Bill Kristol's latest piece in the Times was truly pathethic. The Republican spin machine has cranked out it's last. Oh, his piece had all the elements which have worked so well for the last 8 years - the honor of the military, patriotic mothers slamming the left, little snide references and red meat to throw out to the base - but those days are over.
Being guilty of romantic notions, doesn’t prohibit them from being true. Recently, a romantic notion has revolved around the idea that not only is Barak Obama unbeatable, but he will charge to victory with little more exertion than burning ants under a magnifying glass - an effortless exercise in curiosity.
The romantic part, but mostly untrue, is that Obama will win through sheer will and his own strident force. The reality is, McCain is defenseless. The big Republican machine that has weaved so perfectly, in and out, between half-truths, whole lies and shameless propaganda, to sell themselves, their ideals and the war is dead. This year, Willie Nelson could win.
Once fueled by fear mongering, endless deception and eight years of Rovian pretzel logic, the big red machine is finally kaput. The jig’s up.
Voters are no longer buying wholesale their high octane blend of fantasy, fiction and dogma. Not because they wouldn’t be happy to - I, myself, would love to tuck into bed each night believing in Iraqi democracy and ridding the world of tyrants, being more safe through pre-emptive wars against Muslims - who wouldn’t? Sounds dreamy. But the very unpleasant facts of life - reality some are beginning to call it - keeps popping up and the Republican fast talkers can’t keep it all below the waterline.
The only defense McCain will have will be a few diehards pounding away on the blogs, stirring and swift boating. (Hey, Bush’s 28% approval numbers have to come from somewhere.)
There’s little left Obama need do other than give Americans permission to look; it’s okay, yes, at the man with no clothes……….yes, he is actually naked.
In a striking example of that nakedness, Bill Kristol attempts to discredit a Moveon.org television ad, “Not Alex”. Like a punch drunk fighter flailing at shadows, his embarrassing swings only highlight the pitiful condition of the conservative position.
The ad is simple. A mother speaks as she holds her baby boy:
“Hi, John McCain. This is Alex. And he’s my first. So far his talents include trying any new food and chasing after our dog. That, and making my heart pound every time I look at him. And so, John McCain, when you say you would stay in Iraq for 100 years, were you counting on Alex? Because if you were, you can’t have him.”
Kristol’s first takes a couple of sideswipes that he infers are “picky”. (He can’t help trying the ‘aw shucks, I’m jest sayin’, routine. Can‘t harvest if you don‘t plant seeds.) He points out that after a two term McCain presidency Alex will only be 9 years old,inferring that as a practical matter, the mother’s concern is unwarranted. That’s just lame. He must get paid by the word.
Then he points out, presumably, Alex has little to fear from McCain’s famous remark about the 100 years war. In 20 years, Alex’s generation would be ’protecting US interests’ rather than actually ‘fighting’ - ala our presence in Germany, Japan, Korea, Kristol implies.
But the days of feeding the faithful with that sort of dead end logic are over. Even the yellow ribbon set understand the Alex ad is symbolic. Yes Bill, they’re that smart. Most people now understand, at an essential level, that we’ve wasted far too many lives, for increasingly unclear reasons, in Iraq. His jabs aren’t even humorous anymore, just sad and transparent. Even Charlie Brown finally quit trying to kick the football balancing under Lucy’s finger. It took a long time, but he got it. So have we.
Parents get it. Americans get it. Plenty of other Alex’s have indeed come of age and sent to Iraq to die in the previous 5 years. Whether he’s 1, 13, or 30, a McCain policy would have no qualms about shipping them off to the desert to die in an effort that a majority of voters clearly find less than fruitful.
He goes on to defend McCain’s tired argument which compares our presence in Iraq with those in Germany or Japan……. so idiotic, it’s not even anymore contemplated by rational folk.
Kristol continues, “But it is surely relevant to point out that the United States has an all-volunteer Army. Alex won’t be drafted, and his mommy can’t enlist him. He can decide when he’s an adult whether he wants to serve.”
That may be the saddest commentary of all.
(Right here I’ll disregard the thousands of middle aged National Guardsmen, electricians and plumbers and school teachers, who suddenly one day found themselves in fire fights in the streets of Bagdad, which is a different, infinitely sad, issue.)
Young men sign up to defend the United States from their enemies. In defense……..not on some wild eyed hunch born out of theoretical exercise. The truth that young men and women chose to die in defense of their country’s freedom and each other - not the propagation of a hair brained scheme - is wholly self-evident to all. Kristol, and the right, no longer have viable positions on sending them off to die in Iraq - just a cheap maze of wordplay. There is too much blood and evidence to stain their versions of the “truth.”
Kristol goes on, “This is the sober truth. Unless we enter a world without enemies and without war, we will need young men and women willing to risk their lives for our nation.”
A child could examine this piece of Kristol fantasy. By sending our troops and our national treasure to evaporate needlessly in the desert of Iraq, we find ourselves woefully unprepared to confront a real threat (read Afghanistan here) and someday may find out gutted economy too battered to take up the fight. Mr. Kristol, pop up from your bunker and look around. Any thought about spending 3 trillion dollars(that’s weird to even type) on a war in Iraq? Any objective contemplation on rotating 2.2 million troops, with an estimated 15% suffering from PTSD? Yes Mr. Kristol, I think we all agree, “we will need young men and women to risk their lives for our nation.”
I’m stopping here, with this classic Kristol gaze through the looking glass:
“ So, why, I wondered after first seeing the MoveOn ad, did I find it so ... Creepy?”
Could that be because you find Dick Cheney not creepy…the ad suffers by some weird parallax comparison? You found it “creepy” for exactly the same reasons you find all things of this nature creepy………it portrays truthfulness.
Real people, real parents sending real kids off to real war. And they don’t find it creepy. Just ugly truth.
Americans understand that after almost 8 years, protecting war criminals with double talk and strange and vicious reasoning, you sir, and the Republican propaganda machine, find the truth creepy indeed.
Sorry Mr. McCain, there was a time when people like Kristol could convince your base to swallow anything, but you’re about eight years and four thousand dead Alex’s too late.
