We Love the Liberties They Hate
" Even as the White House preaches tolerance toward Muslims and Sikhs, it is
practicing INTOLERANCE, signaling that anyone who challenges the leaders of an
embattled America is cynical, political and ---isn't this the subtext?----
unpatriotic.
"The reminder is to all Americans, that they need to watch what they say,
watch what they do, and that this is not a time for remarks like that," Mr.
Fleischer said haughtily in dressing down Bill Maher, the host of "Politically
Incorrect," for saying something politically incorrect."
September 30, 2001
LIBERTIES
From The New York Times
By MAUREEN DOWD
W ASHINGTON
I have studied the Bushes, father and son,
for two decades and I can tell you certain
things with absolute certainty.
They are devoted to sports, to family and to country, with a sentimentalism
about America that sometimes moves them to tears.
I accept and admire their patriotism. And I'd like to believe that they accept
and admire mine.
My father was an immigrant who went to war for America and, as a police
detective here, risked his life protecting presidents and members of Congress
for 25 years. In our family, policemen, firemen, the military, the flag and the
Statue of Liberty were icons long before Sept. 11.
So I don't need instructions from Ari Fleischer, the White House press
secretary, on the conduct of a good American. Patriotism, it seems, is the
last refuge of spinners.
Even as the White House preaches tolerance toward Muslims and Sikhs, it is
practicing intolerance, signaling that anyone who challenges the leaders of an
embattled America is cynical, political and --- isn't this the subtext? --- unpatriotic.
"The reminder is to all Americans, that they need to watch what they say,
watch what they do, and that this is not a time for remarks like that," Mr.
Fleischer said haughtily in dressing down Bill Maher, the host of "Politically
Incorrect," for saying something politically incorrect.
Then, perhaps showing a belated appreciation for freedom of expression, the
White House dropped the Big Brother words "watch what they say" from its
official transcript.
Mr. Fleischer acts offended---- and vindictive-- when someone has the
nerve to challenge the White House while our country is a target. But
especially when we are a target, we should not suppress the very thing that
makes our foul enemies crazed with twisted envy --- our heady and
headache-inducing clash of ideas. We should dread a climate where the jobs
of columnists and comedians are endangered by dissent.
Is stopping-while-you're-ahead a lost art? (Yes, Mayor-for-Life Rudy, that
means you, too.)
President Bush is basking in nearly unanimous public support. Garry Trudeau
has pulled his featherweight- Bush cartoons. Barbra Streisand has taken
anti-Bush diatribes off her Web site. David Letterman has been as diplomatic
as Colin Powell. "Saturday Night Live" will tone down its scorching Bush
satires.
And yet top Bush advisers have become image profiteers, spinning tall tales
in a greedy quest to transform the president they had fretted was coming
across as too small before the crisis into a larger-than-life figure now.
"They're trying so hard to make him look Churchillian and it's entirely
unnecessary," says one Republican who advises the administration. "They're
overselling a product that's selling itself."
The hyperventilated spin began the morning after the attacks. To deflect
criticism that the administration had been without any commanding and
reassuring Giuliani-like voice for 10 hours, as the president and other high-
level officials scrambled around, Karl Rove and Mr. Fleischer pushed the
spurious and elaborately embroidered stories that the White House and Air
Force One were also intended targets.
Such big, lame inventions undermine our trust, just as the Bush team starts to
do a lot fast and in secret.
The chief of staff, Andy Card, has instructed the whole White House to stop
speaking to reporters, so that the chosen few can spoon-feed the press the
image of an In-Charge, Focused, Resolute President.
Proving that "a 90 percent approval rating is a dangerous tonic," as one
Democrat says, Mr. Rove gets upset when any attention is deflected from
Mr. Bush. The White House was irked at Bill Clinton's high profile. And Mr.
Rove was furious when Dick Cheney told of dispatching the president off to
a Midwest bunker while he stoically stayed in the White House basement.
The White House is wrapping the flag around a little too snugly, as the senior
Bush did in the 1988 campaign when he appeared at a flag factory and
talked about being "on the American side."
At a time when Americans are willing to vest extraordinary power in the
president, to trust him with life-and- death decisions, to give him him
considerable leeway in curbing civil liberties and spending billions, this is a
time when questions and debate are what patriotism demands. Even the most
high-minded government is not infallible.
nytimes.com |
