The Only Issue

Orson Scott Card has a long essay posted over at Real Clear Politics that explains why he believes there is only one choice this election, because there is only one issue of any importance: the war on terror. Period.

There is only one issue in this election that will matter five or ten years from now, and that's the War on Terror.

And the success of the War on Terror now teeters on the fulcrum of this election.

If control of the House passes into Democratic hands, there are enough withdraw-on-a-timetable Democrats in positions of prominence that it will not only seem to be a victory for our enemies, it will be one.

Unfortunately, the opposite is not the case — if the Republican Party remains in control of both houses of Congress there is no guarantee that the outcome of the present war will be favorable for us or anyone else.

But at least there will be a chance.

I say this as a Democrat, for whom the Republican domination of government threatens many values that I hold to be important to America's role as a light among nations.

But there are no values that matter to me that will not be gravely endangered if we lose this war. And since the Democratic Party seems hellbent on losing it — and in the most damaging possible way — I have no choice but to advocate that my party be kept from getting its hands on the reins of national power, until it proves itself once again to be capable of recognizing our core national interests instead of its own temporary partisan advantages.

To all intents and purposes, when the Democratic Party jettisoned Joseph Lieberman over the issue of his support of this war, they kicked me out as well. The party of Harry Truman and Daniel Patrick Moynihan — the party I joined back in the 1970s — is dead. Of suicide.

This is, of course, my driving issue as well. There are a lot of people who have watched in utter dismay as the Democrats leaned further and further toward the anti-war left. I have been hearing and reading those opinions for quite a while. I see statements by Charles Rangel that threaten cutting off funds for the war and I cringe. I see threats by John Conyers to tie the political system into knots with non-stop investigations and I despair. I hear Nancy Pelosi announce that the only way the Dems can lose is if the counts are not accurate and I see a party that cannot be trusted.

I am not exactly thrilled with the Republicans, either. In many ways they have blown a lot of opportunities and good will. On the other hand, they haven't voted to cut and run or against bills needed to help fight the war. So I know who I stand with this election. So does Card. Go read it all (it is quite long, so get comfy).