Quote:
Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
Our presence not only "fans the flames," it keeps the rival factions from having to reconcile. Conservatives who complained about welfare should be able understand this, but they seem to have a hard time getting it.
I think the opposite is true. Most Democrats want to be more aggressive in using Congress to force a change in policy, but they are being held back by the leadership and the moderates, who (1) fear the consequences of moving too far to the left (notwithstanding that the public is already there), and (2) recognize that they need Republicans to get a veto-proof majority, and that they won't get the Republicans if they make the issue partisan.
The result is that many Democrats are frustrated with their party for not doing more, and for not making more of an issue out of it. And if all they wanted to do was take Senate seats in Minnesota, Maine and Oregon in '08, the Democrats could politicize and polarize things on this issue by hanging the whole fiasco around the necks of the Republican party, and Senators like Norm Coleman, Susan Collins and Gordon Brown. That they aren't doing this shows that they are behaving fairly responsibly, moreso than Republicans would in similar circumstances.
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I don't think your first analogy is very solid. I also think if left to reconcile, they will be at each other's throats even more.
The public is not "to the left." The public is disgusted and wants a quick easy solution. But remove all the troops, watch Iran and Russia drive oil prices through the ceiling and the country will turn "to the right" very quickly. You see a moral issue. The American voter is selfish, economically fixated and impatient. Right now the war looks like an expensive loss. If we had taken over the oil spigots and gas prices dropped, people would not complain. The country isn't Left or Right, unless you believe the news or the internet.
The poles of any issue are where the idiots reside. That is concrete fact we can agree on. The response to one idiot from the right is not replacing his flawed ideology with that of an idiot from the left. It doesn't work like a pendulum. That sort of correction does not bring things back to the middle. What brings things back to the middle is moderate, sensible recognition that we are stcuk there, and that our aim should be to minimize casualties while maintaining order. That is our charge. The notion the Iraqis will stand up and fight off the extremists is a pipe dream. It simply isn;t going to happen.
