November 21, 2003
THE NATIONAL GUARD:
Who Can Win Ohio? (Harold Meyerson, November 19, 2003, Washington Post)
The Democrats' scenario for picking up the White House next year looks increasingly like drawing to an inside straight.That doesn't mean they won't be able to do it. A number of states could fill their hand. But with the continuing rightward gallop of the South, the Democrats are going to have to perform near-perfectly in the swing states of the Midwest.
Like Richard Nixon before him, George W. Bush has waged a war in a way that has polarized the American people -- infuriating Democrats while strengthening his support among conservatives. But as a recent mega-survey from the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press makes clear, the American people were drifting apart -- and the South was going south for the Dems -- even before Bush used his war as a wedge.
There's an alternative reason that Republican-waged-wars tend to be wedge issues in a way that Democrat-waged-ones don't: patriotism. Republicans even tend to support Democrat wars--like the Cold War and Vietnam--long after the Democrats have run up the white flag. Posted by Orrin Judd at November 21, 2003 7:58 AM
Americans don't like being sacrificial lambs.
If a war is "containment" or, don't let those fellas take any more than they already have, then it's just a body-bag charade. Dems love art, and charade is their form of a lethal art.
Americans now understand that war is too important for just the artists to wage.
Posted by: John J. Coupal at November 21, 2003 8:48 AMThere's an alternative reason that Republican-waged-wars tend to be wedge issues in a way that Democrat-waged-ones don't: patriotism. Republicans even tend to support Democrat wars--like the Cold War and Vietnam--long after the Democrats have run up the white flag.
It's also why that proposed liberal talk radio network is never going to fly outside of San Francisco and a few other big cities. When you're supposed to be broadcasting contrarian viewpoints and the conservative talkers have the patriotism angle sewed up, voicing the other position 15 hours a week is not likely to be a good ratings strategy...
Posted by: John at November 21, 2003 9:07 AM"George W. Bush has waged a war in a way that has polarized the American people." [Emphasis added]
Okay, so how could the war be waged in such a way that it wouldn't polarize? What specific action is so ~polarizing~? We tried fighting the war for two terms as a law enforcement issue, and that got over 3000 people killed.
The only people who are becoming ~polarized~ are those of the Democrats base, which wants us to fight the French way-- by capitulating.