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Battle Lines Are Drawn: Nobody's Right If Everyone Is Wrong

(Cross posted at Daily Kos)

These are troubling times for those who believe in government of the people, for the people and by the people. Around the world, those who believe that God's word is law are in control of the crucial mechanisms that control war and peace.


But it's discouraging to hear those Democrats, liberals and progressives  who reflexively frame this struggle as "David versus Goliath," who back the "underdog." By doing so, we progressives further muddy the intellectual waters and sow the seeds of our own defeat in election after election.

By now it should be clear: Bush and Ahmadinejad are spoiling for a massive war, a climactic battle of civilizations because they both believe in the ascendancy of God on Earth. Bush calls Him Jesus and Ahmadinejad calls Him Allah but it's all the same thing -- and these guys want to fight a war that will kill tens of thousands of people to settle it once and for all.


Worse yet, the US is outgunned in the region. Haniyeh of Hamas, Nasrallah of Hezballah, bin Laden, the Muslim Brotherhood -- they have enabled Iran in this ridiculous fight. Make no mistake: they all want to turn the clock back 6 centuries to medieval times when women were stoned for looking the wrong way at a man, when thieves had their hand cut off for stealing.


And/but America's Republican leadership is no better: it scarily mirrors that horrible mindset. Sam Alito believes that a woman must get her husband's permission to exercise control over her own body. James Dobson believes that the earth is 6 thousand years old and that Adam and Eve rode dinosaurs out of the Garden of Eden. The majority of states make it illegal for two consenting adults of the same gender to make a life together. And most Christian schools teach their children that if you don't accept Jesus Christ as your Saviour you're going straight to hell no matter what.


How do you build a government of the people out of that?


In short, the Republican party clings to power by convincing its "base" that Jesus hates Democrats.


And where are the progressives? Lost in the tall grass.


For example, how many progressives will, in coming days, favorably compare the rebuilding of Lebanon by Hezballah to the dismal efforts to rebuild the Gulf Coast by Bush?


More importantly, how many votes do you think that argument will get in November?


Fact is, the only difference between Bush and Nasrallah is that Nasrallah has already defeated the Lebanese government and is backed by an ocean of oil money from the Iranian mullahs. If he could, Bush would do the same thing in a heartbeat: destroy the US government, seize the Middle Eastern oil fields and replace America's tradition of secular governance with one where God's kingdom reigns here on Earth.


Simply put: Many, many conservatives believe that the battle is between America and Islam. But, almost as mortifying, many, many progressives believe that the battle is between David and Goliath. But -- surprise! -- the end result is the same in both cases. The authorians win.


Fact is, they're both wrong: the real battle is between those who look to the future and those who look to the past; between those who believe in science and those who believe in miracles; between those who believe in government by the people and those who believe God's Word is the highest law..


It's time to choose up sides. Paraphrasing John Rogers: "Everybody who wants to live in the 21st century, over here. Everybody who wants to live in the 1300's over there. OK, thanks. Good luck with that."

Comments

Alexander Cockburn might say it's a battle between what C. Wright Mills called "crackpot realists". I'd say the definition fits for the neocons but I also think you have a point about self-deluded religious zealotry...at least regarding Bush. Of course that raises the question of who's really running foreign policy.

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060814/cockburn


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