Nothing clarifies the mind or unifies a movement — or steels the resolve of a democracy, for that matter — like an actual threat.<\/p>\n
In this week after the commemoration of Pearl Harbor, that devastating attack on our nation seems like a great metaphor for the kind of crisis that puts patriots at their best.<\/p>\n
I mention all this, because in the three years after President Barack Obama was elected, Republican leaders have insisted that his administration was the political equivalent of a foreign army arriving guns blazing on our shores.<\/p>\n
Depending on who you ask, Mr. Obama is a false American, a false Christian, a radical black-nationalist Christian, a man steeped in Kenyan anti-colonialism intent on destroying our capitalist system, a Muslim, or all of the above.<\/p>\n
Conservatives circulated images of Black Panthers lurking outside polling places and hinted darkly at widespread voter fraud.<\/p>\n
They talked about “death panels” and a “war on religion” and the urgent need to “take our country back” — even hinting that “second amendment solutions” might be necessary.<\/p>\n
In a recent column, conservative Charles Krauthammer warned darkly that if “Obama wins [next November] he will take the country to a place from which it will not be able to return (which is precisely his own objective for a second term).”<\/p>\n
All of which, if true or plausible, would certainly serve as a stiff wake-up-call to the right.<\/p>\n
Let me again resort to history to provide a bit of contrast.<\/p>\n
The clash with Fascism in the 1940s caused all Americans — left, right and center — to work together, differences be damned.\u00a0 Likewise, the Cold War effort to roll back communism stiffened a centrist resolve to overcome our differences.<\/p>\n
The alternatives were simply too grave, too bitter.\u00a0 In those years, the enemies of our Republic were real, and the consequences of failure dire.<\/p>\n
And so we got serious, we pitched in, we sacrificed and we prevailed.<\/p>\n
Which leads me to the inescapable conclusion that Republicans don’t really mean what they say about Mr. Obama.<\/p>\n
They have embraced a fiery, populist, occasionally ludicrous rhetoric because they think it will win them votes, particularly in white, rural precincts like Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina where Mr. Obama is viewed with deep suspicion.<\/p>\n
But the GOP’s leadership — and its top candidates — have failed to rally around any particular individuals or ideas.\u00a0 There’s no sign of anything like unity in this opposition.<\/p>\n
The party’s grand old leaders, men and women of experience and gravity, haven’t emerged to demand some kind of serious, grown-up effort at leading the country forward.<\/p>\n
On the contrary.<\/p>\n
Out on the campaign trail, half the GOP candidates are hawking books, or promoting talk shows, or embracing a debate hosted by Donald Trump, or fending off sex scandals, or challenging each other to $10,000 wagers.<\/p>\n
Given the tone of their behavior — in contrast with their words — you would think that there were no serious challenges in the world at all.<\/p>\n
The secret behind all this muddle, I suspect, is that in their hearts these Republican candidates don’t actually view Mr. Obama as all that scary or radical.<\/p>\n
Yes, they disagree with him on particular points of policy.<\/p>\n
But it’s only fair to point out that Mr. Gingrich has occasionally embraced the individual mandate for healthcare and proposed big government solutions for climate change.<\/p>\n
Mr. Romney in the past has been pro-choice and pushed through a big Obamacare type program of his own while governor of Massachusetts.<\/p>\n
Mr. Perry has been forced, as governor of Texas, to deal with illegal immigration in all its complexity, which is why he chose to educate the children of undocumented workers.<\/p>\n
The reason that they are so close to Mr. Obama on so many issues is that, by most credible assessments, this administration has hewed a fairly centrist, pragmatic line.<\/p>\n
To the frustration of many liberals, the White House maintained many policies and kept many cabinet leaders first chosen by President George W. Bush — who (you will remember) was hardly a popular figure at the time.<\/p>\n
It goes without saying that, as we near the end of Mr. Obama’s first term, the economy remains deeply troubled and Federal deficits are massive.<\/p>\n
I suspect there is a real appetite in the country to hear about alternatives to this President and his leadership.<\/p>\n
But the effort to brand Mr. Obama as a bogeyman has been a flop.\u00a0 Former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson, writing for the Washington Post, put it this way:<\/p>\n
[W]hile voters may be disappointed with Obama’s job performance, they have not turned on Obama himself. His personal approval is strong.<\/p>\n
Here there is a significant gap between the American public and, well, me. I have often found Obama’s public manner to be professorial and off-putting. Americans seem to think it calm, self-possessed and reassuring.<\/p>\n
Even in his failures, Obama does not seem hapless. He fully inhabits the public role of commander in chief. And Obama’s commitment to his family — his protection of their and privacy and normality — is widely admired.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
In the end, if voters are forced to decide which of these political movements seems more radical, more erratic, and more anxiety-provoking, Obama’s Democrats might fare surprisingly well against the GOP on display in this primary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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