You remember those video compilations of Bill O saying “Just Shut Up!” to anyone that questioned the president and the administration at a time of war? Remember that?
Well, now we are starting to get the centrist-progressives saying the exact same thing about any of us liberals who dare raise questions about what Obama is doing now, what he did during the election, and what he may do in the very near future. They want us to just shut up so we don’t spoil their happy-happy-joy-joy moment. They want us to just shut up so we don’t darken the White House doorstep with our trivial issues and criticisms before their savior can even take office.
One contributor at Op Ed News, Steve Leser, even went so far as to call us mentally and emotionally imbalanced and suggested we get psychological therapy simply for pointing out that we must collectively, as a party, hold Obama to his word and be careful to watch his actions very closely now that he is the President Elect. What Mr. Leser doesn’t seem to understand is that nothing could be more potentially disastrous to our freedoms right now than that blind complicity he seems to be advocating for.
Have you ever heard “Bill O”, Mr. Leser, or any other right-wing talking heads (like Tucker Carlson) call liberals “crazy”? I have. And now we get to hear it from the “progressives” as well?
That’s ok. It’s a common enough tactic used to silence dissent and marginalize very important issues. But easy enough to ignore. Liberals like myself have heard it all before since early 2001, and I am sure we will hear it again.
But unfortunately Mr. Leser isn’t the only “progressive” out there behaving in this gate-keeping, rethuglican manner, that’s for sure. On Op Ed alone, I count 3 separate articles on their front page today that ultimately have the same underlying message; “just shut up”. We have also seen several comments “flagged” over there simply for pointing out flaws in the Obama transition stragegy.
I’ll tell you this, there is not a single one of these democratic-party-apologists that, when asked, wouldn’t tell you right off the bat, that if the republican party and it’s loyal supporters had been a little more critical about the Bush administration at the beginning, we would be in much better shape than we are right now.
Democracy depends on well informed, articulate dissent from the governed. It is how we progress. It is how the system evolves. Were it not for dissent, not a single amendment would have been written; not a single slave been freed. Women and blacks wouldn’t vote and nor could they or non-property owning whites hold elected office.
In short Mr. Lessing, were it not for dissent, Barack Obama wouldn’t be the President Elect.
So let’s not be so quick to tell other liberals to just shut up when they are pointing out valid concerns about the direction this transition team is taking or the dubious staff choices that are being made here. Something good can and will come out of it.
I’ll give you an example.
After 9/11, the administration fought long and hard to keep any real congressional investigation from taking place. But finally, thanks mainly to the efforts of the Jersey Girls and the family members who lost loved ones that day, the Bush administration had to cave in, and they formed the 9/11 Commission. Now, say what you want about their work, they did provide some (very few) answers, and the investigation itself did bring information to light that needed to be known (ie. Norman Mineta’s testimony and others).
Now when they first started, you would think, after fighting for the formation of the commission for 400+ days, that they should have “just shut up” and allowed the process to develop before they voiced their opinions about it. There were several family member who said just that. But, George Bush appointed Henry Kissinger as the head of the commission and after some family members discovered that Kissinger had business dealing with the Saudi Royal Family, he was immediately removed (and unfortunately replaced with Philip Zelikow).
Informed dissent.
I will close with this.
We must continue to press for honest change, not just against the current republican administration or even against the established status quo of “business first, citizen second”. But rather, we must seek to change those parts of ourselves which allowed this to happen on our watch in the first place. And that includes the democratic party. Because ultimately, that is what happened.
We must be ever vigilant, now that we recognize the warning signs, to speak out when we see dishonest tendencies being repeated by any other administration. These tendencies to say one thing while doing another. These tendencies to proclaim reverence for the body politic while quietly serving a different master. Nowhere is this vigilance more important than in the comfortable confines of our own Party.
For if we cannot keep our own house in order, what hope is there we can ever claim the moral authority over any other? Be that our in Democratic Party, in our nation, or in our homes. In fact, if we are not capable of removing certain elements from our own party, they will become so deeply ingrained in our system, that they will become the system and never be removed. Therefore, informed, articulate dissent is more important now than ever before. Our collective complicity at this moment in history may in fact be more dangerous than ever before.
“This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.” W. Shakespeare, Hamlet.
If we are not willing to hold our own accountable, how can we ever honorably attempt to do so with any other administration?
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