“Security Moms” Losing Temporary Case Of Stupidity?

3:05 am EST August 18th, 2006 | Democrats, Politics, Terrorism | 1 Comment

Apparently so.

Married women with children, the “security moms” whose concerns about terrorism made them an essential part of Republican victories in 2002 and 2004, are taking flight from GOP politicians this year in ways that appear likely to provide a major boost for Democrats in the midterm elections, according to polls and interviews.

This critical group of swing voters — who are an especially significant factor in many of the most competitive suburban districts on which control of Congress will hinge — is more inclined to vote Democratic than at any point since Sept. 11, 2001, according to data compiled for The Washington Post by the Pew Research Center.

The thing is, Republican success at exploiting the issue of war and terrorism relies on the Democrats reacting like idiots. The formula in place, since about 9/12/01 is for Republicans to propose amazingly stupid things (like the Wall Street Journal proposing a massive tax cut in order to defeat the terrorists) and shout down any one who would oppose it as unpatriotic.

Democrats are especially gun shy on this issue because many of them saw what Reaganism did to the post-Watergate Democrats, and they also believed that the politics of triangulation are still in effect when the president is now a right-wing zealot. So they just let the GOP ream the Dems, and America. I’m still skeptical of whether that has really changed or not – I’ve seen flashes of brilliance followed by moments of idiocy too many times in the last few years – but at least in the last couple of weeks I’ve noticed Dems aren’t just giving away the entire issue of war and terror to the right. Democrats have been rediscovering their patriotism and giving a counter to the hollow rhetoric that has pulled the right’s ass out of the fire just too many times.

The right is fond of calling things “9/10 thinking”, saying that Democrats and whoever else they’re smearing are acting as if 9/11 never happened. The problem is, Republicans are living in a 8/28 world. 8/29/05 was landfall for Hurricane Katrina, and the unraveling of the GOP’s well-worn tactic of telling the American people they weren’t seeing what they were seeing with their own eyes. While they were proclaiming premature victory over the Hurricane and doling out more “heck of a job” medals of freedom to cronies, New Orleans was drowning and Mississippi was under a deluge. It’s not a big leap for the average American to think to him or her self – if they just made stuff up about New Orleans, whats to say they aren’t doing it with Iraq, terrorism, or any of the other vital national security issues of our time? This terrorism boogeyman in lieu of really smashing terror networks is as hollow as the inside of the president’s head.

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One Response to ““Security Moms” Losing Temporary Case Of Stupidity?”

  1. Hattie says:
    August 19, 2006 at 8:21 pm

    Yes, this one has no doubt snuck up on the Republicans, because for the most part they ignore the interests of women and children.