Good news, everyone! We're not traitors, we're morons.

[Richardo]

Note: This is a guest article I'm writing for a RW blog. Comments welcome.
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Peaking with President Clinton's delicious smackdown of Chris Wallace on September 24th, Democrats have started objecting more vehemently to the widespread characterisations of them as 'disloyal' or 'pro-terrorist' or 'the party of Al Qaeda' by the RW talkpieces in government and the media. These labels are applied with spittle-flying intensity, merely because we dare articulate alternative approaches to fighting terrorists*. And lately, I've noticed a drop off in that kind of rhetoric. Good, right?

Not really. Political tactics are like shark's teeth: for every one discarded, a new one takes its place. And there's an inexhaustible supply.

Now, starting at the very top (see the President's remarks from last week's press conference), the hyperbolists in service to the GOP are taking pains not to cast aspersions on our patriotism: it's just that we 'don't understand' the nature of the enemy, or we're 'naive', or we've somehow 'forgotten the lessons of September....when was that? 12th? 23rd?

OK, let's see if I understand this: I'm not a traitor, I'm a moron. Soooo much better.

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And now, a dramatic interlude:
"Stay the Course: A Clumsy Metaphor in One Act"

It is a sunny, pleasant day. You came across a group of people violently smashing their heads into a concrete wall, which surrounds a tranqil park.

"What are you doing that for?", you might very well ask.

One of them pauses, and looks up from his efforts. Blood is streaming down his face. His eyes are unfocused. There's a flat spot on his forehead. "We've got to destroy this wall. It's preventing us from getting into that shady park."

"Hey, I'd like to get into the park too. But isn't there a better way to get there than by smashing your heads in?"

"You're so naive. No one could have predicted the hardness of the wall."

"It's concrete. Anyway, what about using a jackhammer? A bulldozer? Climbing over it? Going through that gate over there?"

"You just don't get it, do you? We MUST get into the park, and we must finish it the way we started - by destroying the wall with our foreheads. You know, I wonder if you really want to get into the park at all...."

and....scene.
****************************************************************************
Whether we're called traitors or morons: It comes down to the same thing. "You disagree not with our objectives, but with our methods, therefore you must be marginalized."

And if that's not politicizing the 'war' on terror, I don't know what is.

But then ...I'm an moron.


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*Note how I don't say 'terrorism'.

[Phredicles]

1. Very well said!

Recommended.

[Richardo]

3. Thanks Phredicles

:thumbsup:

[TheBaldyMan]

2. Better than never having learned the lessons of 9-11 like the GOP

and their apologists.

I am always stunned when the RW mouthpieces change their story again, the righteous among us have been saying the same things since before 2000. There are latecomers to the fold but they tend to keep to the same story once their eyes have opened and I have yet to be told of a backslider returning to the Bush Crime Syndicate cause.

This is the latest symptom of the disease, it is not new and we have all seen the paroxysms of RW spite before. Their condition is terminal and hopefully they will not have to suffer for too much longer.

Roll on Nov. '06 and after that '08 can't come soon enough.

[Richardo]

4. I wrote that piece before the President's latest radio address

...he's back to 'the party of cut-and-run' again.

Oh well, it was a good week or so. :eyes:

[asthmaticeog]

5. I have to ask - is the "an moron" at the end intentional or a typo?

Good stuff. The dramatic interlude is an apt analogy. :thumbsup:

[Richardo]

6. It's an artifact from the original draft: 'an idiot'

I changed it to 'moron' for consistency, and forgot about the indefinite article. :dunce:

I fixed it in a subsequent version.

thanks, asthmatic!

[kiki]

7. I thought we were the snotty intellectuals.

Oh yeah, that was last week - this week, we're idiots.

[kiki]

8. I thought it was because we're all pot-smoking hippie pacifists.

Oh yeah, that was last week - this week, we're all violent sociopaths.

[Armstead]

9. K & R -- Yes I've noticed that meme

People disagree with the braintrust that stepped into the quicksand of Iraq because "they don't understand."

Banging their heads against the wall is a perfect metaphor.