Missing the bigger picture

Dave Johnson has issued a dire and frighteningly prescient sounding warning to Democrats concerning the continued politicizing of the Terri Schiavo case. His point seems to be that the Republicans are being so obvious about what they are doing that the left is missing the boat. "You are looking at trees and missing the forest. Do you really, after all this time and all these defeats, think the Right is stupid?"

You mock the Republicans for blatantly acting politically, and ignore that they ARE ACTING POLITICALLY. In other words, they're acting in the way that will in the long term gain them more support for their candidates and issues.

You mock their politicians for flocking to this because of a Republican talking points memo telling them this will gain them a political advantage, yet you do not see that THIS WILL GAIN THEM POLITICAL ADVANTAGE. You're nitpicking details and ignoring the larger narrative.

They are "trying to save this poor woman." They are "defending this poor woman's family." Meanwhile, you are pointing out discrepancies in the finer details. "What about her husband?" you ask when they talk about her parents. "She can't feel pain," you say, when they accuse Democrats of starving her to death. How many people hear that they are trying to save this poor woman? Everyone. How many people, over time, will pay attention to the nitpicking details?

Dave's point has the ring of truth to it. It's far too late to stop this tragic issue from turning into a political juggernaut. It's being carved in granite in the record books even as we ponder it. The left is busy ooohing and ahhhing over the polls showing the majority of people felt that congress and the president acted unwisely by interfering. Progressives are seeing an opportunity in pointing out the legal details of how this affects federalism, disrupts states' rights, and pits the legislative branch against the judicial.

But a year from now, long after this is (hopefully) over, what are voters, particularly on the right and in the center going to remember?

Well, it was certainly a foolish way to attempt it, but at least the Republicans' hearts were in the right place. They were trying to save poor Terri's life.

And with that, following the laws of reflex and reaction, there is a subliminal message buried alongside that one.

The Democrats were trying to kill poor Terri.

This is a lesson that the DNC leadership might do well to ponder and being working on some damage control. What looks like a humiliating loss for the right wing today may turn into a big bonus of "values voters" in 2006.