It's all too predictable.
The current GOP talking point on the debate over the Iraq funding bills is that the legislation "sends a memo to the enemy" telling them when the US will withdraw. Mitch McConnell made that point this morning on "Fox News Sunday" and then went further, directly implying that Democrats want to do so and thereby help Al Qaeda:
[Democrats] used this serious effort -- what should have been a serious effort to fund the troops -- as an opportunity to send a memo to our enemy on when we're going to give up and to get pork for various and sordid projects back home (italics mine).
Democrats used the bill as "an opportunity to send a memo to our enemy"! You won't find a clearer suggestion of disloyalty.
Whenever I criticize post-9/11 attacks on dissent for suggesting that war critics are disloyal, someone argues that Republicans are only talking about the effect of such dissent, not its motivation. But as the McConnell quote illustrates, these attacks carry a consistently anti-democratic subtext.
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