Why Can't Willie Do Civics?

Will Saletan states the obvious with a big side of whine.

He starts off with a bang:

The 2004 election is becoming a referendum on your right to hold the president accountable.

Right. Which is what it is every four years.

Someone could run on a platform of suspending the Constitution and installing and emperor. We could have a referendum on ending our experiment with democracy.

In Will Saletan's world, we probably are.

The case against President Bush is simple. He sold us his tax cuts as a boon for the economy, but more than three years later, he has driven the economy into the ground. He sold us a war in Iraq as a necessity to protect the United States against weapons of mass destruction, but after spending $200 billion and nearly 1,000 American lives, and after searching the country for more than a year, we've found no such weapons.

The economy is growing at a healthy clip - but it's in Saletan's interest to keep repeating that it's not. The war wasn't about WMDs (it was one of four justfications), and it never was - but again, it's in Saletan's interest to keep acting as if it was. It's the big lie, and it's pretty much all the left has these days.

Saletan continues:

When patriotism is impugned, the facts go out the window. You're not allowed to point out that Bush shifted the rationale for the Iraq war further and further from U.S. national security—from complicity in 9/11 to weapons of mass destruction to building democracy to relieving Iraqis of their dictator—without explaining why American troops and taxpayers should bear the burden. You're not allowed to point out that the longer a liberator stays, the more he looks like an occupier. You're not allowed to propose that the enormous postwar expenses Bush failed to budget for be covered by repealing his tax cuts for the wealthy instead of further indebting every American child.

"Not allowed to?"

And yet Saletan does exactly that!

If you dare to say these things, you're accused—as Kerry now stands accused by Cheney and Miller—of defaming America and refusing "to support American troops in combat." You're contrasted to a president who "is unashamed of his belief that God is not indifferent to America." You're derided, in Cheney's words, for trying to show al-Qaida "our softer side." Your Silver Star, Bronze Star, and three Purple Hearts are no match for the vice president's five draft deferments.

I'm trying to remember - what's the Latin term for "non-sequitur?" I can't remember.

I've heard not one credible conservative dig at Kerry's patriotism; merely his voting record, his veracity, and the sanity of his policies.

Dissent does not make one "unpatriotic" - but patriotism does not make ones' policies sound, or ones' dissent cogent.

Kerry's policies - to the extent that he's revealed any - are not sound. His foreign policy at best cribs from Bush, and at worst is a disaster waiting to happen; wars are never won on the defensive, and Kerry's long-term ideal is purely defensive.

And even if Bush were wrong about everything else, the mere fact that he is all about taking the offensive against terrorism is reason enough to vote for him; it is the only issue that really matters.

But everything else isn't wrong - the tax cuts are working, they're not for the rich (I'm not rich, and they helped me), the economy is growing, unemployment is at 1996 levels and falling...

...and the only thing the left has to throw at the President is 35 year old medals and three-year-old economic tropes.

And a candidate that more and more is being marketed more as a victim than a leader - a victim of big, baaad Republicans and all that nasty information they have...

Posted by Mitch at September 3, 2004 05:12 AM | TrackBack