Orson Scott Card Speaks Out

Orson Scott Card is one of the best science-fiction authors of our time, having written the modern classic Ender’s Game and its sequels. He’s also a very talented essayist, and his latest work is a direct challenge to the current movement of the Democratic Party. A sample:

Am I saying that critics of the war aren’t patriotic?

Not at all — I’m a critic of some aspects of the war. What I’m saying is that those who try to paint the bleakest, most anti-American, and most anti-Bush picture of the war, whose purpose is not criticism but deception in order to gain temporary political advantage, those people are indeed not patriotic. They have placed their own or their party’s political gain ahead of the national struggle to destroy the power base of the terrorists who attacked Americans abroad and on American soil.

He directly and clearly attacks the “Bush must lose at any cost crowd” as well as the “Iraq is Vietnam crowd” with cogent and critical arguments that clearly state why both positions are completely off the mark. It’s a breath of fresh air from the usual hysterical prognostication we’ve seen from the regular media.

His analysis of what happens if the anti-war side wins is even more important:

Think what it will mean if we elect a Democratic candidate who has committed himself to an anti-war posture in order to get his party’s nomination.

Our enemies will be certain that they are winning the war on the battleground that matters — American public opinion. So they will continue to kill Americans wherever and whenever they can, because it works.

Our soldiers will lose heart, because they will know that their commander-in-chief is a man who is not committed to winning the war they have risked death in order to fight. When the commander-in-chief is willing to call victory defeat in order to win an election, his soldiers can only assume that their lives will be thrown away for nothing. That’s when an army, filled with despair, becomes beatable even by inferior forces.

He’s right on this. It is indisputable that our military did not like Bill Clinton and our fighting forces lost morale during that time – which is why the military vote was decided Bush victory. Could anyone imagine what would happen to the morale of our military if Howard Dean became President? The reaction to someone whose campaign was based entirely on pissing all over the troops mission to Iraq would not be favorable. It would cost morale, and it would very likely cost us the mission. It is clear that Howard Dean does not have the political will to carry through the mission in Iraq. The same holds true with every one of the other eight Democrats with the possible exception of Senator Lieberman who doesn’t have a shot at getting the nomination at this point. As Mr. Card continues:

And in all the campaign rhetoric, I keep looking, as a Democrat, for a single candidate who is actually offering a significant improvement over the Republican policies that in fact don’t work, while supporting or improving upon the American policies that will help make us and our children secure against terrorists.

We have enemies that have earned our hatred, and whom we should fear. They are fanatical terrorists who seek opportunities to kill American civilians here and Israeli civilians in Israel.

But right now, our national media and the Democratic Party are trying to get us to believe that the people we should hate and fear are George W. Bush and the Republicans.

I can think of many, many reasons why the Republicans should not control both houses of Congress and the White House.

But right now, if the alternative is the Democratic Party as led in Congress and as exemplified by the current candidates for the Democratic nomination, then I can’t be the only Democrat who will, with great reluctance, vote not just for George W. Bush, but also for every other candidate of the only party that seems committed to fighting abroad to destroy the enemies that seek to kill us and our friends at home.

And if we elect a government that subverts or weakens or ends our war against terrorism, we can count on this: We will soon face enemies that will make 9/11 look like stubbing our toe, and they will attack us with the confidence and determination that come from knowing that we don’t have the will to sustain a war all the way to the end.

I have argued that the September 11 Democrats will be the keys to this race. They are the Democrats who are alienated by the outlandish and unsupportable position of the hard-left ANSWER crowd that has taken control of the Democratic Party. They may not like the Republicans on social issues, but they will be voting for Bush in 2004 because the Democrats can’t grow up and face the realities of the most important issue of the time. As I’ve said many times, the Democrats don’t have policy, they have petulance, and even long-time Democrats like Mr. Card are realizing that we cannot afford such a position at a critical time in our history.