On Playing for Keeps

Several items ended up on my electronic reading list that are worth mentioning. Via the new James Wolcott blog, this post from Digby which further links to Steamboats Have Ruined Everything, which goes back to someone named William Hazlitt, writing an essay in 1820 entitled On the Spirit of Partisanship:

They do not celebrate the triumphs of their enemies as their own: it is with them a more feeling disputation. They never give an inch of ground that they can keep; they keep all that they can get; they make no concessions that can redound to their own discredit; they assume all that makes for them; if they pause it is to gain time; if they offer terms it is to break them: they keep no faith with enemies: if you relax in your exertions, they persevere the more: if you make new efforts, they redouble theirs. While they give no quarter, you stand upon mere ceremony. While they are cutting your throat, or putting the gag in your mouth, you talk of nothing but liberality, freedom of inquiry, and douce humanité. Their object is to destroy you, your object is to spare them---to treat them according to your own fancied dignity. They have sense and spirit enough to take all advantages that will further their cause: you have pedantry and pusillanimity enough to undertake the defence of yours, in order to defeat it. It is the difference between the efficient and the inefficient; and this again resolves itself into the difference between a speculative proposition and a practical interest.

Digby's take:

Hazlitt was right. And never more than today when the stakes are so high.

As I said, we have been fighting this beast forever. Conservatives are just more inclined to fight and more serious about winning. But, I have seen the Republican agenda change from conservative to radical in the last 30 years and their candidates from steady, stolid leaders to firebrands and incompetents. America is the most powerful nation on earth. If the modern GOP boasted prudent, tested leadership and a simple desire to avoid radical change, I would still oppose them but I would not be worried. But, these people want to wildly experiment on a global scale and their track record of the last three years is devastating. History proves that bad things do sometimes happen. Being barely left standing to say "I told you so" will be no compensation.

In the same spirit, The Rude Pundit offers his own advice, beginning with this stand-up metaphor:

The Rude Pundit is Godzilla to Rove's Tokyo.

He goes on:

The pundits are wrong about the effect of negative campaigning. Any viewing public that wants to know about Scott Peterson, wants to see car wrecks at NASCAR, and watches Growing Up Gotti and Bill O'Reilly is essentially the same crowd that was rooting for the lions at the Coliseum back in the day. And you gotta choose: are you a lion or a slave? It's time for Kerry to learn what delicious fresh organ meat tastes like. He needs to gnaw on some intestines.

I for one am glad that someone else notices the anomaly of negative campaigning: nobody says they LIKE negative campaigns, but they are devastatingly effective. I've posted on this several times--my own take is that a 'lesser-of-evils' system like we've got all but guarantees that the better negative campaigner will have the advantage. Right now, Rove is taking his pound of flesh. But he's not entitled to a drop of blood (the last line was shamelessly taken from this NY Times Magazine piece about one Billy Shakespeare and The Merchant of Venice). At the same time, as Alexander Cockburn points out, Kerry keeps dropping the ball by refusing to make some mightly big Bush negatives part of his message.

Now, to be fair, some Bush negatives are becoming part of the debate--to wit, the now infamous memos that have sparked a debate rarely seen--But they've become an argument on the ability of typewriters to produce superscript characters. Unfortunately, this detracts from the real issue, that Bush the young man was irresponsible in a manner remarkably consistent with his present persona. That's because no one really wants to discuss the twin fuck ups of Iraq and Afghanistan--and Team Bush is effectively deflecting any debate on the economy via their man-behind-the-curtain control of Swift Boat Veterans Who Lie.

Well, it's time that someone took the gloves off of the Kerry campaign (The Rude Pundit suggests taking out Bush's kneecaps--figuratively, I assume). The CBS and USA Today memos (Digby credits USA Today with the two extras) can and should be used to attack the essential character of George W. Bush as a liar (this is contemporary, as Bush lied about his service record when running for president); they should ask pointed questions as to his history of drug and alcohol abuse, they should ask why he declared the war over in Iraq when it had barely begun, they should ask why Afghanistan is still a mess and Karzai can barely drive through Kabul without a phalanx of US troops guarding him (the same goes for Allawi in Iraq), they should ask him why two million employed Americans in the year 2000 were subsequently laid off and haven't yet been rehired, they should ask him why our roads stink and our schools aren't performing to standars, they should ask why our water and air quality are getting worse, and why 45 million Americans don't have health insurance--while Halliburton rakes up government contracts like so much swill at the trough, and Ken Lay enjoys his numerous houses when he should be placed in the stockade and pelted with rotten vegetables--and THEN sent to jail.

And when this has been done over and over, take the time to remind the public that the conservative movement is just plain dumb--they honestly think the US would WANT to go it alone as cop-of-the-world, when anyone with more than a few functioning brain cells can see the advantage of establishing common cause with allies--hell, if nothing else, that would allow us to strengthen areas RIGHT HERE where we are vulnerable--our ports, our airports, and so on.

Keep hammering away at the Dauphin--and watch him squirm. That's the one thing Bush can't handle--thinking on his feet. In fact, thinking period seems like a bit of a test for him.