Richard’s dissection of the underlying story is interesting, but his quip at the end about a Frank Capra ending belies the truth about good politics and good story lines: they must be simple. There must be a villain and a good guy, and in the best politics and stories, the good guy always wins.
The two narratives woven by the left and right both boil the facts down to the above formulation, and perhaps the biggest and best part of the story wasn’t even noticed in Richard’s analysis.
Perhaps this tale signals a great sea change in America. Could it finally be the case that it’s no longer tolerated in the basic storyline told by the left to be against the troops?
I personally think the concern expressed regularly by the left is feigned, overblown, and quite hollow, tales of “Cambridge generosity” notwithstanding. Nevertheless they feel compelled to at least give lip service to supporting the troops, and that’s a huge improvement over the past.
Further, this would mean that those hideous dinosaurs such as Jane Fonda, Brian DePalma, Mark Cuban, and Robert Redford are already extict. They are still stuck attempting to retail the same old anti-military anti-American garbage today but it’s clearly not working. Just because they haven’t yet noticed their extinction doesn’t make it less true.
That would be a worthy Frank Capra ending
