"Karl Rove is a storyteller"

Ira Chernus on BuzzFlash:

There's not a single, simple frontier myth or story. It's a very complicated network of stories and themes, and symbols and images, and language, like a big reservoir that you can draw on for all sorts of purposes. If you recall, at the end of my article, I was suggesting some of the ways Democrats might be able to draw on other aspects of that same set of stories. It's a complicated web with stories that have been drawn on ever since there were white settlers in North America. Everybody can pick and choose the elements or pieces of it that they want, and put it together in their own particular way.

Certainly, the piece that Rove is urging Republicans to focus on for this election is the aspect of steadfastness, of taking the strong stand -- you draw a line in the sand, as George Bush the elder said back in the first Gulf War, and you don't back down until the enemy is defeated. That's not the entirety of this frontier story, but it's the piece that Rove thinks will be the winning ticket for the Republicans.