Looking at Iraq it should be easy to point to the flaws in the right-wing world strategy, but what if the war had been a success, what would we argue then? What if we can't ever change their minds about their religiously engrained belief about gays and abortion? How do we change votes from there? Therein lies our secret to success.
What if the war in Iraq had gone as planned? What if we had been treated as liberators and today there resided an undeniable success story of democracy in the middle east? What would you say to supporters of the neocon agenda? Would you admit, "I was wrong, you were right"?
I wouldn't. And not just out of stubborness.
Before Iraq. Before 9/11. Before Bush even became president, I was against the conservative agenda. There was plenty of things I didn't like. I remember talking with my roommate in the summer of 2000 about their desire to push religious beliefs like the 10 commandments and prayer into school and other government run institutions. I didn't like the way their tax policies benefitted the rich and neglected the poor. I was pro-abortion and anti-gun.
But since then, I've travelled across the country by car numerous times and found that many many people are not those things. They want religion in public life, they think abortion is murder, no matter what, and they truly believe that the right to bear arms is more important than the freedom of press.
And if I didn't have a failing war behind me, what would I tell them? How would I argue against what I know to be, in their hearts, very decent people? Do I just write them off?
Without the war, what is there? I can argue about the ethereal loss of our 4th amendment rights which most people have yet to personally experience.
I can talk of horrible fiscal policies, which, again, the effects of which have yet to hit the average American.
I can argue about the attacks against the freedom of the press to people still offended by multitudes of TV shows and radio programs.
I can cite quotes from founding fathers to glassy-eyed locals who slept through US History in High School (think "Bueller, anyone? anyone?")
And so I ask you, my fellow Kossacks, take away the war, take away the spending (for they truly believe Dems would just be worse, and with better GOPers the problem could be fixed), what do we have to convince them with if we admit to ourselves that nothing we can say about gays, guns, or abortion will have any consequence?
Answer that, and I think we have ourselves the answer we've all been searching for.
I wish I had the answer, and if I did, I'd be running somewhere.