Monday, January 02, 2006

Why do they do what they do?

Why do they do the things they do?

Progressives in this country are not all saints.  Arguably, none of us is.  We have our episodes of pettiness, we blame occasionally, we feel morally superior, and in the Democratic party, we have some outright thugs and thieves.  Tactics are used which do not uphold our principles, access is used for personal gain that undercuts our values…things happen when they get that big and there is money involved.

But in comparison with the neo-conservatives, and the Repbulican Party, we look like saints.  With some notable exceptions, they apparently play an entirely means to ends game that has the most elastic moral and ethical bounds that we have seen in American politics.  We are seeing a pragmatism that it seems to qualify for something I once thought of as an oxymoron— “willful disregard” for the ideals of a democracy.

Now I know this is a quite serious charge against a group that chants and rants the mantra of freedom and liberty (and now security) in front of a bank of flags at every turn.  But it strikes me that fundamentalist support of a democracy would not normally materialize in a complex scheme of intelligence manipulation and misrepresentation to invade another country, it would not entail the sale of legislative privilege to private companies, it would not be likely involve the infiltration and spying on domestic human rights groups, the paying of domestic journalists to write “positive news” about the administration to publish in the U.S. press…the list is long.

There is an overarching question in considering these patterns…why don’t they use conventional mechanisms of political argumentation to pursue their agenda?  The basics of democracy underlie the belief that the people, presented with the facts will, over time and through the lens of their own interests and concerns, reach a conclusion that is representative.

Ah…there is the term that I think is troublesome for neo-conservatives…representative.  They know they are not.  They realize that their agenda and set of beliefs, and, in fact, the outcomes of the policies they support…if understood by the majority…will not be supported by the majority.  

So when your positions on the issues is only supported by a small number of people and you need a large number to impose those positions on the country...what to do.  Well, apparently, just about anything,

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