Father Orthoduck found the quote below from yesterday’s Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear to be a particularly good one:
“There are terrorists and racists and Stalinists and theocrats, but those are titles that must be earned,” Stewart said. “You must have the resume. Not being able to distinguish between real racists and tea partiers, or real bigots and Juan Williams or Rick Sanchez is an insult, not only to those people, but to the racists themselves, who have put in the exhausting effort it takes to hate — just as the inability to distinguish terrorists from Muslims makes us less safe, not more.”
Most Americans, he said, don’t live their lives solely as Republicans or Democrats, but as “people who are just a little bit late for something they have to do, often something they do not want to do. But they do it.”
Some may paint the nation as fragile and torn by hate, he said, “but the truth is … we work together to get things done every damn day.”
“There will always be darkness, and sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel isn’t the promised land,” Stewart said. “Sometimes it’s just New Jersey. But we do it anyway, together.”
For the last few years, the people at both extremes have been dominating the news. Frankly, this is because extremists “sell,” they make good TV or print and get you to watch. Their quotes are extremely Twitter-able and they are great for blogs who want a pithy saying in order to make a comment. But, as this campaign has shown, we are quickly reaching a high-water dirt mark in a race by politicians to say more and more outrageous things about their opponents.
But, there is a real and present danger for the USA. If the news media continues to feature only extremists and no person willing to compromise or speak moderately, for the sake of sales, they could easily begin to tip us to what they would not want, which would be a divided country in which no one is willing to reach a compromise and to live with others because they see no examples of people who do such things. Should the politicians continue to use the most insane charges (most of which are provably untrue) against their opponents, sooner or later they will succeed only in driving the moderates out and in filling their party with extreme figures, who have defeated the “regular” politicians because they promise more and more adherence to a strict and limited political line.
And, on our part, should name-calling and party slogans take the place of discussion, analysis, and even vigorous debate, we shall also be guilty of helping to drive this democracy to one extreme or another. We cannot keep saying that one believes that simply because one is a [fill in the name-calling here]. That is not an argument; that is simply the verbal version of holding one’s hand up in someone else’s face and telling them to look at the hand. We cannot keep labeling every program by the “other” party by some political name simply because it will allow us to not analyze what is being proposed. That will only ensure a continuing gridlock in Congress and in our nation. Nor can we continue to have groups that try to punish every politician of their party who does not vote a very strict party line, but tries to reach some workable compromises so that things get done in this country. Again, that will lead only to extremists being elected and our country being divided and in gridlock.
Having said that, there are times when we do need to really and appropriately use certain labels, but as was pointed out in the quote above, they need to be used appropriately. There really are marxists; and there really are racists. There really are Muslim terrorists; and there really are Christian terrorists. But, there are also quite humdrum Muslims and quite humdrum Christians who really are regular folk who go to work on the weekdays and to temple on the weekends without any desire to impose themselves on anyone. Xenophobia does really exist and is being shouted from the rooftops; and an immigrant who has crossed the border without papers is really here illegally. Racism really does exists and is still a problem in many areas of our culture; the race card really does exist and is used by some as a way to silence discussion (or to get a vote from the other side). There really are people who misuse welfare; but most people on welfare are in dire situations and are not misusing it.
Father Orthoduck could go on, but he thinks that you get the idea. As the rally said, what is needed is a return to sanity and sound vigorous debate.
Father, you and Jon Stewart make some good points, but there is no equivalence between the left and right in today’s political situation. What I mean is this: the far right, what used to be called “the lunatic fringe” by folks such as William Buckley, has become mainstream. It has largely taken over the Republican Party. The lunatic far left? I and a few others of know of them because we are, well, political geeks and/or because of our own activist histories. But they are not in the mainstream, never have, and probably never will be.
In my memory, the Dems went as far left as they ever have in 1972. The got their butts kicked, and yes, there are, and always have been, a few Democratic Socialists and Social Democrats involved with the Dems. But, not in 1972, and never before or since, have the likes of the Revolutionary Communist Party or Trotskyite sectarians dominated the Democratic Party. However, at this moment, we are dealing with the equivalent of THAT on the right, in the Republican Party. And that is scary.
You seem to be living in a bubble, Father, since this administration is one in which the President can openly and unapologetically call those who disagree with him, fellow Americans, “enemies.” If that is what passes for moderate leftism, thank God that I am not on that side of the spectrum.
As for the Tea Party, they are extreme insofar as they are politically innocent or ignorant. There’s no denying that swathes of Tea Partiers have been coopted by Palindrones and other neocons. But “far” right? The Tea Party is too internally confused to be branded of whatever pole of whichever left-right spectrum you choose to apply.
Let’s see, you are shocked and upset because Obama used the term enemies, but you excuse the Tea Party as politically innocent when they call Obama a communist, a fascist, a socialist, and a man who is trying to destroy the Constitution of the United States. May I suggest that this analysis fails the test of “fair and balanced?”
Father Orthoduck’s whole point was that we need to stop this type of analysis and realize that most of America manages to work and live together without the type of name-calling that has become so common among political junkies.
As you have pointed out Father, most of us are folks that have to get up everyday and go to work with other people to get things done. In my own sphere, we need to define new products, get them developed, priced, sold, fixed, etc. This takes a lot of folks working together.
And many of these folks do this everyday even though they have differing views on tax rates, how medical insurance needs to be handled, what should our country’s involvement be overseas, gays in the military and more. And yet we are fairly civil with each other and even laugh, joke and eat lunch with each other. See, we have real work to do so that our customers will like our products so that they will pay the company so that the company will pay us.
Now in the news we have very loud, vocal “non-politcian” outsiders talking about throwing the bums out and taking Washington back for all us ordinary hard working people.
The problem is that us hardworking ordinary people don’t work this way or sound that way. I am afraid that those who have committed to run to protect US from THEM have already become THEM.
Michael
They are all scary to me at the moment. I think my pig is smarter than most of them and could come up with better legislative ideas than EITHER party!!