Ferrablog

...by making them out to be more of a factor than they are. I speak here of the recent elections in Spain, a subject which has been blogged ad nauseum the past few days. It's been argued that this is yet another topic onto which the left/right template is superimposed, and here's an excellent piece that sets forth this notion and discusses the events in Spain in a clear, rational manner.

The only thing I'd like to add to the points made in this article, with which I agree almost completely, is that if anything, the right's knee-jerk reaction to the results as an "appeasement of terrorism" does more for Al-Qaeda and their ilk than the result itself. Here's what I just recently posted on RMAS along those lines:

So since (in the absence of detailed and nuanced exit polling) we don't know for sure how the election would have turned out without the attack, it seems to me that playing up the theory that the attacks decisively swung the election plays into the hands of the terrorists more than anything else. If perception is allowed to become (or at least be recognized as) reality, then they will have achieved their goals. If Al-Qaeda or their sympathizers believe that we (the democratic world) believe they can swing our elections, then we make them more powerful and give them greater control over our lives. The "terror" in "terrorism" doesn't come from the act itself - it comes from how we react to the act. And by annointing Al-Qaeda the ultimate swing voter instead of making the effort to show that other factors were decisive in the result, all we do is encourage them to act again in this fashion. In other words, the hysteria on the right over this election plays more into their hands than the result of the election itself.