Posted by
bphil on Wednesday, September 06, 2006 1:04:05 PM
The Democrats have a message problem this election season when trying to convey a coherent position on Iraq and the greater war on terror. It easier to start with what they don’t think: that is, they don’t think Bush, Rumsfeld, et al., were right about anything.
OK, fair enough. I think former Reagan Navy Secretary John Lehman spoke for a lot of us conservatives when he wrote “We’re Not Winning This War” in the Washington Post last week. But Lehman’s point is that while Bush isn’t fighting the war on terror properly, it is still a fight that must be engaged.
This is where the Democrats message problem comes in.
The war on terror isn’t just about seeking out al-Quaeda and responding to terrorist attacks. It’s about those things, but also fundamentally changing the Middle East from a place of constant violent sectarian and religious conflict to a place that respects differences and solves conflict without violence. In large part, the American people support that vision.
So as the Democrats excoriate Bush for his handling of the war on terror and Iraq, they make no distinction between what Bush is doing wrong and what could be done right to achieve the grander vision. That’s where Republicans hit them with having “no plan”.
Further, the base of the Democratic party does support unilateral withdrawal of American troops which would be a complete abandonment of the new future of the Middle East. That conflict, between the far-left and the average American, is what is going to make these elections closer than the political strategists would have us think. We don’t want to lose, we want to win. And the American people have shown a willingness to stay and fight if we believe in the cause and that victory is possible.
The Democrats message problem is that they think they cannot support victory without supporting Bush. They are telling the American people that the only solution is retreat.