Tuesday, July 26, 2005
The Transparent Democratic Heart
Read about this on Digby early today; didn't have a chance actually to read it till just now.
Digby's post concerns a piece written for the DLC site by Will Marshall, who is identified as "president of the Progressive Policy Institute." I'm not sufficiently familiar with DLC players to know whether Mr. Marshall tends, as a matter of course, to want to smack the hands of his children as much as this hurrah-for-patriotism, patronizing column indicates. But I do know how unpleasant the column comes across.
An excerpt (emphasis mine):
Specifically, I think he goes off the rails in the clause I emphasized above, in which he dangles the implication that he knows what's in our hearts, and it's not pretty.
I think most of us can agree that bomb throwing doesn't have a place in civilized society, and that a bomb thrown from the left is no better than one thrown from the right. But note the inflammatory coupling of "anti-Americanism" with "left-wing." Maybe Marshall is hanging around with the wrong crowd, or maybe I am, but I don't know any anti-American left-wingers -- let alone enough of them to threaten what, by rights, ought to be a true Democratic vision. I wouldn't put Michael Moore in the anti-American category, for example, any more than I'd put Will Marshall there.
What Marshall is doing here is what the DLC does all too readily: He holds up some extreme example of "dangerous" leftism (here, by implication) and then presents a mealy-mouthed alternative. (Later in the piece he says, "Democrats should also bring a sense of proportion to the prisoner abuse scandals at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay." Yes! Proportion! That's exactly what we need to emphasize!) If it's true that "too many Americans aren't sure if the left is emotionally on America's side," then he's right -- it's a big problem.
The solution, though, is not to invent some artificially centrist brand of patriotism and claim it as our own. The solution is to articulate the patriotism already inherent in lefty causes in a way which is clear to Americans. That brand of patriotism is a diamond, not in its intrinsic dollar value but in its properties: diamond-hard, diamond-brilliant, and diamond-exciting. Calling on us to replace that diamond with a wad of velvet is treacherous to anything resembling leftism, progressivism, liberalism.
Marshall should be ashamed.
Digby's post concerns a piece written for the DLC site by Will Marshall, who is identified as "president of the Progressive Policy Institute." I'm not sufficiently familiar with DLC players to know whether Mr. Marshall tends, as a matter of course, to want to smack the hands of his children as much as this hurrah-for-patriotism, patronizing column indicates. But I do know how unpleasant the column comes across.
An excerpt (emphasis mine):
Such antics [e.g., the recently approved House bill banning flag desecration] give Democrats an opportunity to expose what lies beneath the fulsome facade of GOP patriotism -- an atavistic nationalism in which the ruling passion is the will to power, not love of country. The right answer to GOP jingoism, however, cannot be left-wing anti-Americanism. Of course, progressives can criticize their country and still be patriotic. Indeed, one of the highest forms of patriotism is being honest about your country's flaws and taking responsibility for fixing them. But it is what's in your heart that counts. Are your objections rooted in a warm and generous affection for your country, or in a curdled contempt for it? Too many Americans aren't sure if the left is emotionally on America's side. And that's a big problem for Democrats.There's nothing about patriotism that qualifies it as a vice, of course. In fact, it can be a solid common meeting ground between left and right wingers (much like Jon Stewart's "ice cream is a fabulous treat!" remark to Rick Santorum last night). Marshall does a reasonably good job describing the fanatical, ask-me-no-questions patriotism of the right, but I think he goes off the rails in his critique of "left-wing anti-Americanism," with its "curdled contempt" for the country.
Specifically, I think he goes off the rails in the clause I emphasized above, in which he dangles the implication that he knows what's in our hearts, and it's not pretty.
I think most of us can agree that bomb throwing doesn't have a place in civilized society, and that a bomb thrown from the left is no better than one thrown from the right. But note the inflammatory coupling of "anti-Americanism" with "left-wing." Maybe Marshall is hanging around with the wrong crowd, or maybe I am, but I don't know any anti-American left-wingers -- let alone enough of them to threaten what, by rights, ought to be a true Democratic vision. I wouldn't put Michael Moore in the anti-American category, for example, any more than I'd put Will Marshall there.
What Marshall is doing here is what the DLC does all too readily: He holds up some extreme example of "dangerous" leftism (here, by implication) and then presents a mealy-mouthed alternative. (Later in the piece he says, "Democrats should also bring a sense of proportion to the prisoner abuse scandals at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay." Yes! Proportion! That's exactly what we need to emphasize!) If it's true that "too many Americans aren't sure if the left is emotionally on America's side," then he's right -- it's a big problem.
The solution, though, is not to invent some artificially centrist brand of patriotism and claim it as our own. The solution is to articulate the patriotism already inherent in lefty causes in a way which is clear to Americans. That brand of patriotism is a diamond, not in its intrinsic dollar value but in its properties: diamond-hard, diamond-brilliant, and diamond-exciting. Calling on us to replace that diamond with a wad of velvet is treacherous to anything resembling leftism, progressivism, liberalism.
Marshall should be ashamed.
