Today was the end for me. For more than a decade, I have heard the people on the right say really outlandish stuff, but Karl Rove has crossed a line that should have never been crossed by either party.
To claim that we on the left did not care enough about how to deal with those on September 11th is an insult to not only every American, but also to the 3,000 lives that were lost on that tragic day. Yes, there were those on the extreme edge who did say some weird things, but those statements were not endorsed by those like myself who are in the mainstream left.
Karl Rove dropped the sheep clothing last night and showed what the White House has become - a group that is willing to do anything and everything to get their way. They came into office in 2001 with intention of implementing a radical right-wing program in this country and they know that they won't be able to do that by selling the program as it is. They have to lie, accuse, cheat, misrepresent and outright slander people in order to get their way, which they have done through the right wing media setup that was in place when they took power in 2001.
9/11/2001 was the enabling moment for the Bush Administration. They have used this event in order to justify everything that they have done since that day, trying to wrap their program in the cloak of patriotism. It has only gotten worse as the years has gone by.
At this point, we know that Bush is on the way to becoming a failed President. His tax plan, skewed toward the ultra-rich, as damaged the economy beyond what anyone thought it could. His programs for education, the environment and other areas, plugged as reforms, were actually to destroy these programs instead. Instead of going after the true people who attacked us, he led us into an illegal and immoral war against a country that, we all now know, posed no threat to us. As a result of this war, the world is in a much more dangerous state than at any time since the dark days of the Cold War. The worst thing is though, while we are in the middle of a war, the White House has failed to call for all of us to sacrifice, rather they make those who are poor and without power to shoulder the burdens, financial and physical, of those who don't feel like they have to do so.
Karl Rove knows all this. He knows that the people are waking up to all the lies, distortions and bad policies of the last four years. So now, in an act of desperation, he has decided to exhume Joseph McCarthy and start a new war on the left, if only to stop the inevitable slide of his boss.
Anyone who stands with Karl Rove and agrees with him stands against America at this point. This means you believe that democracy needs to be destroyed to protect power for Republicans. This means you share a distorted vision of Christianity that most people don't believe in. This means that you are willing to stay in Iraq and see our best and brightest get killed for a lie, but are not willing to sacrifice or serve for your country to help in that effort.
To paraphrase Bush, you know either have to be for Bush or against him. To be for him is to be for a government that is destroying this country. To be against him is to be the best thing once can be for his or her country - a patriot.