This week thousands of people in dozens of cities pulled together with disparate perspectives to protest on tax day, April 15. The protesters commandeered the metaphor of the 1773 Boston Tea Party, when nascent Americans protested the taxes on tea. What made the taxes then unacceptable was the fact that they were imposed by a far away power and Americans had no representation.
The present protests were more than about taxes they were also about increases in spending and a general angst that the events were spirally out of control. Clearly any imposed taxes are enacted by a legitimately elected authority. However this only mildly attentuates the notion that bailouts of financial companies and enormous increases in public spending represent powerful forces in government and the private sector taking advantage from the average person. In short, these parties represent a spasm of populism.
There are typically two kinds of populism, populism of the Left and populism of the Right. Populism on the Left believes that the average person is at the mercy of corporate interests. Populism on the Right, asserts that the average person suffers under the predations of intrusive government. The recent Tea Party Protests are perhaps a confused amalgamation of both varieties of populism. Republicans are trying to jump in front of this parade, but they are certainly not leading it. Democrats, who have recently embraced an anti-corporate populism, feel threatened by the movement because they represent the incumbent political party. The movement was instigated by economic uncertainty and it will likely wither or grow inverse relation to the short term perceived success of the economy.
The coverage of the Tea Party Protests, particularly by the cable news channels exposed more about those news networks than they did about protests. The reporters at Fox News were clearly sympathetic to the protesters. The individual protesters were generally portrayed favorably. The protesters returned the positive coverage by cheering Fox News personalities. This resembles the coverage of pro-choice rallies by the mainstream press. In this different case, CNN and MSNBC were not nearly so sympathetic to Tea Party demonstrators. Reporters actively argued rather than interviewed protesters. Tea Party Protesters accused reporters of selecting the most extreme protesters to paint the demonstrations in the worst possible light.
While one might forgive a reporter who temporarily looses her professional composure, how can one explain the comments by David Schuster of MSNBC. The protesters never called their protests ``tea bagging,” but rather “tea parties.” Nonetheless, some on the Left, obviously familiar with the sexual implications of “tea bagging,” sought to simultaneously show their hipness in understanding the innuendo and ridicule the protesters. While such vulgarity might be expected from the more extreme blogs, David Schuster of MSNBC News in one single episode further lowered MSNBC standards (such as they are) when he he did a whole piece exploiting the sexual innuendo. The commentary sounded more like that of a smug 16-year old than the thoughts of a seasoned reporter. Now David Schuster may be personally delightful person to have dinner with and for all I know contribute large amounts of time and money to worthy causes, pets his dog when he arrives home, but may I suggest that this episode reveals more about David Schuster than it does about the Tea Party protesters.
Obama: Call Him Ishmael
Sunday, April 26th, 2009Perhaps the most united this country has been in recent memory is in the forceful response to international threats after the loss of more than 3000 Americans in the 9/11 attacks. The immediate response of the country was to secure itself and to pursue those responsible for the monstrous attacks. Had political expediency been a the primary motivation of the leadership, it would have been possible for Democrats and Republicans to engage in finger pointing. Both sides instinctively understood that the country would not stand for bickering in a moment of extremus. President George W. Bush is as competitive a politician as you might want to find, but he is a decent person and decency made it impossible to try to put Clinton on the hook for 9/11.
President Barack Obama also seems like a genuinely decent person who wants to move on from divisive issues like aggressive interrogation of high-level Al Qaeda leadership. However, this innate decency gets muted by vicious Left-wing politics. The conflict between personal decency and acquiescence to the mean-spirited Left injured Obama in the presidential campaign when his pastor, Jeremiah Wright, was recorded in making vicious anti-American statements. Obama is falling into the same trap when he allows the “MoveOn” and “Daily KOs” crowd push Obama against the better angels of his nature to revive the controversy about aggressive interrogation.
The angry Left will not be happy unless there are some figurative heads on spikes from the Bush Administration. That is why the Obama Administration released the Department of Justice from the previous administration memos delineated what they consider the limits of aggressive interrogation. There is a line between showing a detainee a caterpillar he is afraid of and pulling out finger nails, and the lawyers were trying to define it. There is something dangerous and deeply antithetical to the legal process to pursue lawyers rendering legal opinions to the clients.
In the immediate aftermath of a devastating terrorist attack in the United States, Khalid Sheik Mohammad (KSM) , a top al Qaeda operative, was captured. The country was concerned about a next wave of attacks against the US. When questioned about this KSM, responded wit “Soon, you will know.” Faced with this situation, the CIA asked the Justice Department for guidance on how aggressive the interrogations could become before crossing a line into torture. The Justice Department lawyers provided reasoned guidance and decided that waterboarding conducted under a limited set of rules is not torture. Both Democratic and Republican leadership in Congress were informed with apparently no dissent. This scenario hardly seems like the collapse of law. Rather is seems like a legally methodical approach for dealing with a dangerous situation. Imagine if under these circumstances, with a detainee indicating an upcoming attack, with legal opinion permitting the use of aggressive interogation techniques, and proper notification of Congress, the Bush Administration had opted against waterboarding. Further imagine that we were subsequently attacked. It is not clear that Bush would have been praised for his restraint.
Americans are a fair-minded lot at a majority of them oppose investigation of torture allegations. The Captain Ahab-like pursuit of former Bush Administration officials is likely to be very divisive and likely to unnecessarily squander Obama’s considerable political capital. Moreover to be closely associated with weakness on dealing with terrorists is politically dangerous. Terrorists could get lucky and successfully execute an attack. An Administration not seen to use all the resources at its disposal will be severely damaged.
For his own and the country’s benefit, Obama needs to exert leadership and quash the single-minded pursuits of the angry Left. They can not be placated by symbolic gestures. They are willing to damage the Obama presidency and divide the country for the prospect of getting a harpoon in the big white whales from the Bush Administration even if the Liberal ship-of-state is sunk.
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