The Party Of Killing People

Blogging from the Take Back America conference,  Oliver Wilis [1] laments the lack of attention here [2]  to foreign policy and terrorism. Says Willis: "The left has this notion that if we simply shift the discussion to be about economic issues - social security, minimum wage, pensions - that we can neutralize the issue of security, terrorism and war. No way."

In the era of 9/11 and Iraq, America is going to vote for the movement that they perceive as the movement that will protect them and kill the bad guys. Right now, even though their record is abysmal, terror has increased, and Iraq is a mess, the right has a firm lock on the perception of their side as the party of security.

Until we start talking not only about Homeland Security and the inadequacies of veterans pay and military armor, but the idea that America has to intelligently go around the world and kill the people who want to hurt us, we won't do any better than 48% - probably evem worse.

Strangely, the best argument I've heard so far has come from Arianna Huffington, who spoke this morning after Howard Dean. Huffington made clear that if our Democratic leaders and representatives - Senator Reid, Rep. Pelosi, Gov. Dean, pundits, bloggers, etc. - think they can ignore Iraq and terrorism and simply cede the issue to the right, we'll lose in 2006, 2008, and beyond.