Reply #13: They have nothing else to offer [View All]

[Alcibiades]

Without an enemy to fight, modern conservatism in the US has nothing left to offer anyone except freaky evangelicals. They are bad for the environment, jobs, labor, wages, and have shown that their vaunted "expertise" in foreign policy is a joke, and that they cannot be trusted to administer the public fisc. All they have left are endless tax cuts for the rich, and that only gets you so far, and doesn't even work on the civicly minded, patriotic or or liberal rich who realize that they actually have the most to gain from paying their taxes.

The problem is that wars end. The Second Iraq War ended when Bush stepped aboard the USS "Mission Accomplished." In order to continue to reap the political benefits of war, however, they have to keep it going, so they rebranded the occupation as a war. Next, when the civil war in Iraq starts in earnest, expect them to intervene against all comers.

Note that this will be done not to achieve victory, but to forestall any possibility of victory. Herein lies the rub. Glory belongs only to the victor of war, yet they must keep the war and the fear going in order to remain in office, so they keep screwing up on purpose. People will eventually realize that the light of the end of the tunnel that is always six months away will be forever six months away.