[Population: One] <A HREF="http://popone.innocence.com/ar

[bryant]

Once again, it's the politics of fear. This time, it's Zell Miller talking about how desperately afraid he is.

And like you, I ask: Which leader is it today that has the vision, the willpower and, yes, the backbone to best protect my family?

The clear answer to that question has placed me in this hall with you tonight. For my family is more important than my party.

There is but one man to whom I am willing to entrust their future, and that man's name is George W. Bush.

And that sounds very noble, at first, if you don't think about it too hard. It sounds like a man who's making hard choices. But it doesn't hold up under scrutiny, really, does it? He's saying that he will do anything, including turning on the Democratic Party that gave him a Senate seat, in order to keep his family from harm. (Miller was appointed by the Democratic Governor of Georgia to fill a vacant seat; he owes his current seat to his former party rather than to the voters.) He doesn't care what it takes; he wants his family safe. At any cost. He's chosen safety over freedom.

And yeah, it sounds noble. Unless, maybe, you think about the families who have paid the price to protect Zell Miller. A thousand Americans dead; 6,500 Americans wounded. So what he's saying is that he trusts Bush to keep his kids safe, at the cost of sending someone else's children to Iraq -- and he's too numbed by danger to remember that Iraq was never a threat to his children. That Iraq had no WMD. That Iraq was controlled by sanctions.

This is what fear breeds: men who will do anything, however immoral or unwise, to keep their families safe.

Comments

[that-cad.livejournal.com]

I must say, though I haven't been paying too much attention, that the RNC seems like it's being much more negative than the DNC was. They've been pretty viciously attacking Kerry for a three days now, and I don't recall from the DNC all that much negativity focuses at Bush (sure, it was there, but not as prevalent). Am I the only one noticing this?

[multiplexer.livejournal.com]

No, it's not you. I read the transcript of the Cheney speech this morning and it boiled down to:

"Remember September 11th. Fuck you, John Kerry."

[mcurry.livejournal.com]

They have to go with the negativity and the attacks on Kerry, because it's all they've got. Their plan for the next four years is apparently more of the same, with plenty of tax cuts for the rich and another war or two, and they hardly want to talk about that when the economy sputtering along (no matter how much they pretend otherwise) and U.S. soldiers are still dying in Iraq.

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

I'm actually glad to hear someone else say that. I also noticed it, especially listening to Cheney last night (but also Zell, and others), and also thought that the DNC didn't have nearly as much anti-Bush rhetoric.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

If we do not engage in a pre-emptive policy of negativity, the terrorists have already won.

[evilfoo.livejournal.com]

It's reprehensible how much Bush uses fear as a tool for controlling the population. What depths the republican party goes - this isn't the first democrat who has swapped sides, either.

I really and truly hope that this country doesn't suffer the typical short attention span when Election Day comes around.