Someone wrote this in the comments section of a video on YouTube I was watching this morning. While it's not neccesarily funny in the ha-ha sense, it reminded me of a similar statement made by Republicans about Obama, Bill Ayers, and Osama Bin Ladin during the election. I think it reveals a key insight into what the Republican party has become and how progressives should fight them going forward.
As the torture debate has dominated the cable news chatter this week, I've been struggling to figure out what it means politically. Is this bad for Obama, since the Republicans are trying to label him as weak and irresponsible for releasing the memos that outlined what our country had done in the past, adding to the "Obama is apologizing for America" meme? Or is this bad for Republicans, who have been forced to explain publicly why they think it's a good idea to torture people when we have prosecuted and executed foreign officers and soldiers when they did it to our citizens?
Lawrence O'Donnel's appearances on MSNBC over the last few days convinced me that the left is, or at least should be, winning this fight:
O'Donnel completely destroyed the conservative he was debating for implying that people deserved to be tortured because of the way they look in a prison cell. It's an outrageous statement, but should come as no surprise to anyone who has seen video of a McCain/Palin rally. This is what has become of the modern Republican party. Every day since their numbers began shrinking after the 2004 election, they have been forced to defend racism, torture, discrimination, and unnecessary wars. It doesn't help them in the least that the chief spokesman for their position on torture is none other than Dick Cheney, the most hated vice president in recent history. O'Donnel similarly wailed on Liz Cheney after her appearance on MSNBC:
The criticism of the conservative position on torture isn't just coming from the left, it's coming from the right as well. When you lose Judge Napolitano and Shepard Smith on Fox news, you've lost the country. Or at least the part that watches Fox news and actually listens to people like Judge Napolitano:
The public debate over torture that has taken place over the last week has been bad for Republicans. They've been forced to defend the un-defendable, which has done nothing but remind the American people why they voted them out in the first place. On this and other issues like health care, the economy, and the environment, the left has for the first time in a long time claimed the moral high ground over the party that claims to represent moral values.
While the left has some legitimate issues and valid criticisms of the way Obama has handled the idea of investigating and prosecuting the abuses of the Bush administration, it can at least be said that he is leading a party that is united in opposition to the kind of America the Republicans would have us live in, one where we are no better than the people we are fighting against.