The ONLY Meme We Need: Bush Has Made Terrorism Worse

[ruggerson]

Stop focusing on the torture debate. That's a Rovian side diversion of many of you have gotten sucked right into it. Let McCain and Bush play out their diversion.

We should be shouting BUSH HAS MADE TERRORISM WORSE every day for the next six weeks.

Bush's own National Intelligence Estimates have now stated that as irrefutable fact.

STOP PLAYING THE GAME ON KARL ROVE'S TURF.

PLAY IT ON OURS.

BUSH HAS MADE TERRORISM WORSE.



http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/24/world/middleeast/24terror.html?hp&ex=1159156800&en=22b7a0941b08007f&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[Frances]

1. Agree

Rove plans to scare the voters into voting Repub. This meme is short and sweet and refutes Rove's plan.

[neuvocat]

2. The torture has also helped to make it worse.

So has all that spin-doctoring that has been going on. Billions were spent on a PR campaign instead of body armor. Spin has diverted efforts from communication and what has to be done to take steps to solve the problem, such as establishing a political plan after the military plan has been executed for example.

You are entirely correct though: the torture issue, as bad as it is, it is still a Rovian Red Herring just as much as the USS Cole is. It is obvious that the problems with terrorism have been made far worse.

[ruggerson]

3. They manufactured the torture debate

to take the message AWAY from the fact that Bush has made terrorism worse.

And look at all the DU'ers who have fallen for it.

[StellaBlue]

4. I saw this headline in the newspaper stand at brunch a half hour ago

and my heart leapt a little.

It's. So. True.

[ClassWarrior]

5. I respectfully disagree. First, as another poster said above...

...they're both facets of the same thing. Second, well, this email says it better than I can (I'm quoting it in its entirety, since it's an email column - I hope that's okay, mods):

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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