Letting the Terrorists Win
By Adam Graham (03/14/07)
After 9/11, the Administration and many patriotic folks told us not to let the terrorists win. The terrorists’ goal was to disrupt our lives and change who we are as a people. We were warned not to change our values and beliefs. America’s victory would be that we refused to let terrorism shake us. We were hold onto the values that made us a great nation no matter what the terrorist did.
It’s been five and a half years since that fateful day. And if America hasn’t changed, many in the Republican Party have. On September 10, 2001, the idea of Rudy Giuliani as President was absurd. Conservatives of principle would never support a man as radical as Rudy in his disregard for the Second Amendment, his pro-abortion stance, and his alignment with radical gay rights groups in New York City.
Yet today, many of these same people give us dire warnings reminiscent of Lyndon Johnson’s 1964 Daisy Campaign ad. Many are all, in effect, saying, “We must back Rudy Giuliani or we must die.” Said one blogger recently, “How can you say you’re ‘pro-life’ if you don’t even care about the future of your own children? I’m as pro-life as anyone but I have a daughter. I don’t want her to spend her life under the threat of Islamists…”
So, if you care about your children, vote for Johnson…er Giuliani. Lyndon Johnson was using despicable tactics when he ran an ad. The same can be said of the Giuliani campaign’s subtle scare tactics.
The truth of the matter is that there’s no proof that Giuliani will bring victory in the War on Terror. In fact, given that it’s a war against an ideology that breeds in mosques where extremists gain hold all around the Earth, it is incredibly unlikely that the War on Terror will be over in eight years. While Giuliani’s performance in New York City has been called Churchillian, Churchill didn’t go on a lecture tour until after the war. What Giuliani showed us was a masterful job at being an official mourner, and a man who could handle an emergency situation with resolve and dignity. None of that shows us he could prevent one terrorist attack on our nation, nor that he is more fit than anyone else to have leadership over the military in time of war.
Indeed, the campaign makes an unstated attack on all fellow candidates as not having the right stuff to lead our nation. It is thought that the entire Republican field are woeful shells of men with neither the courage, fortitude, or leadership acumen to manage the nation’s security. Given the success of a man whose prior life experience was as an oil man, owner of the Texas Rangers, and Governor of Texas in stopping the terrorists, I’d suggest any candidate who understands the threat can and would take every step to defeat the terrorists that Giuliani would.
The final fallacious scare tactic used is the fear that anyone but Giuliani would be creamed by Hillary Clinton in the General Election. If America is to the point where the only person who can win against one of the most polarizing and unlikable figures in American politics, than it’s about time to write the obituary for American civilization. America is open to conservative candidates. Bush ran as a conservative in ’04, but somehow the man who ran wasn’t the man who governed after the re-inauguration. Americans are far less liberal, and also far less ideologically stringent than Giuliani supporters give them credit for.
Long before the Barbarians destroyed the last vestiges of the Roman Empire, Rome was destroying itself from within. If we believe that we can disregard principles of justice and equity that make our country great and survive as a free people through our external military and material might, we’re sadly mistaken. If we allow the destruction of our cultural institutions and forget the principles that make our country unique and great, than our end is as clear as Rome’s.
Five and a half years later, the job is still the same. Fight for our greatest values and principles. Don’t let the terrorists win.
(Printer friendly version) Email: Adam Graham
