Art,

I know exactly what you're saying. I'd love to see the pitch for sacrifice and moral support. You saw the way this state rallied behind the troops - it was quite incredible. However, I've also lived in a blue state (California) and I know the difference between the two.

America does contain a generation of folks who just don't want to sacrifice anything and if someone tells them to sacrifice they will choose or find an option that means no sacrifice. The folks who do polling run numbers leftside and right. Back and forth, up down and over. They throw out tests like, "How many casualties would you sacrifice in a conflict to get rid of dictator Saddam Hussein?" and then they pinpoint it further. "Would it be worth 5000 Americans to get rid of Saddam Hussein?" "10,000" etc. The pollsters and analysts work 24/7 collecting data from the public and taking its pulse. That's why I know Don's wasting his time counting. The casualties are nowhere near the number folks were willing to sacrifice to get rid of Saddam. But back to the point. Arizona is not typical of America. The flags waving from houses in a row just isn't happening in California and other places. While this place isn't exactly Pleasantville, there are parts of it that are fairly close. To the blue-staters we're a bunch of rifle totin' rednecks living thirty years in the past. It's hardly reality -- but that is the perception You can get folks to sacrifice out here. But not everywhere. Politicians see the numbers read the data (or more often have encapsulated summaries read to them) and they make the call.

For every person who would be willing to sacrifice there are probably seven who would be indignant that there lives are interrupted and would vote the person asking for sacrifice out of office -- thinking that this is the alternative to sacrifice. Real sacrifice would happen, and has happened, but it would take more events on a 9-11 scale to keep folks motivated or to reach the levels America did back in WWII.

Corporate America pitched with ads that encouraged sacrifice and cities were communities. It's different in the blue-states. Folks don't have the same sense of community there anymore. Folks move too often and don't put down roots. They don't sit on porches and look at folks that do like their crazy. They fear their neighbors, and often with good reason. It's a totally different world.