The "Terrorists" already won

MATTHEWS: And by the way, I disagree with you about you being an amateur. But I‘ll tell you one thing. I agree with what Fareed Zakaria wrote in “Newsweek” this week, which is terrorism isn‘t explosions and death, terrorism is when you change your society because of those explosions and you become fearful to the point where you shut out immigration, you shut out student exchanges, you shut people out of buildings, you begin to act in an almost fascist manner because you‘re afraid of what might happen to you. That‘s when terrorism becomes real and frighteningly successful. That‘s what I believe, and that‘s why I question the way Giuliani has raised this issue. He raises it as a specter. In a weird way, he helps the bad guys.

That's the essential piece that the right wing loons can't seem to comprehend. Loons like Douglas V. Gibbs like to froth at the mouth about the destruction of America brought by the hands of the evil Islamist terrorists and secular liberals - not knowing, of course, that it is indeed conservatives that have aided and abetted the terrorists in doing their work for them.

Consider - what is the terrorists goal? Is it to kill all Americans? Well, they know that's not possible, but what they can do is change America's fundamental principals that we've lived by for generations. The terrorists loathe secularism, even in the United States.

The terrorists have succeeded in making the conservatives wet their pants in fear at the prospect of "hitting" us again. They've succeeded in that crazy as fuck loons like Gibbs think there will be some uprising and anarchy in the streets of America. They succeeded in getting our government to abandon the Geneva Conventions and start torturing prisoners as a matter of routine. The terrorists have succeeded in getting our government to suspend habeous for American civilians (Padillia). They've succeeded in getting our government to hold hundreds of prisoners for years, without charge. They've succeeded in getting our government to infiltrate peace groups. They've convinced our government to violate the constitution and eavesdrop on American citizen's electronic communications. They've succeeded in bringing a rise of fundamentalists Christianity into the United States government.

I've said before that America has always been a target of terrorism. We will for a very long time. Attacks will happen. People will die. However, it's obvious that the goal of the terrorists was not merely to kill some Americans. They couldn't really give a shit about individuals. Their goal was to change America in a fundamentally horrific way, and in that, they succeeded magnificently.

It's going to take a very strong liberal to restore American pride, and undo the culture of fear that the conservatives created in this country.