The Real “Tipping Point”
We’ve heard much in recent days about how the situation in Iraq is improving, about how things passed the “tipping point” with the January elections there. About how everything will be just peachy in the Middle East sooner than later.
I want to discuss another “tipping point.”
In the last week, I’ve had several extemporaneous conversations with Republican friends and relatives. Some of them are Born-Again Christians. Some of them are fiscal conservatives. Some of them are moderates who voted for Bush because they thought the Republicans were the best equipped to fight terrorism. One of them is a Republican blogger. To cut to the chase, they’ve all got “buyer’s remorse.” And it isn’t because of the bankruptcy bill, social security reform or the rise of the influence of the religious Right.
Perhaps ironically, they believe Iraq is FUBAR. And they started thinking that right after the elections there.
I bring this up because I believe we have an opportunity if we play our hand deftly. When the “buyer’s remorse” crowd makes their anxieties more public, how shall we react? It’s a serious question that demands a better answer than “I told you so.”
March 13th, 2005 at 5:41 am
How about, “so what are we gonna do about it”? It’s inclusive and has no “neener, neener, neener” factor.
March 13th, 2005 at 6:13 am
That’s a good start.
March 13th, 2005 at 7:17 am
How about, “lets see if we really do have grounds for impeachment?” The reality is that we are stuck with this lemon unless we impeach him, so anything else is just talk.
March 13th, 2005 at 7:22 am
It surprises me that more has not been made of the fact that we seem to have fought the Iraq war to bring Islamic theocratic governance and Sharia law to what was a secular nation. Perhaps this is what all the Baghdad Spring triumphalism is designed to obscure.
March 13th, 2005 at 7:34 am
Good observation. And rather than I Told You So, we should offer sympathy over the fact that they were lied to and betrayed. Then options 1 and 3 both seem appropriate.
March 13th, 2005 at 8:24 am
Count on a judicious silence from me. I’m so sick of playing canary in the coalmine that I really have stopped caring what the people who put him office think. Isn’t this the age of “personal responsiblity”, as that end of the political spectrum likes to endlessly babble? Well, then, fuck it. Let them feel some personal responsibility for it. After all the hard work I did before the election to try to make a difference, only to see the whole thing sink into a quagmire of ecstatic marginalizing the day of the coronation, I’m not interested in soothing anybody’s worried brow. Let them start thinking up ways to fix the mess they made. In fact, I think it behooves us to demand they get to work to make amends for the clusterfuck they helped create. Let them be the ones to sweat it for awhile.
March 13th, 2005 at 8:53 am
Riggsveda: I understand your anger, believe me. But maybe we need to think about how it’s easier to attract flies with honey than with vinegar.
At some point, in order for things to change, we need them to join us.