Power at the Expense of Everything

So I've had a day to absorb the results of the election. Needless to say, I'm somewhat frightened. The Democrats have shown themselves to be anything but aware of how serious the War on Terror actually is. Well, then again, I think they do know, but they wanted back in power so badly, they would do or say anything to get there. Now they're there. What are they going to do differently than what has been done? Like children on a schoolyard tattling on their peers, they spent the last six years running to the cameras on the steps of the Capital every time they found a weakness to exploit. The very picture of their camera-happy, whiny, soundbite behavior would be comical if it wasn't for such disastrous results.

What the Democrats have done is solidify as acceptable adolescent behavior that would be embarrassing for anybody else in any other situation. They have successfully chipped away at the Presidency by relentless name-calling and over-the-top criticism. Yes, they gained power, but at the expense of naming our real enemies. They rooted for indictments, investigations, and resignations of White House key staff. Their operatives leaked classified secrets to the press and hid when other were blamed. Never forget Richard Armitage's spineless silence during the Valerie Plame scandal, the New York Times report on Swift, and the equally damaging New York Times story about NSA warrantless surveillance of phone calls with terrorists. I have watched for six years as Democrats took every opportunity to slam the President over every little thing, forcing any legitimate criticism to be obscured by the noise. I've also watched the Democrats eat their own as in the case of Lieberman, one of the few Democrats with a real understanding of the War on Terror.

After six years, the criticism did the job. It destroyed the President's approval rating and obscured the facts about Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Afghanistan, and Syria. We can debate Republican failings all day long, but in one area they do see what's really going on. That one area is the War on Terror. And even though I don't think they've been tough enough in Iraq and proactive enough worldwide (especially in dealing with Syria and Iran), at least they stood behind one of the few world leaders who named the enemy and began pursuing them. Aside from Tony Blair, John Howard, and Stephen Harper, the rhetoric from many world leaders is impotent when addressing Islamic terrorism. I don't see France creating any solutions. They have their own terrorists hives where rioters swarm out and burn cars and buses to get what they want.

I think most voters clued in on the soundbites on the news. The Democrats' strategy of blaming everything from hurricanes to gas prices on Bush echoed in voters' minds like annoying jingles from over-played commercials. It's possible the Republicans will start reading the same playbook and doing the same thing instead of actual productive work.

The reality is much more complex than a collection of Senators lined up like a high school clique of the popular kids hogging the microphone. In the real world, there are angry Muslim terrorists who only care about the domination of Islam throughout the world. By naming Bush as the enemy, the Democrats in power have become allies with terrorists and have emboldened them. Terrorists have much more tenacity than most Americans. They can sit out decades of political changes in the US, while watching our politicians tear each other apart. Our politicians can only see the next election.

Countless postmortems have started about this election. What did the Democrats do right? How did the Republicans screw up? I'm already sick of the punditry's armchair quarterbacking. None of that matters. The only thing that matters to me is we are unified against terrorism. Yet that seems most impossible. Tax cuts, abortion, affirmative action, and so many other issues are understandably partisan. None of that will matter after the next terrorist attack. They will attack again and they will exploit any weakness left by our lack of unity and resolve.

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