At the height of the nuclear arms race, those who marched against it used to
say that in the ashes of a nuclear war, no one could tell a capitalist from
a communist. "Not necessarily," others would joke, "Richard Perle could
tell." For Perle, even total annihilation would have its victors and losers,
and he knew which side he wanted to be on.
Perle has continued to preach the virtues of usable nuclear weapons while
helping orchestrate our invasion of Iraq. Now he's a key allied strategist
of an administration willing to obliterate democracy itself if they don't
get their way on judicial nominees and everything else.
I'm thinking of the ease with which Trent Lott, Bill Frist, and other
Republicans have talked of a "nuclear option" to intimidate the Democrats
into capitulating on every right wing judge that Bush sends to Congress.
Although Republicans have backed off from using the phrase since it began
polling negative, it may reveal more than they intended about their Party.
They doesn't just seek to enact particular programs, but have done their
best to turn politics into total war, seeking to annihilate the opposition
completely.
