Coalition of Enemies, A New Red Line

There is little more important to discuss this week than the crisis in Syria; and plenty of people are doing just that. Having already covered the crisis itself here and here, let’s move beyond all that and have a look at the battle over Syria here at home. Crises, like a refiner’s fire, often reveal the true metal of men that can be masked in more placid times. Times of struggle can reveal the depths of hidden divisions, as well as unexpected connections. The controversy over Syria is doing just that.

For as long as most of us can remember, politics has been a battle between left and right, linear and two dimensional. The extremes existed at both ends with the safe zone for politicians being somewhere in the middle. The middle separated the right and left. It was a chasm that could not be crossed. By staking out the middle, a politician could simultaneously lay claim to the uninformed whom he avoided offending, those who view moderation as more virtuous than virtue itself, and even those at the extreme of whichever side his opponent was more distant from, however small that distance might be. It was a simple model for the politician, it involved fine-tuning exactly where in the middle was best to be; taking your base for granted while trying to net the “undecided” voters in the middle. Momentum was important, because these undecided voters were greatly uneducated voters, their votes were far more volatile than those on the right or left, and they were more likely to follow the crowd than they were their extremist friends.

Technology has made things more complicated. Oh, the old loyalties are still there, and there continue to be party fanatics for whom party trumps truth; but we are beginning to see the electorate enter the third dimension. With the advent of the twenty-four hour news cycle, social networking, YouTube and millions of cell phone cameras; information is far more accessible than ever before. Education and communication open a whole new dimension of connections where the right and the left sometimes share common ground, and are occasionally closer to each other than to those in their own party. People are still left and right, but the chasm has been breached… they can touch; and in touching they can recognize their shared humanity and common values. New, albeit temporary, alliances can form; and the politician’s game has become exponentially more complex. The battle is no longer just between the left and the right, it is between the past and the future. The old way of doing business was to talk a good game, convince your constituents that you are smarter than them, and then run the show. That way of doing business has broken the back of the middle class, increased poverty, engaged us in war after war after war, and put us in a hole we may not be able to escape. The town hall meetings, petitioning, blogging, and massive demonstrations show that a large segment of the voters no longer buy that way of doing business. No longer do we trust our leaders to call all the shots. We ourselves will look at the issues, become educated, and educate others; we ourselves will demand that our leaders represent us, not ignore and rule over us; we ourselves, We the People, are the ultimate check and balance.

IMHO: There are dinosaurs who do not yet understand where the future of politics is headed. Not all of these dinosaurs are old men, many are, but technology hastens obsolescence. They are loathe to give up the old way, they were so good at it, and the reins of power are addictive. Like the aging man who who won’t abandon the fads and styles of his youth, the neo-cons and progressives keep trotting out the same tired strategies of an age that is fading away. By its nature the House of Representatives is more sensitive to the changes in the electorate, and it should not therefore be surprising that the greatest opposition to the President’s Syrian strategy (I use the term loosely) is reflected in that body. The old guard defends the old ways, even if it crosses party lines; hence the support for the President from Boehner, McCain, Graham, Peter King, and even many old guard commentators. The common enemy for these is not in some far away land, but right here in this country. It is the contingent that thinks that the US is trying too hard to run the World, and that Washington is trying too hard to run the nation. Syria is a red line that this contingent has drawn for our representatives, and most particularly our President. Cross it at your peril, we’re running this show now!