'Extremism in the Defense of Liberty is No Vice'

During the time when I was a staunch supporter of Barry Goldwater, his remarks at the Republican National Convention in 1964 made sense to me. I actually still find them somewhat appealing, but it is all in the interpretation. If it means that liberty is so precious that one should be passionate in its defense and strive to protect it in every way appropriate, it makes sense. I'm pretty sure however, that what we are seeing from the far right as well as the far left is not what the good senator had in mind.

There is also the issue of how the current political climate compares to periods in our past. When this question comes up we often hear from historians about attacks on George Washington or Abraham Lincoln and are told that the level of hostility may be considerably less than in earlier days. While this conversation may be historically interesting, it is of little value in the present context. I think it more important that we look at what is happening today and address the issues that we are facing right now.

First. Why are people so angry? We know that political polarization is not new, but it is festering at the moment, and often in an alarming manner. The recession and unemployment are legitimately driving discontent with conditions in the country. Fear of too much spending is also a big part of the equation, although it didn't seem to be as big a concern during the previous administration. Actually, by any reasonable analysis, the recession would be far worse if we had not spent large sums of money to ameliorate it. It has always been a principle of business that you have to spend money to make money. I'm not an economist, but the notion of tightening one's belt in the face of financial collapse seems to have been a major failure of the great depression. The point, however, is that this is a legitimate issue, but is it worthy of the intense anger and potential violence it has at times created?

Democracy thrives on lively debate, and differences of opinion. What we are seeing, however, goes far beyond healthy discourse. Threats against members of congress, and even acts of violence are not part of the democracy we pride ourselves on in this country. Talk of secession, taking up arms, and building militias to attack the federal government can only be characterized as extreme. Many of these people consider themselves patriots, yet what is patriotic about trashing your government? What ever happened to working within the system for meaningful change?

No doubt the group I am talking about represents a small fraction of Americans. It is also true that there has always been a fringe group of folks who represent and advocate extreme positions. What I find troubling now, is that these extreme positions are finding their way into the main stream of political discourse and action. This is not by accident, either.

It is a truism that bad things happen when good men (women) do nothing. What we are seeing today includes silence against these festering dangers, and even intentional or unintentional encouragement of some of the worst traits within us. There is a media bias, and well known commentators are encouraging and supporting some of the more extreme positions that are out there. Even worse is responsible officials and politicians are not making clear their opposition to such violence and extreme views. How many politicians challenged their constituents during town meetings and other venues telling them that some of their positions were not accurate? I can only think of two examples. One was in the campaign when John McCain told one of his supporters that Barack Obama was indeed an American, and recently when Senator Tom Coburn told a supporter that her information about health care reform was incorrect and even that Fox news was not always a reliable presenter of facts. So much more of this kind of statesmanship is needed. There are levels of discourse that should be challenged, and we need more responsible officials to make that clear.

The misinformation that is out there obfuscates legitimate concerns. There is also a legitimate concern that racist remarks, spitting, threats and acts of violence could escalate even more, since they are not being stongly repudiated. There is real danger, that a terrible tragedy might ensue, sooner rather that later. The Oklahoma bombing grew out of such misplaced anger. We don't want to see that happen again.

What can be done? As I mentioned, we have seen hints of what can happen, but these efforts need to be coordinated. The messages of people like Tom Coburn and John McCain need to be coordinated and sustained. Finally, this is not a Democratic or Republican issue. It is an American issue. How powerful it would be if Democratic and Republican leaders came before the media together and stated unequivocally, that such behavior cannot be tolerated. That there is no acceptance on either side, of the extreme positions that use falsehoods and calls to unacceptable behavior to pursue their causes. There are enough legitimate different positions on policy matters to argue about without resorting to falsehoods, threats and violence. Can we make common cause on this matter? Although,it seems unlikely given the current political climate, I believe we can. We are all Americans. We believe, not just in Virginia or Texas, but in the United States of America. We believe in our way of government. Let's send the 'crazies' back to the fringes where they belong.