Liberal Talk Radio

The other day I argued that the tie that binds foreign-policy neocons with domestic-policy Republicans like Tom DeLay is one singular axiom: For maximum mobility, use the smallest alliance possible to achieve victory. This is how the Iraq war was waged: getting the support of NATO or the UN would have meant watering down the objectives, and, worst of all, compromise. Ditto for the Medicare bill: don’t rely on Dems, better to twist the arms of reluctant Republicans.

There’s one problem with this theory, which might prove to be the unified neocon’s undoing, at home and abroad. Although big alliances often necessitate compromise, they also provide political cover. Look at how support for the Iraq war was garnered at home and abroad. Abroad, the Administration acted as I said above: only enlisting the help of nations who were with us, and wouldn’t force us to water down our objectives: the UK, Spain, Poland. But back at home, Bush got wide bipartisan support for the resolution. This gave him great political cover. In fact, a major reason he was re-elected was that this bipartisan cover split the opposition (Dean vs. Kerry) and tied them in rhetorical knots.

So bipartisan cover can be a good thing, especially if the sh*t starts to hit the fan. The Republican-engineered domestic mess — out-of-conrol Medicare spending, massive deficits, criminal indictments, etc. — is completely their own doing. They made their bed, and they’ve got to lie in it. They did this by completely shutting the minority out of the process in an unprecedented way. And so they have no bi-partisan cover.

Now back to foreign policy. Iraq is a bit of a mess right now. I know, “democracy’s on the march” and all, but still, it’s turning out to be a lot harder than we imagined. Wouldn’t it be great if it was the world’s mess, and not just America’s mess? It’d certainly be a lot easier to clean up, that’s for sure.

So the bottom line is this: narrow coalitions and ideological purity are good for theoretical crusades, but terrible for actually governing. Because everything turns out to be messier than you anticipated, and it’s good to know that everyone (even your opponents!) has to take some responsibility.