What's the message

With the recent indictment of Vice Presidential Chief of Staff, I. Lewis (scooter) Libby, it has become undeniable that this administration has, at the very least, looked the other way when illegal activity has occurred or has actively promoted such activity as part of its overall strategy. Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has broken through the Neoconservative iron curtain of secrecy just enough to give us a glimpse of what kind of nefarious activities have been taking place in lieu of the business of government.

Republicans have defended Bush and his administration from allegations of improprieties since he took office and in doing so, many have gone to extents they would not have previously been comfortable with. The discipline within the ranks of the Republicans has become well known and demonstrated by their strict adherence to conservative talking points, on message dialogue, and coerced party line voting actions such as the one on the Medicare Bill that earned the Hammer, Tom DeLay a rebuke from the faint-hearted ethics committee.

However, as more people come to the realization that the war in Iraq is not going well and that there is not now, and never has been a plan for victory nor an exit strategy for our troops, the haze of misjudgment slowly clears from the minds of many former Bush supporters and questions begin to arise as to how they were able to be taken in and what made them so adamant in their support of this administration. How could otherwise law abiding, patriotic citizens like themselves have come to accept the attack upon a sovereign nation that had done nothing to provoke such an attack? How could they continue to support the war and occupation when it was discovered the reasons for going to war had been manufactured. How could they justify putting the lives of our young men and women of the military into serious jeopardy in furtherance of a political policy of aggression that the majority of Americans despise and the majority of the world community is at odds with?

There have always been a certain number of hard right conservative wing-nuts supporting Bush and who would continue to do so if he were to conduct beheadings of Democrats in front of the Washington Monument. There is a like number of extreme leftists that will never be satisfied as well. These are not the groups being reflected in the changing poll numbers though. Those numbers are more accurately reflecting the mood of the American moderates.

The moderates are the swing votes of the local, state and national elections because they remain open minded instead of backing candidates simply by party affiliation. The extreme elements from either political end of the spectrum are not the people that can be easily, if at all, influenced by the messages from the other party. Moderates can be and are affected by the messages, the daily events in the news, the opinions of their families and friends, their faith and concern that the country is moving in the right direction.

And the polls tell us that these moderates are dissatisfied with the war in Iraq. With each new bit of information uncovered through tenacious reporting, the foreign press or Fitzgerald’s investigation the poll numbers drop further for Bush and his failed policies. It is this group of voters who will have the greatest effect on the next presidential election.

Both Republicans and Democrats are pursuing this block of voters, but the Right is doing so by attempting to scare them into believing the lies about the war on terror that have caused them to rethink their position in the first place. Democrats are pursuing them as well, but is the message the right one and are they making themselves heard? We will find out in 2006.