Naysayers and pessimists

I just can't imagine what would have happened to this country if today's democrats were around during the civil war. John Kerry might have said something like this about Abraham Lincoln with few intentions other than to draw attention and stand in the way. This piece is particularly haunting both because of how well it fits the character of John Kerry, yet it fits so well with the time it represents.

Fortunately, the American people are stronger than this, and they have spoken, choosing to re-elect George W Bush and continue the steadfast and principled legacy of Lincoln, FDR, John Kennedy, and Ronald Regan.

It's interesting how absolutely absurd some of the points raised in this piece are, which mirror what people like Kerry have actually said. For example, what is this business about a plan to win the peace? Can ANYBODY cite ONE war in which the United States has been involved, in which action was delayed until we had a plan to "win the peace"? I would venture no, because it's never happened. What certain Democrats don't understand (including those who voted for the use of force) is that sometimes decisions must be made based not on what will happen if you act, but on what the consequences will be upon failure to act. John Leo has this to say regarding the danger of forgetting about the consequences:

In my ceaseless efforts to discover how liberals think, I have a great advantage: I live in Manhattan, where everybody is liberal, so opportunities for fieldwork are boundless. Over the holidays, I discovered that a relatively new argument about terror is becoming popular: the next terrorist attack on America, if it comes, will likely be minor and tolerable. I was assured that a dirty bomb is the most likely weapon, and that it would probably do no more damage than an industrial accident. So not to worry. The real problems are fear, panic and violations of civil liberties--not terror. We had a fair amount of fear-is-the-real-enemy rhetoric during the presidential campaign, combined with almost airy dismissals of the terrorist threat here.

Read the whole column if you have time.