Friday, July 16, 2004

Orson Scott Card strikes again

Orson Scott Card is on his game again, but this time it's not in Opinion Journal, but is instead in his usual outlet, The Ornery American.

When the article is good, you get an excerpt and when it's good and long, you get The Monk's commentary to link it all together:

Twelve years ago, Bill Clinton realized he couldn't get a majority to vote for him as a Democrat. So he pretended to be a Republican. He co-opted the Republican position on practically every issue. He left poor President Bush, Sr., with nothing to say except "me too."
* * *
And Kerry is stealing a page from the Clinton election handbook by focusing on the exact issue where the Republicans have him beaten. He's not pulling a Howard Dean and raving about pulling our troops out.

No, he's talking like Clinton: Bush has done a terrible, terrible job. Elect me and I'll do a lot better with this war on terror. And you know how I'll do it?

By doing every single thing that President Bush has done. Only I would have done it sooner and better.
* * *
If it had been up to Kerry, we wouldn't have had enough of a military to take over downtown Dallas, let alone Iraq.


Card has excoriated the press recently, and here he nails the real problem with the media on its head:

But, just like Clinton, Kerry has realized that you can say anything you want during the campaign. As long as you're the Democratic candidate, the liberal media will actually take your promises seriously; and when the Republicans start attacking your record, they'll accuse them of "negative campaigning."
* * *
W isn't smooth on TV. He has Letterman ridiculing him viciously every night on [CBS]. He has a lot of liars calling him a liar. The media message is constantly being pounded home: Even though W has successfully governed our country through the first two campaigns of a war that was forced on us; even though he has presided over a recovery from the recession that began during Clinton's presidency, despite the huge economic setback caused by 9/11; even though he has a track record that would be the envy of any wartime or peacetime president ...

In other words, even though he has the job of President and has done it as well as anyone in recent years ... He still might lose the election, because Americans are so dumb we actually believe it when political dimwits like Letterman call Bush stupid.

And because we're such slow learners we actually believe the Democratic candidate when he pretends to be a Republican. Despite his voting record. Despite the fact that the left wing of his own party doesn't believe a word of his promises.


When all is said and done, Card reaches the conclusion that every conservative who dislikes Bush's fiscal policies, and every defense-minded libertarian who disdains Bush's cultural priorities MUST reach.

The Clinton Presidency weakened America's military drastically. And Kerry consistently voted to weaken it even more than Clinton wanted to.

We have a war going on. Anybody who's serious about winning it cannot consider, even for a moment, voting for Kerry. No other issue compares to that one.

We can't afford to be stupid this year.


It's simple: Card is right. Of all the far left, weak-on-defense candidates, the Democrats picked one of the worst of the bunch and love his disastrous formulae for the country simply because they despise President Bush. That's not reasoned politics, it's a national suicide pact.

Andrew Sullivan -- are you listening?

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