Traction

It's ridiculous. Five years of Bush II, and we've given up all hope of opposition. Nearly everything the man proposes I find offensive on a basic level. Yet, you couldn't get me to go to an antiwar protest or (much less) an anti-Bush protest now.

Why?

I don't think it would do a lick of good. And I think most people of our generation feel the same way. And strangely, it's not that our voice wouldn't be heard -- the array of communication options we now have at our fingertips allow us to get our message out. Remember those quaint "Rock the Vote" days when that was a genuine fear -- "Young people's voices won't be heard!", "Opposition voices won't be heard!", "Non-mainstream voices won't be heard!" -- no longer. I think the voices of dissent are readily available. They're all over all Non-Fox tv. They're a click away on the internet. Yet, those of us who oppose the direction of our country seem to only be preaching to ourselves.

And that, folks, is a lack of traction. Our issues, our concerns, our so-fucking-obvious-it's-painful-sacrificing-of-morals-on-the-alter-of-global-chess callouts seem to fall on deaf ears in the flyover states. And, as we've seen time and time again, that's where policy is truly made. Because if you don't sell those swing voters on your idea, you can't sell anything nationally. And all our (and by "our", I mean all you East coast elitist who are reading this...or even know what a "blog" is, for that matter) protestations haven't gained a modicum of traction with these people.

Until recently, that is.


The Duabi ports deal saw the greatest bipartisan cooperation in recent memory. "Let's get those Arabs outta town!" Congress squealed. "Serious misjudgment by the president!" the up-for-election Congress-members intimated. And I believe people in those flyover states felt the same way...and Congress was probably smart to play into that. Especially with Novemeber right around the corner.

Now, here's the hilarious part:

I think Dubai should get the ports. Why the hell not? (And, ironically, isn't such a free market, capitalist view an inherently conservative viewpoint?) As other's have pointed out, denying Dubai is just old fashioned racism.

But...

...on the flipside, here's the first issue that could have gained serious traction in those flyover states. The president was dug in with his position. Had Dubai not pulled out of the deal, those flyover states would have happily joined the opposition to the president...with a little goading from us. Here it finally was -- the magic bullet issue. What all Bush opponents have been waiting for, an impropriety you could boil down as simple as Watergate ("The president approved a forced break-in!"). Scooter Libby certainly wasn't that simple. WMD certainly wasn't that simple. Even Katrina wasn't proving that simple. But here it was -- "The president approved giving our 'enemies' the keys to our country."

Finally -- an issue with traction. One where disagreed with the premise, but sellable. Should we have tried to sell it? Would it have been worth it?