Good. No matter what one thinks of the foreign policy of France, you just don't treat people, especially customers, that way.
Freedom-Fried Republicans
By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Friday, April 25, 2003; Page A23
WATERVILLE, Maine -- I never thought the United States would need a Franco-American Anti-Defamation League. But who would have imagined that guilt of being French-by-association would become the stuff of McCarthyism-lite in 2003?
A nameless White House aide was quoted recently in the New York Times offering this thoughtful, considered critique of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry: "He looks French." Substitute almost any other racial, ethnic or religious group for "French" and imagine the outcry against bigotry. But there was no outcry.
I should have known we were in trouble -- by we, I mean those of us who are proudly of French and French Canadian ancestry -- when I received a call a few weeks back from a friend in the Midwest commenting on the substitution of "freedom fries" for french fries in the House of Representatives cafeteria. "From now on, are you going to call yourself a Freedom Canadian?" he asked.
My friend was joking. Stephen Moore, the president of the Club for Growth, wasn't when he attacked this state's distinguished Republican senator, Olympia Snowe, and two others in her party as "Franco-Republicans." Their crime in the eyes of Moore's anti-tax group is to favor reducing the size of President Bush's oversized tax cut.
Now, Maine is a state full of Franco-Americans whose forebears began traveling south from Quebec more than a century ago and swelled the populations of its mill towns. A shrewd editorial writer in the Portland Press Herald this week couldn't resist referring to one of them when he asked: "Have you ever been to Biddeford, Mr. Moore?" The editorial added: "It's probably safe to say that Maine has thousands of Franco-Republicans."
For just a moment, let me move into high dudgeon by pointing out that I descend from a long line of Franco-Republicans, including my late dad and my dad's cousin Oscar Dionne. Oscar died while campaigning on the Massachusetts Republican ticket in the 1930s. Mr. Moore, how dare you sully the memory of those who gave their all to your party!
Okay, I feel better. So let's move to what is even more insidious about a politics of intimidation draped in France's national colors.
The Club for Growth has made itself famous by running ads against Snowe and Ohio Republican George Voinovich for forcing the Senate to reduce Bush's tax cut to a measly $350 billion. I bet it never occurred to you that this vote had anything to do with the foreign policies of French President Jacques Chirac. The Club for Growth begs to differ.
"President Bush courageously led the forces of freedom," the ad goes. "But some so-called allies like France stood in the way. At home, President Bush has proposed bold job-creating tax cuts to boost our economy. But some so-called Republicans like" -- the Maine ads mention Snowe; the Ohio ads, Voinovich -- "stand in the way."
Now follow this train of -- forgive the word -- logic. Bush fought for freedom. France got in the way. Like France, Snowe and Voinovich are getting in the way of Bush's tax cut. Unsubtle implication: Like France, they must be the enemies of freedom. In case you miss that link, the ad pictures a French flag flying next to the offending senator. Moore wants you to think that Snowe and Voinovich look French, too. That must make them un-American. After all, only the un-American would oppose the commander in chief's tax cuts.
Moore is not out there on his own. The White House has done nothing to discourage him from French-frying these Republicans. His campaign is only part of a broader strategy, deployed at critical moments since Sept. 11, 2001, to associate opposition to Bush with a lack of patriotism.
It goes back at least to May of last year. Remember when Democrats (and some Republicans) were urging an independent inquiry into what the U.S. government knew about the terrorist threat before the attacks? Rep. Tom DeLay, then the House whip, opposed an independent investigation with this line: "We don't need to hand the terrorists an after-action report." Suddenly, an attempt to tell the American people what happened became a way of giving aid and comfort to the enemy.
Any Democrat who subsequently got too far out of line -- for example, Kerry and Sen. Tom Daschle -- was quickly tarred as an un-patriot. Now even Republicans aren't safe. And, hey, there's no need anymore to accuse your opponents of being soft on terrorists or Saddam Hussein. All you have to do is tie anyone you disagree with to the French.
That doesn't look American to me.
© 2003 The Washington Post Company |
