THE NEW POLITICAL CORRECTNESS
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By Richard Reeves*
Op/Ed
Wed Apr 2, 10:13 PM ET
story.news.yahoo.com
WASHINGTON -- This is the way Machiavelli, the cynical Florentine philosopher of politics and power, put it in "The Prince" in 1513:
"Everyone sees what you seem to be, few perceive what you are; and those few don't dare oppose the general opinion, which has the majesty of the government backing it up. ... The masses are always impressed by appearances and by the outcome of an event -- and in the world there are only masses. The few have no place there when the many crowd together."
Few dare to oppose now, almost 500 years later. Even a clever descendant of Machiavelli's people, Madonna, herself a philosopher of daring, has decided the risk of opposition or the appearance of opposition is just too risky with American troops in the field. Last Tuesday, demonstrating that she is no Dixie Chick, the former Madonna Louise Ciccone announced that she was withdrawing an anti-war video to promote her song "American Life."
"It was filmed before the war started, and I do not believe it is appropriate to air it at this time," she said. "Due to the volatile state of the world and out of sensitivity and respect for our armed forces, who I support and pray for, I do not want to risk offending anyone who might misinterpret the meaning of this video."
Political correctness has turned sharply right, hasn't it? I'm sure Madonna was not at all influenced by the ongoing radio boycott of the Dixie Chicks, whose lead singer, Natalie Maines, had said she was ashamed to be from the same state as President Bush. That would be Texas. The chick quickly apologized, but it may have been too late. The new PC warriors are taking names.
In The Washington Times, the feisty voice of Washington conservatives, for example, a front-page headline read, "Foundation Cash Funds Anti-war Movement." Beginning with a phrase about "tax-exempt status" and 990 tax forms -- a reminder that the government gives and the government can take away -- the article lists the Ford Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the Turner Foundation and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. All of them and several others, says the Times, have given unrestricted grants to organizations and committees that have questioned the majesty of government policy in Iraq.
Not only singers and foundation executives better watch what they say and do. The most powerful "liberal" newspapers in the country are obviously watching what they say, too. The accidental killing of seven Iraqi women and children by American soldiers at a roadblock near their homes did not make the front page of The New York Times. The headline, in the "B" section of the paper, not only did not mention Americans or killing, it blamed the victims: "Failing to Heed Warning, 7 Iraqi Women and Children Die."
The Washington Post did play the story on its front page, but it also avoided any mention of Americans or killing, with headlines that, except for the small print, could have been about a traffic accident in New Jersey: "A Gruesome Scene on Highway 9. 10 Dead After Vehicle Shelled at Checkpoint."
As for "outcome," the military outcome of this war has never been in doubt -- and, hopefully, the worst of it is over. We are going to win the fight for territory and postwar control, at least in the beginning. Whatever mistakes were made in Washington and in the field -- particularly the White House's dismissive denials that wars against evil might involve any sacrifice of lives or money -- will soon be forgotten by the masses watching victory parades. The longer-term political outcome could be disastrous for us, but by then we will be on to other things. That is the way politics has worked for at least the five centuries from Machiavelli to Madonna.
The trick now for the figure at the center of all this, the bold President Bush, is to focus attention on the military outcome and then to hold off the political accounting until after his re-election in 17 months. That will not be as easy as persuading Americans that Saddam Hussein was the bad guy behind the killings of Sept. 11, 2001. With the probability that the U.S. economy may not be in the best of shape during 2004, the president may have to try to keep war fever up and political opposition down for the next year and a half. The voices of the few will have to be stifled by the crowd -- and that may mean more war.
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*RICHARD REEVES is the author of 12 books, including President Nixon: Alone in the White House. He has written for the New York Times, the New Yorker, Esquire and dozens of other publications. Email him at rr@richardreeves.com. |
