Bedfellows
Many have noted--it's pretty hard to miss--that Osama Bin Laden's recent speech was indistinguishable from what many anti-war groups are saying.
This happens all the time. Someone you despise sides with you on some issue. There's not much you can do about it. In fact, the more popular your view, the more likely it is this may happen. But to say you're guilty of the foolishness of another simply because he agrees with you is guilt by association. (Of course, some try to flip it around, and blame the other side, which is even dumber: But this, I think, is only the flip side of the vaunted perch we insist on giving him, a insistence that is a paradoxical part of Bushism. They are tacit partners in creating the world in which we now live.)
Let me close with one of my favorite quotations, even if it's not directly related: Whenever you find you are on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. Mark Twain
posted by LAGuy @ 1:06 AM
3 Comments:
It's a lot worse when what happens is someone you generally agree with, or have sympathy for, such as the stop the war movement, takes out ads and lies or makes bad arguments or misrepresents the other side.
While I think Moveon.org is entirely capable on their own of going too far (even on the lesser chance that they are right about Petraeus, it plays very poorly politically- he's more of a problem-solver than Bushie and has been a sympathetic figure to the anti-Rummies), it is an old trick from COINTELPRO to damage the opposition by trying to plant or at least support unpopular extremist statements to undermine credibility
Don't know if that has happened here but the "Betray Us" MoveOn Ad is so tinny compared to their more careful (and more successful) media strategy that you have to wonder. otherwise its just another example of the pragmatists being pushed out by the ideologues
Moveon.Org has always been well to the left of the country. They were lucky, politically, however, in obsessing over the War, since it's become unpopular (not due to anything they did) and so the Dems, now associated with being against the War in virtually any circumstance short of clear victory, can pander to them and pay almost no penalty.
Both parties have a base that is more radical than the country as a whole, and it's always the job of the party to keep them happy while not alienating the middle (and to pay close attention to where the middle is moving). The trouble is if this base has too much success, their natural tendency to go nuts can be amplified.
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