Now that Karl Rove's recent comments have been thoroughly chewed, swallowed and digested by the political blogosphere, maybe it's time to consider what they imply about America's prospects in the war on terrorism.
If Rove really believes what he said -- and we've had absolutely no indication from the GOP politburo that he didn't -- then it would appear the Cheney administration has concluded the war is already lost. Logically, the White House should be considering what kind of surrender terms to seek from Osama bin Ladin.
Think about it. In effect, Rove has accused liberals of trying to undermine (to use Bill O'Reilly's term) the war effort, either out of their blind hatred of Cheney and his presidential surrogate, their secret allegiance to Al Qaeda, or both. And of course because of their loathing for America and freedom -- but that goes without saying.
This is taking an extraordinarily bleak view of the war situation. I'm looking at the results of the latest New York Times-CBS poll, which show that 20% of the Americans surveyed freely and voluntarily identified themselves as liberals.
That means that (according to Rove) approximately one in five Americans is a traitor and/or terrorist sympathizer!
By my rough calculation, that adds up to over 59 million potential spies and saboteurs (although that number admittedly includes young children, who might be useful as smugglers and suicide bombs, but probably aren't as dangerous as your hardcore liberal movie makers -- Michael Moore, for example.)
I don't think history holds any example of a nation that has survived for long with so many internal enemies plotting against it. Even in Germany, the number of dedicated Bolsheviks, Jews and Freemasons actively involved in stabbing the troops in the back probably never amounted to more than 15% of the population -- and I'm throwing the Gypsies into the mix, too.
Personally, I think it's reckless -- if not defeatist -- for Rove and the rest of the Republican high command to be talking about this perilous situation in public. If Americans learn the truth, if they realize that one in five of their fellow citizens (their doctor? their garbage man? their hairdresser?) is a liberal fifth columnist working for Osama, they could become demoralized. They might lose confidence in their leaders, in the party, and in America's ultimate victory -- despite the new miracle weapons that surely will turn the tide any day now.
Such a blow would be far worse than whatever damage the liberals themselves could do to the fatherland. In fact, if I didn't know better, I might suspect that Rove himself is deliberately trying to sabotage the war effort. I might almost think that he's a liberal mole, sent by bin Ladin to sow confusion and hatred and disunity among the American people.
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