By Brigitte L. Nacos
The defeat of Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut in his party's primary by anti-Iraq war Democrat Ned Lamont alarmed the Republican leadership so much that Vice President Dick Cheney warned his fellow-Americans that the ouster of Lieberman could encourage "Al Qaeda types." White House press secretary Tony Snow sounded like Senator Joe McCarthy when he called Lieberman's Democratic opponents "the extreme left." Cheney, Snow and other Republicans engaged in gross politics as they charged anti-Lieberman Democrats as being soft on terrorism and national defense--obviously their theme and hope for the upcoming election campaign.
Cheney reiterated the administration credo, if you do not support us, you are supporting terrorism. This was certainly meant, when he praised Lieberman for supporting "an aggressive posture in terms of our national security strategy." And Senator Lieberman claimed after his defeat that the victorious Ned Lamont and by extension his supporters were out of touch with the American mainstream. As poll after poll demonstrate, this is a complete misreading of the political reality. The majority of Americans is firmly against the Iraq war and many Americans believe correctly that the situation in Iraq has increased the threat of terrorism. President Bush's approval ratings tumbled from record levels after 9/11 to dismal lows in the past months. In Republican and Lieberman speak this means that the majority of Americans is out of touch with the "moderate" mainstream, is part of the "extreme left," and encourages "Al Qaeda types." What a nonsense! Yet, without voices in the media and the political class challenging such associations, the language twisters seem to get traction as they typecast themselves and their supporters as moderates and their critics as left extremists.
Thus, Democrat Lieberman is called a moderate--not only by his Republican friends but by reporters and pundits as well. If a supporter of the most important points in the Bush administration's agenda is a moderate, the President and his fellow-partisans must be moderate as well. Linguistic acrobatics and associations work. Except for Howard Dean who speaks of "right wing" Republicans, Democrats have been inapt in matching Republicans' ability to typecast the domestic "enemy" in most shameless ways by throwing in references to 9/11, terrorism, or Al Qaeda.
The truth is that not Democrats but Republicans benefit from real and alleged terrorist threats and from bin Laden's and other Al Qaeda figures' communications. The President himself revealed belatedly that he believes the bin Laden message which was released a few days before the 2005 elections helped him win reelection. And you can bet that today's heightened terror alert on the heels of the foiled terrorist plot against American airliners will be exploited by the not so moderate warriors in the war against terrorism. Their linguistic skills and their propaganda at home are more successful than their national security strategy abroad. As the civil war in Iraq intensifies, the death toll in the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict increases, and a horrific terrorist plot is discovered, the President vacations at his ranch in Texas and his Vice President at his Jackson Hole retreat in Wyoming. Business as usual--except for Mr. Cheney's time-out to point fingers at Al Qaeda's friends in the ranks of the Democratic party...
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