Why You Lost
This article from National Review describes precisely why liberals continue to lose ground…
Peter Beinart wrote a much-discussed cover story for The New Republic arguing that the Democratic party needs to become a “fighting party” that takes Islamic totalitarianism seriously…
…Beinart says that today’s Democratic party is plagued by Softs: The Next Generation. Michael Moore is the most obvious soft, though one could have an endless debate about his influence in the party. What is not debatable, however, is that Moore is a caricature of everything that is wrong with the American Left when it comes to, well, everything. But let’s stick to the foreign-policy stuff. Moore doubts that Osama was behind 9/11 and certainly thinks Bush is a bigger threat than Bin Laden. He asks, “Why has our government gone to such absurd lengths to convince us our lives are in danger?” MoveOn.org dabbles in isolationism, complaining — as the hard Left has for 60 years when it wants to change the subject — that the threat to civil liberties is greater than any external threat…
…Isolationist Republicans didn’t back FDR because FDR was nice to them (neither did the isolationist Democrats Drum pretends didn’t exist). They did it because the threat was obvious. National Review and The Weekly Standard — hardly nonpartisan institutions — supported Clinton’s war in Yugoslavia (and according to the standards used to justify that war, Iraq was a no-brainer). Think about it. If you think Islamic totalitarianism is a real problem, an existential threat, you write articles like Beinart’s. You don’t say, “Y’know, I could really get behind this twilight struggle if only the Republicans were nicer to Democrats.” You don’t bend over backward for fear of seeming like you’re “taking sides.” Or at least you don’t if you love your country more than you love your party (or more than you hate George Bush). Meanwhile, how can you blame some Republicans for thinking Democrats aren’t worth reaching out to if at this point they still need to hear more War On Terror 101 arguments?…
