Taking his cue from the Lansing State Journal (or was it the other way around?), Ned Lamont tells Fox News Sunday:
… What this election showed is that a lot of people in Connecticut think that the invasion of Iraq has nothing to do with our War on Terror. It’s been a terrible distraction.
Here you are talking about the failed terrorist plot today. It originated in Pakistan, goes through London, and here we have 132,000 of our bravest troops stuck in the middle of a civil war in Iraq.
I think it was that disconnect that a lot of people focused on in Connecticut.
Meanwhile, Michael Barone takes a different view. He explains (Lansing State Journal are you listening?) that it isn’t about a couple of pork mongering Michigan Senators being distracted by Canadian garbage. The reason those on the Left are complacent about terrorism is… well they just don’t believe in it.
Left-wing bloggers played an important part in Lamont’s victory. Here’s the reaction of one of them, John Aravosis, to the red alert ordered here in response to the British arrests: “Do I sound as if I don’t believe this alert? Why, yes, that would be correct. I just don’t believe it. Read the article. They say the plot had an ‘Al Qaeda footprint.’ Ooh, are you scared yet?”
What we are looking at here is cognitive dissonance. The mindset of the Left blogosphere is that there’s no real terrorist threat out there. We wouldn’t have any serious problem if we’d just do something different — raise the minimum wage or reduce the number without health insurance (the first issue Lamont mentioned on election night), withdraw from Iraq or (as some Left bloggers suggest) sell out Israel.
The LSJ recently lamented that we’ve lost track of the fact that we’re at war. However, the fact that the phrase “We’re at war!” has been shouted from the rooftops does not matter to those who hold the following beliefs simultaneously:
a) The United States brought 9-11 on in the first place by oppressing the terrorists.
b) The twin towers weren’t destroyed by terrorists, they were bombed by the United States government.
c) This was done in order to seize Iraqi oil (Where is that, anyway?).
c) Therefore, every alleged terrorist plot is a put up job by Britain or the United States in order to cover their tracks.
As reported on Fox, a recent poll indicated that only 30% of Americans can name the three brances of the Federal Government. I’ll speculate that the proportion is even lower among readers of the LSJ.So my question is: Do you blame the editors for knowing their audience?Lady Astor
Correction:It should have been only 42% of Americans can name the three branches of gov’t. I must have juxtaposed the number from Hershblogger’s post of yesterday.
Well, Zogby is also reporting today that:http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060815/us_nm/culture_dc“Three quarters of Americans can correctly identify two of Snow White’s seven dwarfs while only a quarter can name two Supreme Court Justices, according to a poll on pop culture released on Monday.” Combine this with the fact I noted on Aug-13, that 30 percent of Americans don’t know the year of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and you have the LSJ audience I guess.There should be a simple civics test at the polling station, for which these questions could serve as an example. Fail, and you are disenfranchised.PS, I do want to know which two dwarfs Americans can ID, and which two Justices. The others need an agent. “Sleepy” Ginsberg and “Grumpy” Scalia?