It's time to stop being afraid.
That's a simple, direct message that cuts to the heart of everything that is wrong with the current administration. If you try to make a laundry list of every specific screw-up this administration has made, you end up with just that: a laundry list and yet another "Democratic plan" that has too many bullet points and not enough heart.
9/11 scared the American people and our leaders failed us. "Pre-emptive war" in Iraq is the act of a terrified nation. It's like a big guy who loses his job and picks out a little guy to beat up in the bar -- that man is a coward. Fear leads people to reliquish their civil liberties, it leads them to accept torture, it leads them to tolerate hate directed at vulnerable groups (immigrants, gays).
Reject fear and bring in leaders who can face the real challenges the US faces. The Democratic candidate who conveys this message has my vote (and I don't think I'm alone).
This is not a message of weakness, this is a message of strength. We should not be afraid specifically because we are the greatest, strongest nation on the planet.
Why are we fighting in Iraq? We were afraid of Saddam Hussein? We lived through the Cold War, fer chissakes, when the danger of total, global annihilation was very real for decades. We met that danger by being resolute and unafraid. And we prevailed. The very idea that we should have been afraid of some tin-pot Middle East dictator is preposterous on it's face.
Terrorism is about creating fear. We cannot defeat it by only military operations, we must also reject fear itself.
The insurgency in Iraq is supported by the Sunni minority who fear for their rights and liberties under the Shia majority government. The only hope in Iraq is to help them find a path away from their fear. Our current approach in Iraq is creating fear, not reducing it.
The current Republican political approach is entirely dependent on fear. Fear leads people to give up their civil liberties and accept violations of the Geneva conventions. Fear is being used to direct attention away from the dismal domestic record of the administration to issues like immigration and gay marriage.
Not too long ago, the people of the US did not live with fear. We knew there were scary things in the world but we believed that our leaders and our government could be trusted to act in our best interests. Observing the current administration's reactions to 9/11, Katrina, Iraq, the looming Medicare crisis, it's certainly understandable that people have lost that confidence. But rather than live with fear, elect leaders who are competent and can be trusted to better serve the American people.