3 quick points:
- I rarely watch the NewsHour on PBS, but I happened to turn on the TV the other night in time to catch David Brooks making his apalling comments. Perhaps by virtue of his NY Times op-ed page slot, Brooks seems to be able to take these sorts of right-wing views, garb them in "centrist" respectability, and slip them into mainstream discourse. What a snake.
- I was dismayed by Brooks' comments, but I was more dismayed that token "liberal" Mark Shields didn't raise a peep of objection! Shields is a typical aging Baby Boomer D.C. media "liberal". At times like this, he might as well be spineless Alan Colmes sputtering weakly on the sidelines over at Fox News. Over the decades that people like Shields have been inside the beltway, they've absorbed a general shame about actually having once had deeply felt liberal views. Now they'll rarely stand up to defend these principles, and in fact would rather throw other, more passionate liberals over the side of the boat, if they seem at all like they might be contaminated with the "dirty f***ing hippie" taint (in the eyes of the beltway crowd, that is).
And my big point:
- Has it occurred to no one that bin Laden's jumbled, half-baked mimicry of leftist rhetoric is specifically designed to discredit liberal and anti-war forces in the U.S., in order to keep the war in Iraq going as long as possible? His pre-election tape in fall 2004 almost certainly helped Bush win a second term. This latest tape looks like a similar attempt to intervene in U.S. domestic politics, as the 6th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, and as there is a perception that we are facing a crossroads in war policy. (I don't think we actually are at a crossroads, because I don't expect the Dems to do anything serious to stop the war, and I don't expect the media to direct anyone's attention to the latest round of broken promises and shifted goalposts.)
Hiding out in his cave, bin Laden may not be fully able to gauge how politically disempowered war opponents still are here in the U.S. (even tho we are the majority of the population!). But remember this: the man is a terrorist. He is an expert in creating mass fear. That is what he does, that is who he is. All of his words and actions MUST be considered in that light.
I just wish more Americans had by now developed the skills to see thru the cons and ploys of fearmongers -- whether of the Islamic extremist or American neoconservative variety.
"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." --Franklin Delano Roosevelt