The right wing of America enjoys winning their victories by attacking those on the left. You've heard their talking points; The lefties want America to be defeated because they hate it. They want soldiers to die because they hate them, and so on. It's the simplistic way the right wing wins, inspire fear and hatred in their base. Those who aren't educated enough about the world to understand it's not so simple after all.
The left does not wish to see America "defeated," and they defenintely don't want to see Islamic fundamentalists win. We're the party who opposes religious fantaticism, Christian, Islam, any religion, we certaintly don't want to see a world governed by Islamic fundamentalism.
Those on the right see the world in black and white. The was made apparent in President Bush's "you're either with us or with the terrorists" speech back in 2002. If you don't see eye to eye with the way our leadership is fighting Islamic fundamentalists, they you obviously want Al-Qaeda and their lackeys to win.
The genius of the left (and some on the right like Ron Paul) is that we know the world isn't black and white. The world isn't that simplistic. It's not our way or their way. Those on the left still believe that our leadership isn't perfect and are not right all the time just because they make decisions to oppose our enemies. We are not required to stand by our President, even when he's wrong because we don't want him to look "weak" to the world. Just because our leadership acts against terrorists or "enemies of America" does not make him infalliable. Our leadership made a blatantly wrong decision on Iraq, a decision that the left (and some on the right) would argue was counterproductive toward our fight against Al-Qaeda. Perhaps there is more to this "war on terror" than military might. Perhaps dropping bombs from planes or rolling tanks through the desert aren't the only ways to fight terrorism.
Those on the left see little difference between the Islamic world and the world the right wing wants America to live in. Both are authoritarian to totalitarian where there would be little dissent or criticism of our leaders. Both inject religious doctrine in our society. Both force their populations to live under the microscope of their governments, who track every move you make and word you say. The right wants to bring "freedom and democracy" to the Middle East, but want to sanction warantless wiretapping, elimination of habeus corpus and oppression of dissenters in the United States. They want to free these countries from the hardline Islamic sharia law that allows them to oppress women, execute homosexuals, and force Islam into every aspect of society, but the same people want to force prayer in public schools and legislate archiac biblical laws oppressing homosexuals and women's rights.
The right likes to think they're strong because they act like warriors. They think supporting military action against anyone who disagrees with us is warrior-like. They see weakness as wanting dialogue and not war. They see the American military as a means to scare Islamic populations into supporting our side. They see the American military as a means to show strength and bravery, The truth is, it was the right that has inspired the cowardly insecurity that has enveloped our nation since 9/11. We cower at the first threat of an attack. We live in a world where a panic ensures in ourselves if we see an Arab-looking man get on the subway with a backpack. We live in a society where we have to get molested before we get on an airplane. We live in a nation where we're ready to give up basic rights that we had for over 220 years because of a bunch of cave dwellers. We survived more dangerous threats; Fascism, Communism, Anarchism, a Civil war, without having to give up our basic freedoms. The right uses the military and war as a cover to hide their fear.
No matter who the Republican nominee is next year, whether it's Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Fred Thompson, or John McCain, expect their campaign strategy to focus around the slogan "Vote Democrat and Die." Expect them to paint the Democrats as Anti-American, cowardly, and "against us" because they're not "with the President." Expect it to work.
