“Cold Fear Of The New Millennium”
Over at his site talking head Andrew Sullivan has an article from about two weeks ago comparing John Edwards and Dick Cheney. Not bad, though I think it’s funny that he repeats the Republican talking points of the time: Edwards is the “fourth most left-wing Senator” (Kerry is supposedly liberal numero uno), and he’s a trial lawyer (the horror!).
First, there’s no mention of where exactly that “extremely liberal” score comes from, or how it was arrived at, though we get the hint that the rating only encompasses “the latest session,” which explains it a bit. How could Kerry and Edwards, two of the party’s standby centrists, be rated most liberal? Could it be because they were both running for president during “the latest session” and therefore A) missed some votes and B) played to their left-wing base in the votes they made? If you look at his record from previous sessions, you find it isn’t quite the same.
And second, so he’s a trial lawyer? Ooh, the big scary trial lawyers who make life expensive for businesses, and get rich in the process. Damn we hate rich people! Let’s vote for Bush and Cheney! I’m not going to get into a big discussion of tort reform, but suffice to say that I think Tort law is the public’s last defense against irresponsible, if not downright immoral, corporate behavior that harms the public.
Anyway, that’s not quite what I wanted to talk about. Sullivan comes to the conclusion that these two not only represent the bases of their parties, they represent the very divide that has split our nation down the middle. As he puts it, the debate face-off between them this fall will be about “the boyish charms of the 1990s versus the cold fear of the new millennium.”
Close, but no cigar. I think it’s no accident that he chose to use the word “cold” there. When I think of Cheney, and the fear this administration fosters, the first thing that pops in my mind is the cold war. This is all about fear, and always has been. This is about people whose power came from the fears of the cold war merely transplanting their roots to a new system of fear. Every time I hear some hawk talking about “the last thing we want is proof that the terrorists have nuclear bombs,” I’m hearing the fear of the last millennium. The fear of Russian bombs lives to this day – the commies have just become terrorists, and Rumsfeld & Cheney, who made their names during the cold war, are just playing the same old games again.
So I think Sullivan is wrong. Fear is what we were supposed to have conquered in the 20th century. Fear is the old. Peace, diplomacy, working with the world to build peaceful ties and actually nurture democracy across the globe – that’s what the 21st century is about. It’s not about ’90s “boyish charms” versus 21st century fear. It’s about 21st century hope versus 20th century hubris. Out with the old, in with the new – or at least, in with the weak soil in which we can sow the new.
So that’s that… more later on fear, terrorism, fundamentalism & democracy later on. Maybe. For now, I have to go to lunch.
