Freedoms under glass
It’s Wednesday so that means it is time for Gene Lyons column. You have to register with the Arkansas gazette or subscribe to his e-mail service so this comes via email.
Lyons’ theme today is the fact that the very freedoms that make America the envy of the world are today being placed off limits - “under glass” - like museum pieces of another era. You can appreciate them from a respectful distance but heaven forbid you break the glass and try and use them.
There are two interesting references in today’s column. One is historical, to the Rev. Niemoller’s statement concerning the Nazis in pre-WWII Germany:
First they came for the Communists,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me,
and by that time there was no one
left to speak up for me.
by Rev. Martin Niemoller, 1945
The connection here is obvious: intimidation and fear and the politics of divide and conquer were used to prevent people from speaking out. Legal restrictions only came later. Fear (of the commies) and intimidation (by the Nazis) was enough to silence most “patriotic” Germans to “excesses in a time of crisis.” And why risk retribution when we’re only talking about the worthless (fill in the blank)? Commies, Jews, homosexuals, Gypsies, Catholics …
Today the list is different (liberals, homosexuals, the UN, the French, anti-war protesters, Democrats….) but the essence of the treatment remains the same: create an atmosphere of fear – which starts at the top with false terror alerts and warnings – and intimidation - against exercising free speech (“watch what you say” – Ari Fleischer) because you’re either with Bush or with the terrorists. Isolate and dehumanize the targets. Remember (to paraphrase Goldwater) hate in a time of crisis is no vice. Rinse and repeat for the next set of “treasonous enemies” – especially anyone who attempted to defend the previous set of “enemies.”
We are now witnessing actual accusations that if one criticizes Bush it represents “not supporting the troops” or even treason - regardless of the status of the speaker. (Veteran status will not save Democrats from the GOP “patriotic” personal destruction machine any more than it did Jewish-German vets of WWI.) Once criticism has been equated with treason and terrorism it should not surprise anyone when the worst aspects of human nature are set loose and physical violence follows.
A contributing but overlooked element of all of this is the manufactured, prepackaged attempt to depict a false solidarity on behalf of the GOP: “Astroturf” (fake grassroots) letters to the editor, “spontaneous” rallies and actions coordinated and encouraged by the GOP and its media allies – whether it be music boycotts, clear channel rallies and of course the “spontaneous” plastering of town streets with yellow ribbons (which, I am sorry, have forfeited any claim to “non-partisan” status given the patently political use to which they are put – not unlike the degradation of the slogan “united we stand” – as a false depiction of a nation “united” behind Bush). When combined with the 24/7 cheerleading that passes for media coverage of the first war of the new millennium the result is that one is left thinking that Bush must be the most popular resident of the white house ever, when in reality until recently (until war that is) he lagged far behind the GOP-reviled Bill Clinton - even during the latter’s “constitutional crisis.”
Hence the need to keep freedoms under glass – otherwise dissent may encourage more and more people to question the actual value of a “manufactured solidarity” composed of yellow ribbons and military “victory” and hence undermine the manufactured, fear-induced “popularity” to which Bush and his cronies cling.
Oh and the second reference in today’s column? Granted it’s whimsical and maybe it’s just me but Lyons’ term “patriot police” conjured up memories of the “dream police.”
Gene Lyons
April 15, 2003
Republican Patriot Police Protect Bush from Critics
First, the Patriot Police came for the Dixie Chicks, and I said nothing because I'm fed up with the predigested mush that passes for country music these days. I wouldn't include the Chicks in that category, but flag-waving deejays and war-loving singers in cowboy hats strike me as an enormous bore. At a Texas rodeo recently, somebody remained seated when the loudspeaker played Lee Greenwood's cornball ballad "Proud to Be an American." The man said he didn't have to stand for no damn country song, and fisticuffs ensued.
So Dixie Chicks lead singer Natalie Maines ought to have known she was asking for trouble by telling a London audience, "Just so you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas." After all, she grew up in Lubbock. Even after a carefully-orchestrated uproar broke out--radio stations dropped the Chicks from their playlist and held CD-smashing rallies after an e-mail and telephone campaign reportedly originating with the Republican National Committee--Maines briefly hung in there. "[O]ne of the privileges of being an American," she said "is you are free to voice your own point of view."
Not if you want your songs on the radio, sweetheart. With the music business, like the news business, increasingly dominated by huge corporations such as Clear Channel Communications, the San Antonio giant that owns 1200 stations, uses its muscle to manage and promote concert tours, stages pro-war rallies, and has direct political ties to President Junior, artists exercise those rights at their peril. Within days, the Chicks were back in harness.
"As a concerned American citizen," Maines said "I apologize to President Bush because my remark was disrespectful. I feel that whoever holds that office should be treated with the utmost respect."
The satirical website thespeciousreport.com finished the statement for her. "I'm just a young girl who grew up in Texas," they wrote. "As far back as I can remember, I heard people say they were ashamed of President Clinton. I saw bumper stickers calling him everything from a pothead to a murderer. I heard people on the radio and TV...bad mouthing the President and ridiculing his wife and daughter at every opportunity. I heard LOTS of people disrespecting the President. So I guess I just assumed it was acceptable behavior."
Next the Patriot Police came for a CBS TV producer who spoke too frankly about his forthcoming miniseries "Hitler: The Rise of Evil," and I didn't say anything because hyperbolic analogies to Hitler are a dime a dozen. People making them deserve to lose the argument. According to the Washington Post, Ed Gernon told TV Guide that "fear fueled both the Bush administration's adoption of a preemptive-strike policy and the public's acceptance of it....Gernon said a similar fearfulness in a devastated post-World War I Germany was 'absolutely' behind that nation's acceptance of Hitler's extremism."
Both TV Guide and the New York Post, which made a big issue of Gernon's remark, are owned by right-wing Australian magnate Rupert Murdoch. CBS abruptly fired the veteran producer before too loud a clamor arose.
Next the Patriot Police came after actors Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins, and I was tempted to keep quiet because Sarandon inexplicably sets my teeth on edge. Her presence almost ruined Bull Durham for me, an otherwise near-perfect baseball movie. Baseball Hall of Fame president Dale Petroskey launched a pre-emptive strike on free speech because he feared what the outspoken couple might say at a scheduled 15th anniversary celebration of the popular film at Cooperstown later this month. Instead, Petroskey cancelled the event.
A one-time press flack for President Reagan and Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-NC), Petroskey informed Robbins that criticizing Junior was tantamount to treason. "We believe your very public criticism of President Bush at this important--and sensitive--time in our nation's history helps undermine the U.S. position, which ultimately could put our troops in even more danger. As an institution, we stand behind our president and our troops in this conflict."
Robbins responded with appropriate anger. "To suggest that my criticism of the President put the troops in danger is absurd," he wrote in an open letter to Petroskey. "I had been unaware, that baseball is a Republican sport....You invoke patriotism and use words like freedom in an attempt to intimidate and bully. In doing so, you dishonor the words patriotism and freedom and dishonor the men and women who have fought wars to keep this nation a place where one can freely express their opinion without fear of reprisal or punishment."
Like most serious fans, Robbins regards baseball as an oasis beyond politics, and said he'd had no intention of dragging Bush into it. Alas, to the GOP Patriot Police, there's no such thing. Major League Baseball quickly disassociated itself from Petroskey's action. Former Texas Rangers "owner" George W. Bush should too, unless the right to criticize him isn't among the freedoms he values.
Gene Lyons writes a weekly column published in the Arkansas Dem Gazette, which is pay per view. No link provided........
11:30:19 AM 
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