To defeat the enemy--one must first understand Greek mythology

[Horse with no Name]

The Hydra was a many-headed monster slain by Heracles. It was related to the Chimaera and Cerberus. As one of his Labors, Heracles sought the Hydra's lair in the swamps of Lerna and forced it out into the open with flaming arrows. Wading bravely into the fray, he began to hack at the monster with his sword. But every time he cut off one head, two grew in its place. Eventually, Heracles called on his charioteer to bring a torch to cauterize the Hydra's severed neck each time a head was lopped. This prevented new heads from sprouting. And when the final head was chopped off and buried beneath a rock, the monster died.

Defeating what ails this country will require the same efforts.
We have to identify ALL of the reasons that make them a threat.
While it would be wonderful to just say that it's the Neocons that represent our greatest worries, we must find out why that is.
It is not just our enemies that we must defeat, it is the mentality that allows them and their ideals to thrive.
When we isolate each issue and refuse to allow the "head" to re-sprout, only then can we finally kill the monster that is plaguing our society.

[jimshoes]

1. Nicely put

Very apropos.

[omega minimo]

2. That is the enemy

"it is the mentality that allows them and their ideals to thrive"

[NAO]

3. Their ideological positions are interlocking an mutually reinforcing

so they have that hydra "head-regrowing" capacity.

Each individual position of the right is deducible from their fundamental assumptions. They have worked out a systematic philosophy. Once you accept their basic premises, their other positions follow logically.

So if someone is draw into Republican ideology on one particular issue - we all know the single issue/wedge issue items - then from that starting point the indoctrination proceeds naturally until they find themselves aligned with Repubs on all issues.

George Lakoff has elucidated these fundamental assumptions and basic philosophical outlooks extremely well in his (earlier, much bigger) book "Moral Politics". I was amazed to read how being anti-abortion and pro-death penalty are actually NOT contradictory, but perfectly consistent, along with all the issues which all fall into place with an almost mathematical precision. Further, it works the same way for liberals.

What we have to do is find a way to change basic assumptions and contexts in which people interpret events and think about political ideas.