Sunday, March 06, 2011
Everything You Got
One can feel empathy for the Tea Party rage against government corruption without condoning their vengeful attitude toward scapegoats. In fact, one can treat the entire anti-democratic movement — from the Constitution Party to the DLC — with the contempt they deserve, without demonizing fanatics like Palin or opportunists like Obama.
But whether they are acting out of greed or vengeance for imagined and real grievances, one is foolish to treat the anti-democratic movement — fundamentalists and sycophants alike — as anything short of enemies. After all, they are out to destroy everything remotely generous, fair, or sane.
Protests and diplomacy have their place in the world, but when your society is under attack, you fight back with everything you got. In politics, that means gathering intelligence on your enemies, analyzing their vulnerabilities, and organizing interventions to defeat them. Anything less is doomed to fail.
But whether they are acting out of greed or vengeance for imagined and real grievances, one is foolish to treat the anti-democratic movement — fundamentalists and sycophants alike — as anything short of enemies. After all, they are out to destroy everything remotely generous, fair, or sane.
Protests and diplomacy have their place in the world, but when your society is under attack, you fight back with everything you got. In politics, that means gathering intelligence on your enemies, analyzing their vulnerabilities, and organizing interventions to defeat them. Anything less is doomed to fail.
