September 7, 2003 a president stood at a podium, facing a room full of "distinguished gentlemen" and spoke the greatest lie ever spoken. Nobody shouted "you lie!", nobody showed disrespect by waving pamphlets and placards of protest, nobody asked how would we pay for it. The result, nations were dragged into war, countless innocent paid with their lives and a people were morally and financially bankrupt in the eyes of the world.
Six years later another president stands at that same podium and makes a speech, hoping to bring that same group of "distinguished gentlemen" to fix something that is broken to the core. He attempts to bring to the people of a so called "wealthy nation" health care that works for all and not a few. Quality care that everyone is entitled to as a human right. He attempts to unite the congress to work for a common good. He is heckled, shouted at, called a liar, socialist, Marxist, fascist, communist, terrorist and is compared by the right wing to the most hated man in history, Hitler. Never in the history of the United States has a president been heckled during a speech to the congress. This is a new dark stain and a sign of the times that will be recorded for posterity.
We have seen images on TV of absolute chaos and pandemonium on the assembly floor of South Korea, India, Iraq and other nations where congressmen come close to fist fights, smash furniture and show disrespect to their office. Now the United States has joined those ranks. In a vote 240 to 179, the House of Representatives officially rebuked Republican Joe Wilson for disgracing the office of the president by calling him out in the middle of his speech to the nation. The unfortunate aspect of that vote is that 179 members of congress did not find Joe Wilson's action objectionable. He got away with a slap on his wrist when he should have been firmly censured. The dignity of the congress which as it is, is at an all time low, has now fallen even further.
In a recent interview president Jimmy Carter acknowledged that the reason we are seeing such outbursts and rising opposition to President Obama and his policies is because he is not white. The color of his skin is causing deep seeded racism to surface in ways never seen before. His eloquence, intellect, dignity and poise is falling by the wayside for many, just because he is half black. Imagine what would have happened if he was full black.
The fact of the matter is that in politics, which is mostly "poli-tricks", the people are habitually lied to by their leaders. Be it Obama, Bush or Kennedy. In retrospect one has to gauge the impact of those lies and the larger context they were framed under. There is a lot to disagree, debate and discuss about what a president proposes. But to instinctively respond due to deep seeded prejudice is deplorable.
The right wing everywhere operates on the fringe. This time around the Republican party has been hijacked by the fringe as they see no other way to mount an opposition against a popular president. This in no means is a recent trend. Truman faced it from Senator Joseph McCarthy, Kennedy faced it from the religious right and Clinton faced it as they tried to pin the murder of Vince Foster on him, when in fact he had committed suicide. To understand how the right wing operates in America today, it is worth reading Max Blumenthal's carefully researched book Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party. He makes a crystal clear analysis of how the Republican party has transformed from being the "big tent party" to an entity that embodies only virtues of extremism, much like any fundamentalist group out there. He also talks about how radio disc jockeys and media ideologues like Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity are deliberately painting the current president in a certain light, in order to serve the agenda of the extreme right.
As the battle lines are drawn in the murky world of politics and media, one thing is for sure, lies are transparent and can be concealed and camouflaged only for so long. Public display of one's prejudice is tolerated only by a few. And you cannot shape public debate on policy via deceit and deception. You have to come clean. It is what it is.
Six years later another president stands at that same podium and makes a speech, hoping to bring that same group of "distinguished gentlemen" to fix something that is broken to the core. He attempts to bring to the people of a so called "wealthy nation" health care that works for all and not a few. Quality care that everyone is entitled to as a human right. He attempts to unite the congress to work for a common good. He is heckled, shouted at, called a liar, socialist, Marxist, fascist, communist, terrorist and is compared by the right wing to the most hated man in history, Hitler. Never in the history of the United States has a president been heckled during a speech to the congress. This is a new dark stain and a sign of the times that will be recorded for posterity.
We have seen images on TV of absolute chaos and pandemonium on the assembly floor of South Korea, India, Iraq and other nations where congressmen come close to fist fights, smash furniture and show disrespect to their office. Now the United States has joined those ranks. In a vote 240 to 179, the House of Representatives officially rebuked Republican Joe Wilson for disgracing the office of the president by calling him out in the middle of his speech to the nation. The unfortunate aspect of that vote is that 179 members of congress did not find Joe Wilson's action objectionable. He got away with a slap on his wrist when he should have been firmly censured. The dignity of the congress which as it is, is at an all time low, has now fallen even further.
In a recent interview president Jimmy Carter acknowledged that the reason we are seeing such outbursts and rising opposition to President Obama and his policies is because he is not white. The color of his skin is causing deep seeded racism to surface in ways never seen before. His eloquence, intellect, dignity and poise is falling by the wayside for many, just because he is half black. Imagine what would have happened if he was full black.
The fact of the matter is that in politics, which is mostly "poli-tricks", the people are habitually lied to by their leaders. Be it Obama, Bush or Kennedy. In retrospect one has to gauge the impact of those lies and the larger context they were framed under. There is a lot to disagree, debate and discuss about what a president proposes. But to instinctively respond due to deep seeded prejudice is deplorable.
The right wing everywhere operates on the fringe. This time around the Republican party has been hijacked by the fringe as they see no other way to mount an opposition against a popular president. This in no means is a recent trend. Truman faced it from Senator Joseph McCarthy, Kennedy faced it from the religious right and Clinton faced it as they tried to pin the murder of Vince Foster on him, when in fact he had committed suicide. To understand how the right wing operates in America today, it is worth reading Max Blumenthal's carefully researched book Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party. He makes a crystal clear analysis of how the Republican party has transformed from being the "big tent party" to an entity that embodies only virtues of extremism, much like any fundamentalist group out there. He also talks about how radio disc jockeys and media ideologues like Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity are deliberately painting the current president in a certain light, in order to serve the agenda of the extreme right.
As the battle lines are drawn in the murky world of politics and media, one thing is for sure, lies are transparent and can be concealed and camouflaged only for so long. Public display of one's prejudice is tolerated only by a few. And you cannot shape public debate on policy via deceit and deception. You have to come clean. It is what it is.
No comments :
Post a Comment