Moderation in Pursuit of Failure Is No Virtue

No, really, it isn’t

One thing you can say for MoveOn.org and likeminded loony-left organizations: they stand on principle. It is a perverted set of principles, but they are motivated primarily by ideological purity. The mainstream Democratic Party, including Senators and Representatives, hew to a different guiding light. They lift a finger gingerly to the wind, listen for the pulse of the media, observe the polls, and listen to their constituent mail. And then they form a principled opinion, which may or may not have anything to do with their prior opinions, or with reality. Unfortunately, this sort of mundane political shallowness is not a surprise. We expect our politicians to be vessels of cynicism, regardless of political stripe.

What catches one more by surprise is that the discussion over how to proceed in Iraq is no longer a debate over how best to succeed. It has become a debate over how to most elegantly fail. Lord knows there are all sorts of legitimate issues and questions surrounding how to best succeed in the larger War on Islamic Terrorism including the Iraq component. The President and his Administration - as talented a bunch as they are - have no monopoly on right answers. A healthy debate over goals and strategies is vital for a democracy. We Americans can be noisy and clumsy in our debates, but one could normally assume that virtually all of us started from the same shared assumption: our goal was to figure out how to succeed. Our goal was winning. Those who didn’t share this starting point were generally and accurately defined as “the enemy.”

No more. It is clear that a good sized chunk of the left actively wants the U.S. to fail. And this is beginning to seep into the mainstream Democratic worldview as the perpetual mainstream media assault on the Administration’s efforts has weakened the public’s patience. This is truly poisonous stuff. Even Rep. John Murtha’s calls for a troop pullout were not a call for winning in a different way. He was calling for failing with as little impact as possible. At least he was honest enough to be upfront in his assessment that we (The U.S.) were the problem.

The oddest thing about all this is that the Left is actively pursuing the failure option in the face of overwhelming success. An honest assessment of what has happened in Iraq shows:

1. A remarkable initial military victory against a large, well equipped and seemingly very dangerous army,

2. A complex and multi-faceted rebuilding effort that has succeeded remarkably despite the ongoing presence of a Baathist remnant insurgency and Al Qaeda terrorism. Despite these obstacles, every milestone has been met. Every election has been a success. Bombs continue to go off, and an occasional soldier is killed, but the fact that these are presented by the media as The Story is perverse. The Story is that the building blocks of democracy have been created, and that the Iraqis themselves are beginning to put shoulder to wheel to move the process forward.

But admitting to success won’t do. The left cannot abide American success. They have managed to tie together three strands of thought that equate “virtue” with American failure.

1. Parochial Snobbery. Do not underestimate the degree to which good old-fashioned snobbery motivates the left. The modern left tends to consist of verbally-skilled girlie-men. They reside in academia, in entertainment, in law, and in soft technologies. They view the right generally, and the Bush Administration in particular, as a bunch of troglodytes. Texas cowboys, greedy businessmen, simple soldiers: these are not the sort of people the Left wants to see succeed with power. To admit that these sorts of yahoos might be correct, might even succeed, turns the world on its head. This helps to explain the seemingly contradictory behavior by those who supported President Clinton’s every military maneuver yet opposed President Bush’s every move. To oppose anything the “Repukes” are in favor of is a sign of social status. Hence, to root for the failure of “his” policies is a social virtue.

2. Anti-Bush Fever. More than mere snobbery is behind the specific seething hatred the left reserves for George W. Bush. I have contended that the dislike for W is more cultural than political. In terms of the Culture War, it is safe to say that if President Bush is for it, then the left is against it. He is truly - to them - a symbol of what is evil about America. Again, the logic is simple from there. If the President is evil, then working for the failure of his policies must be virtuous, no?

3. Vietnam Syndrome. The lesson taken from Vietnam by a huge swath of the Left is that it is nobler to subvert the policy of democratically elected governments when one happens to disagree with them than it is to support governmental action even when one disagrees with it. This reflexive opposition is seen on its own terms as a virtuous act. The Left likes to see this as “Speaking Truth to Power,” but I find it more akin to throwing temper tantrums. The instinctive urge to “protest” is part of this instinct. By screaming loudly enough the Leftist hopes to make sure as many people as possible see just how darned virtuous he is.

Any 1 of these 3 strands is enough to bias a Leftist towards the pursuit of failure. But as long as public opinion was seen to be holding firmly behind the President, the enthusiasm for advertising that bias was largely confined to the fever swamps of the left. With the public’s opinion seeming to weaken, the fever for failure is spreading into the halls of government.

The best of the Democrats - like Murtha - are finding ways to pursue failure that are clever and moderate sounding. But be clear: their wish is that America will fail in implementing the President’s strategy. We often say that the Left offers no alternative vision. That is true but irrelevant. Putting the President and his ilk in their place is the alternative vision. That matters more than victory in Iraq or anywhere else.

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