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Tuesday, December 14, 2004
Yikes
Following a link from Tim Blair, I found this posting from Michael Moore. Moore is trying to argue that the Democrats don't need to move toward the right, that the country is moving toward the left but that Americans don't throw out sitting Presidents during wartime, so forth and so on. What caught my attention, however, is this letter from a social worker that he included in his post:
Watch Dan Rather apologize for not getting his facts straight, humiliated before the eyes of America, voluntarily undermining his credibility and career of over thirty years. Observe Donna Brazille squirm as she is ridiculed by Bay Buchanan, and pronounced irrelevant and nearly non-existent. Listen as Donna and Nancy Pelosi and Senator Charles Schumer take to the airwaves saying that they have to go back to the drawing board and learn from their mistakes and try to be better, more likable, more appealing, have a stronger message, speak to morality. Watch them awkwardly quote the bible, trying to speak the ‘new’ language of America. Surf the blogs, and read the comments of dismayed, discombobulated, confused individuals trying to figure out what they did wrong. Hear the cacophony of voices, crying out, "Why did they beat me?"
And then ask anyone who has ever worked in a domestic violence shelter if they have heard this before.
They will tell you: Every single day.
The answer is quite simple. They beat us because they are abusers. We can call it hate. We can call it fear. We can say it is unfair. But we are looped into the cycle of violence, and we need to start calling the dominating side what they are: abusive. And we need to recognize that we are the victims of verbal, mental, and even, in the case of Iraq, physical violence.
...How to break free? Again, the answer is quite simple.
First, you must admit you are a victim. Then, you must declare the state of affairs unacceptable. Next, you must promise to protect yourself and everyone around you that is being victimized. You don't do this by responding to their demands, or becoming more like them, or engaging in logical conversation, or trying to persuade them that you are right. You also don't do this by going catatonic and resigned, by closing up your ears and eyes and covering your head and submitting to the blows, figuring its over faster and hurts less if you don't resist and fight back.
Instead, you walk away. You find other folks like yourself, 57 million of them, who are hurting, broken, and beating themselves up. You tell them what you've learned, and that you aren't going to take it anymore. You stand tall, with 57 million people at your side and behind you, and you look right into the eyes of the abuser and you tell him to go to hell. Then you walk out the door, taking the kids and gays and minorities with you, and you start a new life. The new life is hard. But it's better than the abuse.
...Don't let him dictate the terms or frame the debate (he'll win, not because he's right, but because force works). Sure, we can build a better grassroots campaign, cultivate and raise up better leaders, reform the election system to make it fail-proof, stick to our message, learn from the strategy of the other side. But we absolutely must dispense with the notion that we are weak, godless, cowardly, disorganized, crazy, too liberal, naive, amoral, "loose,” irrelevant, outmoded, stupid and soon to be extinct. We have the mandate of the world to back us, and the legacy of oppressed people throughout history.
It is easy to overestimate the importance of Michael Moore and his followers, but it is also easy to see why there has been a call for the Democrats to renounce Moore as well. From Moore's point of view, as expressed by this social worker, politics is not possible. The persuasion of the Republicans is identical to violence, as framing the debate is the same as force.
How do you identify a Democrat, according to this rationale? You look for the victims. This kind of thinking is utter crap and, as I said shortly after the election, a serious disservice to Kerry and most of the people who voted for him. (And, for that matter, to people who really have been victimized by others.) My mother was a lifelong Democrat, but I don't remember her ever being a victim. You don't have to be a victim to think we should show more concern for the environment and working conditions. And if the Democrats do start thinking of themselves as simply a party of victims, they will get their rear ends handed to them election after election, because victimhood does not describe the majority of Americans.
Eddie 4:33 PM
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