Since January serious “security conservatives” have attacked the changes Barack Obama has made to his predecessor’s hideous and disastrous national security policies. The main charge is that those policies were what prevented another serious terrorist attack for seven and a half years. It is tempting to dismiss these charges as merely political gamesmanship, but whatever the political theater looks like it’s good to remember that they are motivated by a comprehensive worldview. Understanding that worldview is important if you want to place the attacks that result from it in their proper context.
Consider Rush Limbaugh’s infamous “I hope he fails” comment. He’s openly rooting for greater harm to befall America because he views the acquisition and maintenance of political power by conservatives as the ultimate goal. But should the need for self examination ever penetrate his fiery intellectual defenses one presumes he comforts himself with the notion that even greater harm is the inevitable result of pussy liberal policies. Within this worldview people’s pain and suffering (caused by, among other things, disastrous wars of choice) are a tincture necessary to cure the public of its liberal affect.
Cheney and the roughly 20% of the country that supports him are twisted fundamentalists. They have a warped and fact free conception of what it means to Protect America. These are the people who take Chuck Norris and Jack Bauer seriously and, despite the omnipresent wreckage that resulted from their maniacal grip on power, still believe that their way is the only way. Real life horror and suffering are inconsequential to them because their imaginations can always produce something worse. To weigh the real against the fantastical never occurs to them because they view their terrible fever dreams as inevitable.
While these sorts of arguments have grown less successful as the 2001 attacks begin to fade into history they will never fully cease. After all, imaginary staw men of this template are easy to conjure, all you have to do plug in the names and places and then say “America is in danger!” as loud as you can. It’s political theater, sure, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t be a relatively honest representation of their true opinions. By all accounts Cheney really believes that America is in dire peril and that most people just aren’t attenuated to the danger. Saying so as often as possible not only serves his short term political interests, it also helps raise an issue he cares about.
That dismal outlook on life and political affairs is what motivates the drive for right wing purity. It’s a powerful force, but it’s noticeably on the wane. Let’s hope it keeps going in that direction, however many colorful ways it finds to express itself.
