| http://onlinejournal.com/Commentary/Aaron042402/aaron042402.html New Republican parlor game: Say anything you like as long as it ends with "while we're fighting the war on terrorism . . ." By Les Aaron Editor, Hubgram April 24, 2002—Republicans realize that they can say anything they please, as long as their response carries the catch phrase " . . . while we are fighting the war on terrorism." Fill in your own blanks. For example, when charged with invading civil liberties, the preferred Republican response is "How can you say we're invading your privacy when we are fighting the war on terrorism." It works very well because it turns the tables on the questioner. It's like saying how could you even think about challenging us while we stand for the flag. In fact, fighting the war on terrorism has become the party's mantra and is being used to push through a raft of legislation that may have little bearing on any such war. And that's without even touching on the subject of whether this war is contrived to camouflage a raft of legislation that Bush wants to get through, while diverting the mainstream from thinking too much about all of the other abuses being heaped upon the average citizen. These include the questionable ethics involving government's role with Enron and an energy policy that has been shown to have completely ignored the needs of the people. Meanwhile, basking in the cover of the president's presumed popularity, the government goes forward on programs designed to dismantle government and fatten the larders of right wing supporters while, at the same time, they wave the flag and smile for the cameras. Apparently, morality and ethics are not concerns of this government. By introducing this simplistic phrase, that no one dares challenge, the Republicans have found a way to win the hearts and minds of the people while cutting off debate. Sadly, no Democrat has found the courage to stand up and challenge their assumptions, much less raise the more serious question of why they have packaged the flag with every bit of legislation they are trying to jam down our throats. (Notice, by the way, that the Republicans have cleverly shifted the war against bin Laden to the war against terrorism; the Republicans don't want to be confronted with their obvious failure in an election year!). Their argument translates into a challenge, a challenge that distorts and disguises the truth.. If you don't support the president in whatever he wants to accomplish, it is inferred that you are thereby giving aid to the enemy and you are by default, a traitor to America. This is a travesty and painfully brings back the days of McCarthy when Americans were persuaded that there were Communists hiding in every corner just waiting to bring America down. There was no middle of the road. No one had the courage to debate these clever arguments used by the followers of this dysfunctional proponent of self-aggrandizing politics. It wound up being as simple as this: if you were against McCarthy, you were simply against America and a "Commie" or a "Commie sympathizer." And the people bought it until McCarthy was shown for what he was, an egregiously ambitious politician who wanted to play on the world stage, a one note ideologue who was capable of selling his mother to further his ambitions, even if it meant making up lies and ruining reputations. I thought we were finished and done with the simplistic school of logic 40 years ago, that Americans had matured; but obviously McCarthy is alive and well in another guise. What is of serious concern to any student of history is this worrisome inability of the population at large to separate out from any argument, the question of the interrogator's loyalty to this country, or alternatively, raise the question as to whether that issue is even pertinent. Whether we can make these kinds of distinctions will be an important test of our political maturity. Americans should not be taken in by McCarthyesque tactics that serve to distort an objective inquiry by introducing an extraneous argument that has no relevancy to the question or the debated subject. The argument should be judged on its own merits. And the American people should recognize any attempts to transform any legitimate questions by inserting the symbolism of the flag as the contrived bit of artifice that it is.. But this kind of insight is not going to happen by itself; the artifice needs to be exposed for what it is. McCarthy era people were disappointingly taken in with hyperbole, metaphor, distortion and a convoluted logic that did not stand up to a critique. And, today, the ugly specter of transforming the argument and substituting the flag for "Commie" is just as repugnant as it was then. The Republicans have obviously learned how to use the public's prejudices and know how to wrap up an argument around the flag. And they are using it to great advantage to give Bush the green light to do things that would have been thought unthinkable only a couple of years ago. Their position is that if you do not support attacks on privacy, you are obviously anti-American. That if you do not support dismantling of programs for the sick and elderly, you are obviously a terrorist supporter. That if you do not go along with destroying the wilderness, you are pro-Saddam Hussein. If you do not agree with current energy policy, you are aiding and abetting the enemy. This is not a distortion of their position; it is what they are implying, if not saying directly. If people cannot differentiate between disagreement with a position on a subject worthy of discussion and the question of whether the questioner is loyal to this country, then we are all in big trouble as a people and as a country. We cannot let such impossible and pathetic arguments blur the fact that Americans are being used in order to facilitate the passage of legislation that is, in the main, fundamentally ill advised and against the best interests of the American people. It is these facts that must be brought to the fore if we are to succeed in returning the operation of government and the protection of our liberties to the people. If our representatives and the so-called Fourth Estate do not pick up the baton, we will pay a price for our fecklessness long into the future. |
