Are Republicans “Protecting” Us?

Republicans will be playing the Fear Card (again) this November. With their piss-poor record of “protecting” us, this seems like a suicidal approach. It’s true that Karl Rove’s successful strategies are often counterintuitive (i.e. attacking your opponent’s strengths instead of his weaknesses), but it’s hard to imagine Rove’s tactics working again this year.

During the upcoming session of Congress, Republicans are planning to leave almost all of their legislative business unfinished. They will be devoting the entire session to spinning the security issue and “proving” to us that we need to re-elect them so they can keep on “protecting” us. A budget for 2007, immigration, lobbying reform — all of these issues are being left in limbo so the Republicans can prance around and show us how tough they are. OK, how have they protected us?

The September 11th attacks happened on the Republican watch. The person responsible for 9/11 is still at large five years later. In response to the 9/11 attacks (supposedly), we invaded a country that had nothing to do with 9/11. This invasion has transformed Iraq from a brutal (but stable) dictatorship to a free-for-all killing field that’s claimed almost 3,000 American soldiers. We’ve created a record deficit that our great-grandchildren will be paying off. (Whatever happened to the party of fiscal responsibility?)

In the ultimate self-fulfilling prophecy, we’ve transformed Iraq into the terrorist haven that Bush always claimed it was. Oh, and we’ve alienated practically every country in the world except Israel. And this is the “record” that the Republicans want to run on???

Somebody who’s been divorced twelve times probably wouldn’t make much of a marriage counselor. You wouldn’t take driving lessons from someone who’s had fifteen accidents and 37 traffic tickets. But this is what the Republicans are asking us to do.

They laid the groundwork for 9/11 by repeatedly ignoring intelligence warnings that this exact type of attack would be happening. They’ve been unable or unwilling to catch the mastermind of this attack. The Bush Administration’s international blunders and fuckups have created a better terrorist recruiting tool than al Qaeda could have ever dreamed of.

And now Republicans think we should keep them in office because of their stellar performance. They’re the only ones who can protect us against terror. ROFLMAO!

If a security guard allowed a record number of robberies and assaults to happen on his watch, you’d laugh in his face if he said “I’m the only one who can protect you against criminals.” These Republican fuckups need to be laughed at and voted out this November.

And now Rumsfeld and Cheney are calling opponents of the Iraqi invasion “terrorist sympathizers” and comparing them to Nazi appeasers. Yup, that’s how you win votes — tell two thirds of America’s voters what a bunch of weak-kneed pussies they are. Way to go.

Democrats need to face the terrorism and Iraqi quagmire issues head-on. It would be a fatal mistake (again) for them to just play up the social issues where they’re favored by voters and ignore Iraq, terrorism and our shattered international reputation. Democrats need to grab the fear/terrorism issue and run with it.

When the “Swiftboat Veterans” start cranking up the slime machine, when Republicans yell “cut and run” — we need to jump in there and take them on. We need to demonstrate to voters that five and a half years of Republican “protection” has been nothing more than a pitiful smoke and mirrors show.

As this Newsweek columnist said, we need to turn the Iraqi war into a referendum on the Bush Administration. If you think the Iraqi war is a success, vote Republican. If you think it’s a failure, vote Democratic.

Sounds like a clear choice.

cross-posted at Bring It On!