Garret posts a link to Adam Cohen’s opinion piece in today’s NY Times, The Difference Between Politically Incorrect and Historically Wrong, suggesting the books scrutinized by Cohen ought to be considered parodies. I don’t think I can agree, though, because these are some seriously committed people, who aren’t going away so easily. One passage from Cohen clearly expresses, for me, where a problematic gap exists between liberal/Democrat perception and political reality:
These revisionist historians have started meeting pockets of resistance from those who believe they are rewriting reality to suit an ideological agenda. A group called Progress for America recently produced an ad that, incredibly, used Franklin Roosevelt’s picture to support President Bush’s plan to privatize Social Security. But Progress for America lost the public relations war when James Roosevelt Jr., F.D.R.’s grandson, announced that his grandfather “would surely oppose the ideas now being promoted by this administration.”
I agree, of course, with the sentiment expressed by Garret and in Cohen’s essay but wonder about the quality of perception with their use of absolutes, exemplified by this paragraph. These whack jobs, as I like to call them in my own pejorative, politcally incorrect way, have far too much wind left in their sails and cash in their bankbooks for anyone to claim this war is over.
To date, people involved in groups such as Progress for America, the Intelligent Design Network and Focus on the Family, which I’m using as examples and not an exhaustive list, have found satisfactory support and success in politics to continue with that strategy. I worry, though, how their more ardent members will behave when the political results peak and recede before reaching the desired goal. I have no doubt that in the long run:
- the 14th Amendment (along with the 13th and all the court decisions and laws springing from them) will never be invalidated;
- relationships between people of the same gender will have the same legal standing and treatment as accorded those between people of different genders; and,
- American educators will teach our children real science and religion will be taught by family members and the clergy of their choosing.
When people who fervently desire the opposite of these things realize their goals are unreachable via political means will they turn to other means? Will they take up arms in ways similar to what John Robb speculates Chechen rebels may do? I think this is nearly inevitable. The tools for the tactics are becoming simpler and more available each month, as is demonstrable proof of their effectiveness. Robb also points to an effort lead by William Lind that’s developing a handbook of effective military responses to 4th Generation Warfare but Lind’s brief summary doesn’t appear to offer a useful strategy if the guerillas are our own citizens and their actions are here in America.
BillSaysThis 