But will it win over the evangelical vote?
I thought the absolute height of the worst sort of ugly cynicism was Dick and George’s vanity invasion of Iraq, Big Time using the opportunity to squirrel away a Midas-sized fortune, Junior looking to cement his legacy as a “war president” and leaping at the chance to prance around like a damned peacock (with a package) in a flight suit.
Don’t get me wrong–the loss of lives and sheer destruction is absolutely horrible. The photos I’ve seen, particularly the ones of civilian deaths or funerals, are gut wrenching. However, regardless of who’s “at fault,” a US president or any world leader with any influence should be using that influence to try to stop the killing.
Johnny McStrangelove, in contrast, opts for taunting and cheerleading, with little concern for the additional casualties his actions will undoubtably cause, and with little or no concern as to the inconvenient truth that Russia isn’t a dinky little nation that can be “thrown up against a wall,” (to cite the odious Michael Ledeen) but still a nuclear power. Oh, and then there’s the even more inconvenient truth that Johnny Mac is still only a candidate for the presidency, not the president…though he IS, in a political sense, barely once removed from being a paid agent of Georgia. Is that what we want from a chief executive/commander in chief? Good heavens, let’s hope not.
And let’s further hope that there’s something WAY, WAY wrong with a political calculus that thinks ramping up the war whoops is what it will take to rouse the public. Because that’d be really, really troubling.
Note: thanks to Athenae, Scout and the other First Drafters for the opportunity to guest post. For those who don’t know me, my name’s Michael, I live in Baton Rouge, LA (Loosiana’s Second City–alas, as utterly average as New Orleans is unique) and I tell folks my motivation for blogging is, well, therapy: it beats slamming my head against the wall when reading or otherwise hearing of the lastest Team Bush perversion (yeah, perversion’s about right.)
If you can, try to attend the thirdRising Tide conference. See you there.