2006 Gameplan

E. J. Dionne thinks that Karl Rove has given Democrats a potential advantage by revealing the GOP game plan for the 2006 elections. The big hint? Republicans will focus on national security. Dionne doesn't understand why Democrats keep letting this strategy succeed, especially " since Sept. 11, 2001, the plan has focused on one variation or another of the same theme: Republicans are tough on our enemies, Democrats are not. If you don't want to get blown up, vote Republican."

E.J., let me give you a clue. Ronald Reagan started campaigning on the theme of national security in 1976. The GOP has used national security, and the Dems weakness thereon, to win every presidential election since 1980 except for the two which took place after the fall of the Soviet Union and before 9/11.

Rove isn't tipping a game plan. He is describing a fact of American political life for over a quarter century. If the nation has enemies who threaten it, the voters don't trust Democrats to defend them.