"My America is better than this" election meme. [View All]

[femmedem]

Maybe most Americans don't care tonight about the torture bill. But they will care if we explain it to them, in letters to the editor, in conversations, in press conferences, and in political ads.

"My America is better than this."

I think this is much stronger than the "But if we mistreat our detainees, other people will mistreat us" argument. Dems are not going to win with the "we support our troops better" meme. It's true, of course, but we won't win that way.

But we will win if we appeal to people's patriotism. If we say that in our America, we don't do kangaroo courts. We don't do torture. We don't hold people forever based on hearsay or because somebody sold somebody to the U.S. for bounty. Our America is better than this.

And we have to keep informing people that our own military admits many of the detainees are absolutely innocent. Because while most Americans probably don't care what happens to terrorists, they still believe innocent people deserve basic rights.

My America is still that good. Isn't it?