Dissenters

An odd thing about the moral high ground is that there are often many of them. Take the Iraq War for instance.

When the Iraq War received its highest poll opinions, one could always point to the dissenters, and represent them as a few on the kooky misguided left. Some even claimed that dissent was unpatriotic and aided the enemy. Some unfortunately still do, but I’ve written about that before via informal arguments.

The Iraq War’s support has come unraveled in a hurry though, much more quickly than during the Vietnam era. Noblesse oblige prevents me from calling the minority view, support for the war, part of a misguided kooky fringe on the right. Nothing can be gained from that, and it’s not a valid argument.

It does raise the question as to who are the dissenters. One normally thinks of the opinion of the minority as the party of dissent, but in this case the whole Bush administration and its supporters in Congress carry more weight.

I can’t see how the Iraq War is going to be any more popular a year from now. Imagine all those dissenters flooding the polling places. Imagine those in Congress requiring swing votes modifying their position if not outright dissenting themselves.