While perusing Paul Krugman's bad novel, I was taken back to the days right after 9/11, when I watched the country fall into place behind the President and his approval ratings soar. He hadn't done anything. The attack took place on his watch. He reacted to it in the crudest possible manner, elevating those who attacked us to avatars of evil, not merely criminals but worthy adversaries in a war between good and evil. His actions made no sense to me then, they make no more sense to me now.
But he was (and is) the President. If he's not up to the task, where are we? Is it really surprising that people would find it harder to distrust a leader in a crisis than to trust one? Is it really surprising that after the price we've paid to follow this path, people would be loathe to change course, to admit that this path is the wrong one, that we have paid this price in vain?
Iokiyar. The alternative might be too much to bear.
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