The regime has lost the hearts and minds that matter. Guest post by Robert Gore at Straight Line Logic
. . . What do we mean by the Revolution? The War? That was no part of the revolution; it was only an Effect and Consequence of it. The Revolution was in the Minds of the the People, and this was effected from 1760 to 1775, in the course of fifteen years, before a drop of blood was drawn at Lexington. . . .
John Adams, letter to Thomas Jefferson, August 24, 1815
“Hearts and minds” became a cliché during the Vietnam War. Somebody noticed that many of the Vietnamese had no particular enthusiasm for either the War for Freedom, Democracy, and Domino Prevention or its American sponsors. Thus began a trademark U.S. effort to win the hearts and minds of the skeptical and the outright opposed. It was based on a belief that’s been the undoing of centuries of rulers: that “the masses” can be swayed by the right combination of propaganda, threats, repression, and fear.