"America's History of Fear" - Kristof

I read an op-ed this morning that hit on a lot of the themes we discussed in the afternoon section last Thursday. I thought I'd pass it along:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/05/opinion/05kristof.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

Kristof runs through a number of historical examples of the politics of fear as witnessed throughout American history, drawing parallels between these historical examples and current-day examples of Islamophobia in America (especially as seen recently with the "Ground Zero Mosque" controversy/hysteria).

He notes that he doesn't see those who oppose the proposed Islamic center as bigots (I think there's definitely room for argument there, but I digress...), but rather as "well-meaning worriers" who fall in a long line of xenophobic Americans who are simply troubled by unfamiliarity with other cultures/religions/beliefs:

"The starting point isn’t hatred but fear: an alarm among patriots that newcomers don’t share their values, don’t believe in democracy, and may harm innocent Americans."

While fear-stoking politics and the use of wedge issues to achieve electoral gains is obviously nothing new, I've been struck--particularly in the context of recent debates--by how inconsistent those who "boldly" speak out can be (often without political penalty). For example, were you to ask an average Tea Party activist why they oppose recent health care reforms, you'd likely hear the phrase "unconstitutional" more than once. If you then were to switch to the topic of the "Ground Zero Mosque," adherence to the Constitution--and that pesky "freedom of religion" thing--all of a sudden becomes less important. How the Constitution can matter in one instance and not in the next is, I think, a signal of the fact that the symbolic can (and will) often trump the institutional, at least in the mind of the average American.

I also wanted to share a link to a blog posting from a couple of weeks ago concerning the Islamic centre controversy:

http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2010/08/ground-zero_mosque_1

The post provides commentary and links to information about other mosque protests taking place around the country, and it also points to some interesting survey results hitting on the issue of constitutionality and freedom of religion:

"...as this week's Economist/YouGov poll shows, slightly more than half of those identifying themselves as Republican do deny that Muslims have a constitutional right to build a mosque near the World Trade Center site, as do a quarter of those identifying themselves as a Democrat or Independent. Moreover, groups of Americans have been protesting the construction of mosques in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and Temecula, California, none of which are mere blocks from ground zero."

In general, this blog--The Economist's "Democracy in America" blog on American politics--is by far the best political blog I've found, and it's one of the few I follow regularly. It's more commentary than hard news, well-written, and often hilarious. I'd highly recommend reading it as often as possible; it always provides an interesting and well-informed take on the politics of the day:

http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica


Evan K.