Take Back the Truth!

Imagining the other is a powerful antidote to fanaticism and hatred. It is also a major moral imperative. - Amos Oz

Recent events are demonstrating very clearly just how tenuous a grip the movement for a more civilized United States has on the popular imagination, and just how fierce a grip the forces of reaction and division have on the popular media. The gloating from the right over the California Supreme Court's upholding of Proposition 8, and the attacks on Sonia Sotomayor both illustrate all too starkly that there can be no hope of bipartisan cooperation with these groups.

Proposition 8 is of course no more than a doomed rearguard action, and while it is both necessary and constructive to protest this injustice, it does already belong to the past and it would be a disastrous mistake to allow outrage over this to overshadow the question of Justice Sotomayor's nomination, which presents far greater ramifications for the future.

And both of these issues are no more than skirmishes in what is perceived by the hypochristian right as a war, a war pursued with a single-minded fanaticism that regards anything short of absolute victory as abject defeat. This kind of political fanaticism, disguised as religious fervor, is not only a blight on this nation's soul, but the single greatest obstacle to arriving at solutions to the looming disasters that threaten all humanity and the planet itself. If the United States is ever to regain its stature as a beacon of hope to the world, to say nothing of successfully defeating any of the other fanatics who threaten our survival, then the indispensible first step is to rid the nation once and for all of this canker.

Easy to say! Indeed, and I will not presume to suggest that I have any kind of definitive answer. But I believe, and hope, that I may have some observations that do shine some light. So how can we oppose these hysterical screams of fear and loathing that threaten to drown all efforts at reasoned debate? First, I think, we must look at the methods and tactics ranged against us. And then we must try to see who these people are, these fellow-citizens who have all too successfully labeled us as the enemy, branded us as traitors.

It is by now a commonplace that the rise of the right had its roots in Goldwater's electoral defeat in 1964, born of the bumper-sticker sentiment that "27 Million Americans Can't Be Wrong." This slogan succinctly captures a mind-set that is resilient as any garden weed, reinforced in ascendancy, even more so in defeat. It is based in an utter conviction of the rightness of the cause, culminating in the notion that a "permanent Republican majority" represents the only true salvation of the nation and its people. In the mind of any person possessed of absolute certainty truth, justice, honor, all virtues become subsidiary to that person's goal. Any word or deed employed in pursuit of that goal is by definition true, just, honorable, virtuous. Any person or idea that thwarts the achievement of the goal is by definition damned. And so began the long process of corruption. The conviction has never faltered, and the very meaning of what once all could agree upon as good has been perverted. Any references to Orwell, any suggestion that valued lessons may have been learned from the German propaganda apparatus of the 1930s are of course met with howls of protest. But those very howls of protest are in themselves Orwellian, have clear precedents in German history.

It has been a long, slow, gradual and meticulous process. And it has been stunningly successful. The right has laid claim to all those values, and their corresponding symbols, that traditionally the world has seen as America's glory. They have laid claim to those values and then subverted each and every one. Liberty? The unfettered right of corporations to despoil the land and ravage the poulation. Justice? The power of a vocal minority to impose its will upon an entire nation. Self-reliance? The guilt of the victim. Honesty? Adherence to the party line. But you know, and can no doubt compile your own list. They have also succeeded in vilifying and marginalizing all those who do not march in lock-step with their program. To be a liberal today has become as shameful as once it was to be a commie pinko. To so much as question, let alone oppose, their agenda has somehow become high treason. There is the myth, by now so deeply entrenched that it is more real than reality, of the "liberal media" and their biases. There are howls of dismay at the least questioning of legislation that they sponsor while in the majority, all while uttering earnest pleas for bipartisanship. Harrassment, obstruction and outright sabotage of any legislative effort that does not hew to their program when they are in the minority. Any mention of the possibility of an official investigation of the crimes of the previous administration - real documented crimes - is decried as divisive, partisan, putting politics before the nation's well-being, yet at Nancy Pelosi's least mis-step in dealing with secret CIA memos the strident call goes up for an immediate investigation. Judges who promote the agenda are praised as impartial, any justice rendering an impartial verdict based on precedent is an activist. The political landscape has become a topsy-turvy, nightmare hall of mirrors.

And who the hell are these people? As is always the case with a demagogic, pseudo-populist political movement, membership comprises two distinct, indeed mutually antagonistic, classes: a cynical, manipulative leadership, bent on realizing its own ends at any cost, and rank and file frightened, confused, seeking guidance and even inspiration. Again it is hard not to draw historical parallels.

Realistically, there is little to be done with the leadership. Hardened ideologues, arrogantly certain of the historical destiny they sincerely believe they embody, they should be disposed of within the criminal justice system. For whatever allure that scenario may possess, it remains beyond the bounds of realistic possibility, at least for now.

When it comes to the rank and file, the outlook is rather different, and we would do well to heed Amos Oz' wise words. The supreme paradox of today's Republican party is that its greatest victims are its most active and vocal supporters. These are ordinary Americans, fiercely dedicated to their country and the values it stands for, devout in their religion, kind, caring, compassionate and considerate, proud, honest and steadfast. If we do not acknowledge these qualities of character, we can never hope to counter attitudes and behavior that seem so contradictory. Is it really so astounding that these good people should seem to so vehemently espouse and preach such virulent ideas? Surely history consists almost entirely of good people misled by cynical and power hungry leaders. There is no hope of a change of heart, either at the individual or the national level if the individual members of the opposing camps each regard their opponents not as individuals but as a monolithic body of ideas. Ideas are abstractions that can only live in individual human beings. Hatred of individuals because of their ideas can change nothing.

The struggle is not with these ordinary Americans but with those cynical preachers of greed, fear and hatred. The argument is not over abortion, gay marriage, Supreme Court appointments but over who may claim those fundamental American, and yes, Christian values. For too long those values have been left to the clutches of those who have chosen to twist and pervert them into their opposites. Why should being a proud American mean something so different now than it has in the past? Why does it seem somehow out of place for a gay couple to proclaim themselves proud Americans, for new immigrants to proclaim themselves proud Americans, for the poor, the homeless to declare themselves proud Americans? Why is my first reaction be to cringe, on seeing a bumper sticker declaring "Proud to be an American". Why do I never see one of those bumper stickers next to one for Obama, or calling for bringing home the troops? Somehow the association of ideas that are antithetical to the American spirit with the notion of the proud American has made it shameful for those who do still believe in an American ideal, an American dream that has more substance than the desire for expensive toys and mindless distraction, to claim that they too are proud Americans. This is the true crux of the struggle, to reclaim the very idea of America from those who seek, and have to far too great a degree managed, to subordinate that idea to a grotesque ideology.

In the political arena it long past time for the Democrats to stop cowering before the accusations of the Republicans that they are too partisan, that they do not have the country's best interests at heart. Particularly as the precise opposite is more realistically the case. For thirty five years the Democrats have stood by as Republicans have committed crime after crime. And for thirty five years they have been rewarded with ever more bitter antagonism, any misstep treated as a crime. Seriously now, it is long, long past time to say enough is enough. The criminals in the last administration must be brought to justice, their crimes exposed and punished to the full extent of the law. A rallying cry of the advocates of law and order has long been that justice must be done, and examples made. So now, finally, let us see justice done, and examples made of those who have sought to degrade all that is good and pure about this great country. And let it be clear that this is done not from a motive of petty political vengeance but to restore the nation's pride in itself, and to regain the respect of the world.

Take Back the Flag!

Sometime in the 1960s a small group of anti-war activists burned an American flag. It was a potent symbolic act, that spread quickly. Soon flags were burning at demonstrations against the US government's criminal Viet Nam adventure in public places across the land. The intent was to show the demonstrators' disgust with the policies that had transformed Old Glory from the standard of Liberty to the symbol of tyranny for oppressed people around the world. It may have been an understandable expression of anger, but as is all to often the case with acts committed in anger these flag burnings have had consequences, fateful consequences, far beyond that time and those circumstances.

For most people in the world, their national flag is little more than a rectangle of colored cloth fluttering in the wind. The American flag, to Americans, has from the very beginnings of the nation had a special deeper and passionately held meaning. The American flag stands for the great ideals upon which the nation was founded: Freedom, Justice, Equality. Opposition to the Viet Nam war was international. If a demonstrator in France burned an American flag, it simply expressed a disgust with the actions of the US government, with no clear understanding of the deep wounds caused in the breasts of Americans watching on the TV news. If a demonstrator in the US burned the flag, he effectively told the TV audience that he was spitting on those great ideals. The irony, of course, was that Americans opposed to the war were motivated by a passionate love of those ideals.

So flag burning was a tragic tactical and strategic error. Tactical in that it alienated countless citizens whose better instincts must surely have led them to join the opposition. Strategically in that the very forces bent upon perverting those great ideals have been able to claim exclusive rights to the flag as a symbol. This perversion may have been most visible in the tempest in a teapot over Obama's failure to wear a flag pin during the 2008 presidential election campaign.

Make no mistake, the forces of bigotry and hate are well organized, they are passionate, they are cunning and media-savvy. And they are well aware of the potency of the flag's symbolism. To a terrifying degree they have succeeded in making the flag the symbol, not of Freedom, Justice and Equality but of their opposites. They have succeeded in this by subverting the very meaning of those noble words, by debasing those noble ideals. And in so doing they have somehow succeeded in marginalizing truth and honesty, and have dragged the nation's entire body politic inexorably to the right, to a point where once moderate liberal positions have come to seem radical, once extreme conservative positions moderate. Wherever they gather to express their hateful gospel, there you will see the American flag prominently displayed. At rallies opposing women's right of ownership of their own bodies, there you will see the flag. At speeches denouncing the human rights of gays, there you will see the flag. On internet blogs supporting the small arms industry's insistence on their untrammeled ability to peddle lethal weaponry, there you will see the flag. And on and on. And on.

Enough!

It is time to take back the flag! It is time for those who are still proud to believe in America's noble ideals, who believe in the country's potential for true greatness to restore the flag as their symbol, our symbol.

If you believe in Freedom, if you believe in Justice, if you believe in Equality, if you stand for Human Rights, if you insist on Human Dignity, if these are the ideals you stand for, then take back the flag, it belongs to you! Wear the flag, fly the flag, carry the flag, not with irony, with pride. If they ask you why, tell them it's because you are proud to hold to the values the flag represents.

By living those ideals, by speaking up for those ideals, by demonstrating for those ideals and by showing the flag as we do so, we can take it back. And by taking back the flag, we can take back the country, transform it once again into a beacon of hope.