King George and King Canute

Today Bush told a Florida audience that it was Saddam's decision that America go to war in Iraq, not ours. "He had a choice," Bush said: "Disclose, disarm, or face serious consequences."

Disclose what? Disarm what? On the eve of war, UN weapons inspectors were doing their job -- and finding nothing. It was Bush's determination to go shock and awe, no matter what Saddam had or didn't have, that ended the inspections and launched the war.

Does W really believe his Just So story, or is he counting on American amnesia, abetted by useful idiots in the media, to leave his account of recent history unchallenged? I could understand his making a different case -- about ending Saddam's tyranny, or a domino theory of Islamic democracy in the Middle East; even if I don't agree with it, at least it's not some fable from some bizarro parallel universe where reality doesn't matter.

The sad truth, though, is that we already inhabit that fact-free zone. We don't argue about facts; we battle to establish narratives. "May the best story win" is not only the reigning principle of the entertainment marketplace; it governs our politics as well, and our journalism.

Bush's great strength is his jes-folks tale-spinning. When he tells a story, you get the feeling that he really believes it, and that there's nothing embarrassing about joining him in his comfy worldview. Countering his narrative with inconvenient facts is as hopeless as King Canute telling the tide not to roll in. The only way to beat propaganda's fictions is to tell a better story, one that gives a more compelling account of what we've all been living through. The winning strategy for Democrats isn't "I've got a nine-point plan" or (Lord help us) "Together, we can do better." Instead, it starts like this: "Once upon a time..."