Ever since I was a kid, I've often wondered why certain issues, like abortion, are political issues. Abortion seems like it is clearly a medical issue, and if it's political at all, it's a women's issue (i.e., should be decided on by women).
It has been intensely depressing to find out that personal privacy is a political issue. Both parties should be against domestic spying just flat-out, and yet here we are, with both parties and both supporters of those parties lining up behind it.
Abortion was part of the glue to hold the Religious Right together: it brought the Catholics on board (prior to about 1980 abortion was a uniquely Catholic obsession), and it gave the troops an evil to "fight" that required no real sacrifice on their part.
That said, the start of the Religious Right had much more to do with the Civil Rights Act and desegregation:
It's okay, my father did secret missions too and sometimes, yes, they failed. I am confident that next time, your father will never allow that plane to arrive.
I know what you're trying to say, but "War on Terror" wouldn't sound as comical as imagining them going "Y'know, George W. Bush was an alright president after all!"
I can remember this shit getting rolled out, wondering "Do they think there's going to be a Republican president forever? What incredible tears they'll cry when the next Democrat is in office and they've given him all these gestapo secret powers.