A different perspective on the pro-torture legislation

[whometense]

Just got this in my email:

The Daily Brew
September 25, 2006
Chance of a Lifetime

I realize that the entire leftwing blogosphere is apoplectic because Democrats failed to even participate in the deal cut last Thursday allowing Bush to torture people. I don’t see why. I am probably too optimistic, but I think Rove has finally outsmarted himself.

For years Democrats (including myself) have bitched and moaned that GOP talking points fit neatly onto bumper stickers, while it takes a thirty page white paper with 200 footnotes to explain the Democratic alternative. For once, the shoe is on the other foot. The GOP has given us the opportunity to make the Republicans the Torture Party. We ought to run with it.

Every time Bush has squarely addressed the issue, he has denied that “we” torture people. That tells me two things. First, it tells me that Bush is lying. I saw the pictures from Abu Gharib. Bush is definitely in the torture business. Second, and almost as important, it tells me that the word “torture” doesn’t poll well for Rove. So if you keep calling Bush a torturer, he will have to keep denying it. So lets do it.

For Anne Coulter and Michelle Malkin, the fact that Bush is morphing into Josef Mengele is a plus, but we are not getting the pro-torture votes anyway. For all the normal folks whose sense of morality forces Bush to deny he tortures people, this debate is a gift from God.

Is there a better sound bite than “I oppose torture”? Is there an easier thing to say than “I am not going to vote for this bill. Torture is immoral. Torturing people who haven’t even been charged with a crime endangers both our troops and the American public. If we make it US policy to torture people who have done nothing wrong, based on the mere suspicion that they might know something useful, is there any doubt that foreign governments will likewise subject our troops and US citizens traveling abroad to the same treatment”?

Sure, we all know that once we start, the right wing noise machine will spring into action. But for once, we’ve got them where we want them. Out talking points are simple. Theirs are not. Just by having the debate, we win it.

The actual bill is a complicated mess. Unless you are an endowed chair at the Yale law school, good luck figuring out what it means. So when
we say “Torture is wrong,” they have to say “The bill does not authorize torture. Under paragraph 3(g)(4) subsection iii, the proposed legislation clearly provides that….” Yada, yada, yada. Get the idea?

Little Suzy Swingvoter and her husband Joe the Undecided Working Guy aren’t going to listen to the whole debate, and they damn sure aren’t going to read the bill. Their impressions are going to be formed on the basis of sound bites, and in this debate, we have the better sound bites. We can make the GOP the Torture Party. All we have to do is make sure we don’t give them any bi-partisan cover, and repeatedly force them to deny that they are torturing people. We will come out miles ahead.

If the Rove tries to debate this bill by saying that Democrats are soft on terrorism, then the GOP implicitly concedes that the bill authorizes torture, and we win; the GOP is the Torture Party. The tougher they act, the more they cement the idea that they are torturing people. On the other hand, if they try to make convoluted arguments about how much you have to harm people before it is actually considered torture, then they are dancing on the head of a pin with the devil, and the GOP is the Party of Torture with Law Degrees. The more they deny the bill authorizes torture, the more they undercut their own message that Democrats are soft on terrorism. We win both ways.

All Democrats have to do is keep making simple statements over and over. “Torture is wrong.” “Torture is Un-American.” What is the GOP going to do? Say torture is a family value? All Democrats need to do is trust that the American people will reject torture.

Maybe Digby is right. Maybe the Democrats have been “punked.” Maybe a mere six weeks from the fall election, Democrats will again take the seemingly safe route, meekly sit back, say nothing, and allow the compromise to become law. McCain will get to play the Republican rebel maverick, who did the moral thing and looked out for the troops. Bush will get to play the Republican statesman and leader, who showed that he is committed to protecting Americans but that he is willing to listen and compromise, and Democrats will look like ciphers who don't have the stones to even say a word when the most important moral issue confronting the government is being debated.

On the other hand, maybe pigs will fly, and the Democrats will finally get smart. Maybe Harry Ried and Nancy Pelosi will realize that when it comes to torture, good policy, good morals, and good politics all converge. Maybe Democrats will stand up for the idea that torture is wrong, and hang this atrocity around the necks of the entire Republican party like a burning tire.

Of course, if they don’t, then I don’t really care what happens. For me, we reach the Rubicon this week. Any political party that won’t stand up and be counted against torture is not a party that I want to be associated with, regardless of how evil the alternative. I think opposing torture is a political winner. But even if I am wrong, and standing up against torture will cost the Democrats the majority, then SO BE IT, they should do it anyway.

Anyone in Congress who isn’t willing to risk their seat to oppose torture I don’t want in power regardless of what party they are in. If a Democrat doesn’t have the courage to do the right thing on an issue this basic and fundamental, then they are a coward who is unworthy of their seat. We should make any Democrat who gives the GOP bipartisan cover for this abomination the “Joe Lieberman” of every future election they enter. If they aren’t smart enough to see that doing the right thing here is a long term political winner for the party, even if they are worried it might cost them their job in the short run, then they are more committed to their own power than our principles, and to hell with them.
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What do you all think?

[beachmom]

1. I love it -- Bush, the torturer. GOP -- the torture party

Sounds good to me.

I promised this week I wouldn't criticize, so I won't. But what are your thoughts on Kerry and all other Democrats still not taking a position on this bill? What is going on?

Tay Tay just linked to an article that the bill has gotten even worse. That may be part of it -- since the bill keeps changing, it's hard to take a position. But still. It's kind of weird that they haven't said anything.

[whometense]

2. I don't have a lot of faith in the party in general,

but the fact that Kerry and Feingold are silent says to me that something is up.

If nothing was happening, I believe at least Kerry, Feingold, and Boxer would be talking. Since they aren't I have to assume there's a plan - or at least a discussion. Either that, or Kerry feels like it's too indistinct to comment on. We know he's not afraid, and we know he's anti-torture. For all we know, they're engaging in bachroom arm-twisting to get enough people in line to filibuster.

Or maybe they believe what the Daily Brew guy does - sdince we can't stop it, we can let them do what they insist on doing, and them hang it around their necks until they drown.

[beachmom]

3. The new provisions in the bill have me very worried

It puts us all at risk. I have a good friend who is Muslim, and if this bill passes, they could one day label him an enemy, disappear him, torture him, never charge him, and he would have no legal recourse. This bill is actually getting personal.

I just went over to Andrew Sullivan's blog, and he has just called for a filibuster of the bill it is so bad.

Call me selfish, but if this bill passes, then a midterm election victory for the Democrats will be very hollow. Only way it isn't is if the bill can be immediately repealed.

To be honest, for the first time in my life, I am frightened of my government. I won't feel safe if this bill passes.

[whometense]

4. If the dems win control of congress

they could spend at least one extremely busy term just repealing all the disgusting legislation that's been forced down peoples' throats over the past 6 years.