Thursday, August 24, 2006
Losing Proposition
It appears that my warning about political partisanship destroying human rights movements has come to pass in the immigration conflict in Washington state. In an attempt to counter sham GOP congressional house hearings in the run-up to fall elections, the Democrats have begun holding Defending Democracy hearings at which they've featured two infamous minorities from academia as spokesmen against the Republican National Committee's scapegoating-for-votes strategy.
While the GOP is deservedly reviled for its bigotry, the use of two university professors--known for self-aggrandizement, subservience to economic elites, and stabbing authentic activists in the back--as the voice and face of the pro-democracy campaign, is a tactical blunder from which there is likely no recovery. In the face of a total media onslaught against immigrants, the authenticity, dignity, and integrity of the human rights movement is all it has going; allowing two well-known sellouts to represent them is a losing proposition.
While the GOP is deservedly reviled for its bigotry, the use of two university professors--known for self-aggrandizement, subservience to economic elites, and stabbing authentic activists in the back--as the voice and face of the pro-democracy campaign, is a tactical blunder from which there is likely no recovery. In the face of a total media onslaught against immigrants, the authenticity, dignity, and integrity of the human rights movement is all it has going; allowing two well-known sellouts to represent them is a losing proposition.
