afghanistan. But then Bush exploited the fluck out of that heroism, treating all of his preferred policy mechanisms--from tax cuts to free trade--as essential to the Wur 'n Terra. So well did he exploit things that 85% of U.S. troops still think the U.S. mission in Iraq is mainly to retaliate for Saddam's role in the 9/11 attacks. And, in a subtler yet more damaging misstep, Bush never asked from us a truly heroic political competence, a way of conceptualizing ourselves as Americans in the world that transcends old resource and culture antagonisms.
Dems, trust me: Everybody has a vague sense that something has gone terribly wrong with our country. You just need to point it out, clearly and truly. We the People are ready to seek justice for 9/11 and a robust defense from future crimes against humanity in a way that does not accelerate the cycle of rage.
Come on Dems! Say it with me!
NO PERMANENT MILITARY BASES IN IRAQ!
OPEN UP THE VOTING MACHINES, BIYATCH!
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