House of Eratosthenes

I’m a “National Security” voter. To me, this issue takes a back seat only to the Constitution. Not “civil liberties,” since I notice those are created, sustained and fortified by advocacy groups, and written nowhere — but the Constitution. This seems to me to not only make sense, but to apply across the board, to all intelligent, living things.

A thing that survives, must have an instinct to survive, plus a conscious determination to do so. And a thing that survives for a stated purpose, must have an internal definition of that purpose, and live according to the service of that purpose. So if the United States promotes a value system that is ultimately destructive to its own continued existence, the United States becomes a pointless exercise. Likewise, if the United States creates a policy supportive of its continued existence, but contrary to the Constitution, again, the United States becomes a pointless exercise.

Ergo: Upholding the Constitution, in letter and spirit, is the supreme consideration that takes a back seat to none other. Immediately subordinate to this, and to nothing else, is the principle of self-preservation.

This is why I would have been opposed to Executive Order 9066 which authorized the internment of Japanese-American citizens — even if the threat was credible, and no other way could be found to counter the threat. And, until someone can create a case that the Patriot Act actually violates the Constitution, I’m in favor of the Patriot Act.

I don’t like what the Republican Party is doing with us National Security voters. That party is taking us for granted, just like the Democratic party is taking black and jewish voters for granted. Where else are we gonna go? We got nowhere else to go.

So the Republican party screws around with us.

The border-control issue, particularly on the Mexican border, has become a disgrace. It’s so bad, that it has become a laughable, silly, wholly implausible idea to suppose there’s any protection left. Think for a moment about what that means. Agents of Al Qaeda, or one of America’s many, many other enemies, living among us? There really are some? More like, how many? How many hundreds? Thousands? Tens of thousands?

Of course, in the purely technical sense, all I’m doing in the paragraph above is speculating — I have no proof. My point is, that it’s irresponsibly extravagant to think otherwise. And what’s truly exasperating, is that the people who disagree with me don’t really argue the point. I don’t see them telling me “oh you silly thing, terrorists don’t want to do that” or something similar. They simply want to change the subject. So I take this as an uncontested fact.

Why are the Republicans so complacent on the issue of border control, and other issues directly related to national security? They have no competition, that’s why. Between a political party that does only some of the things necessary to safeguard the nation, while ignoring other things — and another party that would just as soon change the subject to how our rich old people can swindle more money out of thirty-something apartment rats — I to support the party that does some of the things necessary.

Now the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Howard Dean, has said there is no way we can win the war in Iraq. “The idea that we are going to win this war is an idea that unfortunately is just plain wrong.” Those are his words. He calls it a “failed strategy.” What is his alternative? Something to do with “redeployment,” as he puts it, which means, withdrawal.

Okay, then what? I don’t know. If he did have some fully flushed-out alternative strategy, some “winning strategy,” what would be the objective of this strategy? I don’t know that either. In fact, does he even see a threat? Certain luminaries celebrated by his party, even embraced by his party, have been heard to say “there is no terrorist threat” at all! So does Chairman Dean even recognize a terrorist threat? I don’t even know that! What’s even worse, is, if I was a gambling guy and I was laying a big fat wage on Howard Dean’s ultimate public position on this, once he’s really painted into a corner, my smart money would have to say no!

And most Democrats would agree!

Republicans have made the most out of this asinine quote about “we can’t win,” even releasing a new video called Retreat and Defeat. This new ad is going to be devastating to the Democratic party. And when the time comes to do the damage control, the position of the Democrats is going to be…well, you shouldn’t be paying attention to that. Think about your grandma choosing between her next can of cat food and her meds.

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

Howard Dean’s party just doesn’t care about national security. It doesn’t even care about rational thinking — it could care less about reasoned opinions based on solid, established facts, the processes involved in forming those opinions from those facts, and what those reasoned opinions say about the future of our country and what is needed to secure it. His party just cares about demagoguery; what you have to say to get people rattled about old people, cat food and pills. What that means is, when the issue becomes one of national security, they have settled on a habit of changing the subject by insulting the intelligence of anyone who chooses to discuss it.

In short, as a concerned voter who cares about national security, his party regards itself as “too good” for my vote. If you, likewise, are concerned about national security, Howard Dean and his minions just think they are all too smart for you, and they don’t want your vote.

They get their asses kicked in one election after another. Their meaning in life, right now, is to find ways to win elections. Logically, this would have to mean they are looking for large groups of people they have been alienating, intentionally or otherwise, and find a way to bring those groups into the fold. Their refusal to do that, here, can only mean this: If they showed concern about national security, they would win some voters, and alienate a great many more. There are people voting for democrats, now, who don’t want the United States to protect itself.

Yes, I understand the democrats have created a stigma against saying that in any public form. But logic cannot support any other conclusion. That’s just the way it is.

Not a month goes by that the Democratic party isn’t presented with a good-sized handful of opportunities to dispel the notion that their platform is apathetic about national security.

They haven’t done it. They won’t do it. It would be one step forward, and two steps back. If that were not true, they would have done it by now.

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Too Good for the National Security VoteSaturday, December 10th, 2005

Too Good for the National Security Vote
Saturday, December 10th, 2005