George Packer on the End of an Era

I haven’t been alive long enough to fully understand the long-standing trends of conservatism and liberalism in this country, but Packer’s opinion rings true to me:

The conservative movement was driven by the single unifying idea that government is the problem, not the solution. It attained and kept power through the highly successful political strategy of dividing the country into the hard-working, America-loving, God-fearing majority and the minority of élitist liberals who wanted to tell the majority what to do. What’s happened to that idea and that strategy over the past few weeks?

I think the simple answer has little to do with the current campaign and everything to do with the botched leadership of the past 8 years. In addition to needing to be called out for their war crimes, Bush and Cheney need to be called out for their utter disregard for true American values and reckless thwarting of the ideals that make America run.