Conservatism on defense will ultimately lose

By Chris Adamo

Seven years ago this month, President George W. Bush made his famed landing on the Aircraft Carrier Abraham Lincoln as it returned from a tour of duty in the Middle East. An event that should have been heralded across the nation as an unparalleled symbol of America's might and vigor in the War on Terror was then systematically dismembered and undermined by the liberal political establishment, both on Capitol Hill and in the major media.

Saddest of all, instead of fiercely confronting this leftist betrayal of America in its obsessive efforts to gain political power even at the expense of the entire nation, President Bush and the Republican establishment refused to go on the attack. Eventually, they allowed the liberal opposition to completely frame the event as a "controversy," and were soon dragged into a debate over the intended meaning of the "Mission Accomplished" banner that appeared behind Bush as he strode the deck of the Abraham Lincoln.

This sorry episode was a lost opportunity and a travesty on several fronts. A presidential photo-op that was skillfully staged to bolster troop morale and invigorate the American people regarding their latest victory in the Terror War was subsequently reduced to liberal accusations of an empty and unfulfilled promise. Thereafter it could only inspire the enemies of this nation that its will to continue the fight was flagging and that a costly and determined opposition to it, including the killing of American troops, would eventually lead to a complete abandonment of the effort.

As such, the propaganda campaign represented nothing less than a willful collaboration of the liberal media with the Islamists, and should have been portrayed to the American people in this manner. In the political arena, such a flagrant display of anti-Americanism should have thoroughly discredited all who participated in perpetuity. But, unwilling to play hardball when doing so was critically necessary to the welfare of both the Republican Party and the nation, Bush and his advisors resorted to "damage control," thus handing another strategic victory to a decidedly unworthy opposition.

Far too much is at stake for such tepid and restrained behavior to persist. America is at a crossroads, and unless drastic action is taken to reverse the political direction in which the country is being dragged, the harm inflicted on it may prove irreversible. No more latitude exists for even small incremental liberal advances. Each new precept of the Obama agenda represents another nail in the coffin of America's former greatness.

Yet the pattern continues unabated to this day. Liberals make the most absurd statements, completely contradict those statements on subsequent occasions, engage in the vilest pattern of political corruption, commit the most egregious crimes, all with near total impunity because those on the right are either too refined or too timid to accurately characterize their deeds and take them to task. As a result, liberals are emboldened to shamelessly broaden their strategy.

Thus, after selling out the United States on numerous fronts, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama can get in front of the cameras and accuse grassroots Americans who attend "Tea Parties" of "sedition." Clinton, who gave away critical nuclear and missile technology to the Chinese in exchange for bags of cash, and Obama, who sat for twenty two years under the venomous ravings of Jeremiah Wright and worked in concert with Bill Ayers, dare to cast aspersions on real America. Hysterically expressing outrage at the slightest suggestion that their own betrayals of the nation might be "unpatriotic," they wantonly accuse Americans who strive to maintain the integrity of the nation they love of posing a threat to it.

Good is called "evil," and evil is called "good." So it will be with the ensuing Supreme Court confirmation circus of Elena Kagan. From her lack of judicial experience to her indifference to the Constitution to her sterling liberal pedigree, Kagan should be a non-starter. In the world of Washington politics, where failed efforts to advance one's ideology are perceived as public humiliation, Obama should never have had the audacity to risk putting forth such a nominee. Yet he did so, counting on a lack of dedication to principle from his opposition.

He has recent history on his side. His previous nominee, Sonya Sotomayor, was every bit the biased and incompetent embarrassment that Kagan will prove to be. Sotomayor's "wise latina woman" statement, deriding the very architects of the Constitution which, as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court she then swore an oath to uphold, would have ended any prospects of a conservative who dared to espouse so extreme a tenet. Yet she sailed through the confirmation process with significant Republican support.

Nor was anybody surprised in the least that, since being seated on the high court, decisions she has handed down, and every opinion she has expressed have been far left. It was totally to be expected.

Democrats could be sent scurrying for the tall grass by a concerted Republican effort to reaffirm the concept that the job of any judge in this nation's high courts is not to seek avenues of implementing a political agenda, but rather to uphold and maintain the integrity of constitutional law. John Roberts did exactly that during his confirmation process, when pressed on his biases for or against "the little guy." In the aftermath of his blunt answer that as a Supreme Court justice such would not be his purpose, but rather the preservation of constitutional principle, his political opposition evaporated and his position on the Court was ultimately confirmed.

Conservatives know the contents of the liberal "handbook," and how it will be played out. And this includes the vulnerabilities inherent in the liberal game plan. With neither the electoral numbers nor the political momentum on their side, liberals can be soundly defeated this fall by a principled conservative opposition if it has the clarity of its convictions and the courage to wage an effective counteroffensive. But despite the current intensity of conservative momentum, an agenda that risks a continuation of the status quo will result in defeat.

© Chris Adamo