THE WANDERER, NOVEMBER 9, 2006
JOSEPH SOBRAN'S
WASHINGTON WATCH
The Crazy Season
This has been the craziest election season ever. And
we have seen some mighty crazy ones lately. Even as it
comes to an end, it appears radically unpredictable. As
of Halloween, each party was appealing to its base with
the basest of appeals. And we haven't even gotten to the
hanging chad stage yet.
At first the outlook was simple. The Republicans
were going to be crushed and the Democrats might
recapture both houses of Congress, largely because of the
botched Iraq war. Then it looked as if the outcome would
be even more lopsided. This made liberals very happy, but
no happier than some principled conservatives. I assumed
Karl Rove was feigning optimism when he predicted that
the GOP would hold its own. He couldn't seriously believe
that, could he?
Well, maybe Rove knew something after all. The polls
showing President Bush and the Republican Congress
licking the bottom of the pot of popularity might matter
less, it now seemed, than the party's sophisticated
machine for generating turnout. Years of gerrymandering
had also made incumbents in both houses hard to unseat.
But that was not all. Thomas Edsall, a respected
liberal reporter, decidedly does not share the rosy
outlook of his fellow liberals, at least not for the long
term. On the contrary, in his new book, BUILDING RED
AMERICA (Basic Books), he contends that the Democrats
seem to have a lock on lasting minority status. Their
populist appeals to pocketbook issues have flopped again
and again. They can't seem to "cross a security
threshold" and win the voters' trust on national
security, he explains, while the Republicans have learned
to work the "wedge issues."
This seems to me a pregnant insight. It may apply
even more to things like homosexual rights. The Democrats
are now trying to distance themselves from proven losers
like "same-sex marriage" while supporting "gay rights,"
but I doubt that this can fly. No matter how many fine
distinctions they make, a lot of us are quietly
wondering, "Why are we even talking about this in the
first place?"
You know how it works. If tomorrow the U.S. Supreme
Court were to strike down all laws against cannibalism as
violations of (what else?) the 14th Amendment, it would
not be long before the Democrats, especially Catholic
Democrats, were declaring themselves personally opposed
to cannibalism, while reminding us that "culinary choice"
has always been a basic American principle and therefore
declining to impose their views on others in a
pluralistic society, et cetera, et cetera. Meanwhile, a
lot of voters would be uneasily aware that in a happier
age, there was no controversy at all in this area.
In modern politics, we always seem to be arguing
about things we should never even have to think about.
Things that used to be matters of common sense (alias
natural law) become censured as bigoted and
unconstitutional, and a Karl Rove sees them as
opportunities for "wedge issues." Who can blame him? The
Democrats can thank themselves for the success of men
like Rove and Lee Atwater. Much as I dislike the
Republicans, I know who has made them possible.
No wonder this has been a crazy season. Republican
campaign ads have been disgusting to the point of
absurdity, hinting at connections between their rivals
and pedophilia, and so forth. Virginia's Sen. George
Allen, speaking of base appeals, broke new ground, of
sorts, by calling attention to dirty passages in his
opponent Jim Webb's novels. (Webb responded by pointing
out lesbian passages in a novel by the wife of Vice
President Cheney.)
Coming down to the wire, the air was thick with
demands for apologies, but all in vain. Nobody seemed to
be in an apologetic mood. John Kerry made a joke about
how dumb President Bush is. Bush mistook it for an insult
to our brave fighting men (and women) and angrily
demanded an apology. Kerry angrily refused to apologize.
Republicans shared Bush's indignation; Democrats shared
Kerry's. There was a lot of shouting.
As election day approaches, I find myself knowing a
lot more than I ever wanted to know about both parties. A
kinky lot all around, if you ask me. It all goes to
illustrate one of my own adages: A "normal" person is
just someone you don't really know yet. But in some
obscure way, I can't help feeling the Democrats have
brought all this on themselves.
Islam and the Bomb
Writing in THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE, Noah Feldman
has a fascinating essay on the prospect of Iran's
acquisition of nuclear weapons, ending on a slightly
hopeful but not altogether reassuring note. Feldman
reviews the long history of Muslim thought on the ethics
of warfare, which has been far more complex and nuanced
than I knew or suspected. Islam has traditionally set
stern theoretical limits on what is permissible in war,
even if these have often been transgressed in practice
(as have Christian principles of just war).
Over against the popular Western image of Muslims as
congenital fanatics given to indiscriminate terrorism and
beheading, Feldman cites a rich tradition of moral
philosophy that is subtle, reflective, and deeply
conscientious. Until very recently, such tactics as
suicide bombing were universally abhorred. The use of
nuclear weapons, even against infidels, would have been
simply unthinkable. In many respects, the Muslims were so
civilized as to put the modern West to shame.
In fact it seems to have been under Western pressure
that things really changed for the worse; suicide bombing
was a novelty in Beirut in 1983, but it quickly caught on
in spite of many condemnations (the 9/11 attacks were
also condemned by many Muslim authorities) and has now
begun to affect theory too. It is no longer universally
rejected, and serious Muslim thinkers are now
contemplating whether an apocalyptic nuclear war might be
morally justified -- even if it kills millions of
Muslims.
What a terrible irony. And the situation isn't
helped when Americans and Israelis talk about nuking
Mecca.
Survivors
With the United States losing two wars at once and
heading for total ruin, I can't help feeling that the
Soviet Union threw in its hand a little too soon -- just
when Communism might have finally become the wave of the
future after all. Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, and Kim
Jong Il seem to be reaping the rewards of keeping the
faith.
+ + +
"Today the government is the wolf at the door."
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