by Nicholas Beaudrot of Electoral Math
I've been helping my girlfriend [Sorry, ladies update: and nontraditional gentlemen] prepare for the LSAT, so I think I have a good shot at getting Kevin's question right. We can clearly eliminate D as a distractor. A is also incorrect, since it implies some level of policy error on the part of Bush as well as the Cheney/Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz hawk wing of the party. That leaves B and C. Which of these best describes the narrative in the event of failure? Well, C is properly the narrative that will be used to disparage the reactionaries' enemies, e.g. "If the DeanHillaryPelosiKennedyMcGovernAlSmith monster had been President, Saddam would still be in power". That leaves B as the best choice.
Of course, one need not go through this sort of analysis. Kevin Baker lays it all out for us in his article on the stab-in-the-back narrative. Money quote:
Indeed, the right has distilled its tale of betrayal into a formula: Advocate some momentarily popular but reckless policy. Deny culpability when that policy is exposed as disastrous. Blame the disaster on internal enemies who hate America. Repeat, always making sure to increase the number of internal enemies.
Well put.
