For years now Democrats have been losing elections because Republicans exploit issues that they "own" as a party.
Conventional wisdom is that Republicans own toughness, national security, taxes, deficits, religion, and morality. Democrats own compassion, civil rights, labor, the environment, and diplomacy. Republican electoral victories have resulted from the voters deciding that the issues owned by Republicans are more solid, more essential than those owned by Democrats.
All that is about to change though, because the Democrats have just been handed an issue that trumps all other issues. By default, Democrats are the proud new owners of Trust. And Trust is a must, a quality without which nothing else has value, not even Values.
The deep meaning of the Foley scandal and cover-up is that the Republicans have betrayed a sacred trust. Parents trusted that their children in the congressional page program would be reasonably well watched over and protected. The pages trusted that their mentors and supervisors would not abuse them or lead them into trouble. The public trusted that their elected representatives would, at a minimum, not sexually molest children entrusted to their care. Everyone trusted that if any of these basic acts of trust were betrayed, and responsible leadership became aware of it, the responsible leaders would immediately act to protect the kids and restore trust.
But no.
Incredibly, a Republican congressman viewed the underage youngsters in his care as a pool of potentially seducible sexual snacks. Inconceivably, the Republican leadership, upon learning this, thought that covering up was more important than protecting the kids. Incomprehensibly, both the sexual predation and the cover-up continued for months, no, years.
The horror. The sheer horror of it.
Every adult human knows in the very marrow of his or her bones that job #1, always and everywhere, no exceptions, no debate, is to protect the kids. We aren't taught this, we just know it. All of us know it, liberals, conservatives, Christians, atheists, gays, straights, everyone. We know it so deeply that most adults would sacrifice their own lives to save the life of a child. Without thought or hesitation.
I remember a news story from a few years ago. A kid playing at the beach had dug a deep hole in the sand. Fun for a while I guess, but then the hole suddenly caved in and buried the kid alive. A man who was passing by joined others trying to dig the kid out. So frantic and powerful were his efforts to save the child that he literally tore his own spine in half. Became an instant paraplegic. And he didn't even know the kid he was trying to save. That's what I'm talking about.
Sorry for the digression, what was I saying? Oh yeah, protecting the children is job #1, and the Republicans in congress didn't do it. Failed spectacularly. Knowingly, cynically, calculatingly, perversely, repeatedly, systematically, and at the highest level of leadership, the Republicans did not protect children entrusted to their care from one of the gravest crimes that it is possible to commit.
Do we trust these Republicans? I would say not. Could anyone trust them? Don't be absurd.
So, what about those other issues, the ones Republicans own? So nothing, that's what. If you mess up that bad on job #1, then it doesn't matter how good you claim to be on jobs #2 through #999. The only reason we even discuss those other issues is because we all assume that job #1 is being taken care of. I mean, it's not usually that hard a job. We all do it, automatically, every day. Well, most of us do. Just not the Republican leadership. They failed at an easy task. They are incompetent, by any standard.
It's not just that they failed at the most fundamentally essential job, a job that is so easy to succeed at. It's HOW they failed. I'm not talking about Foley now--we'll label him mentally ill and set him aside for a moment. No, I'm talking about Reynolds, Hastert, et al, the knowing perpetrators of the cover-up. They CHOSE to fail at job #1 because somehow, for them, it wasn't... well, for them it wasn't job #1. Even though it's ALWAYS job #1, for all adults, everywhere, no exceptions, no debate. Faced with the simplest and most important of moral choices, they chose wrong. By logic they are evil, according to their own standard.
But the Republicans have another, perhaps even more serious trust problem--people now can see that they aren't who they pretend to be.
Republicans have been posing for decades as the Moral Ones, the party of decency, faith, integrity and family values. The anti-sex party, if you will. Now here they are, naked in the spotlight, preying on underage boys and happily swapping the whole decency-integrity-family-values-and-duty-to-God package for perceived political advantage. These Republicans aren't just incompetent and evil, they are frauds.
If they are frauds, that means that maybe they don't really own the issues that have long been considered theirs. Maybe they aren't so tough (turns out they're chicken-hawks). Maybe they're not so great on national security (has invading Iraq made us safer?). Maybe they aren't fiscally conservative (check the budget deficit). Maybe they aren't even religious (how could they be, and still act the way they do?). And for damn sure they aren't really moral... that's not even up for discussion, not in this election season.
There are three reasons I can think of for why someone should not be trusted. 1) There is distrust based on a person's evident incompetence. The Republicans failed to protect the kids. 2) There is distrust based on a person lying about, concealing, or distorting external reality. The Republicans covered up sexual molestation. 3) And there is distrust based on a person being deceptive about his essential identity, his internal reality. The Republicans said they were for God, motherhood, and the flag, but they dumped all that in a New York minute because they thought it would help them politically.
At this point, no American would let a Republican baby-sit his kids. Should we let them run the country?
Republicans: They can't be trusted.
Democrats: They'll tell the truth.
Post-script note to Dems: you better damn well tell the truth when you get in. Remember, you are not honorable because you are a Dem. You are a Dem because you are honorable.