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Protesters from Tunisia's poor rural heartlands chant slogans during a demonstration - Source: Reuters
The eruptions of popular democratic sentiment on the streets,
first of Tunisia, then Egypt, and now of Bahrain, Libya and Iran
have sent the political classes in the US, and those who think for
them, scurrying to find a secure position in what seems to be waves
of constant flux.
The most evident victims in the US seem to be political
conservatives. The far right is going far-out, frightening even
some of its erstwhile colleagues, and producing some interesting
theoretical distortions.
Glenn Beck, a self-described 'rodeo-clown' who has the most extreme
show on Fox News recently took the then-fluid situation in Egypt
and created a Mother of All Conspiracy Theories. It involved the
Muslim Brotherhood, the AFL-CIO (a large US union), and other
'like-minded' groups consorting to create a doomsday scenario: an
international caliphate that extended from Morocco to the
Philippines.
Wow. Beck's apocalyptic visions were immediately attacked by Bill
O'Reilly, a fellow Fox anchor, and later, with greater credibility,
by Bill Kristol. Kristol's a writer and editor who is widely
acknowledged as the genetically-crowned intellectual head of US
conservatism. His Dad was a leading conservative. Kristol noted
that that he generally viewed the variety of positions within the
conservative movement as a sign of health; he then warned that
'hysteria' (ie Beck's hysteria) wasn't healthy.
In doing so, Kristol broke Ronald Reagan's 11th commandment, "Never
speak ill of a fellow Republican." It must also be noted that
Beck's show has suffered a precipitous drop in ratings and there
are rumours it's about to be canned.
Kristol's position is that the aspirations of Middle-Eastern people
should be taken seriously because they represent a genuine desire
for liberty. Beck fears that the mobs in the streets are glove
puppets for darker forces.
Putting aside that both can be right, this is fascinating. The
extremist, Beck, is arguing for a traditionalist and late-Burkean
view - essentially that the elites that have evolved are preferable
to people power, which is to be distrusted because its disorder
creates a vacuum that may be manipulated by unsavory
elements.
Meanwhile, Bill Kristol -a dauphin- is arguing that liberty is a
value to be praised above all others. Freedom is messy. Let the
good times roll.
These two strains have always been at war in conservatism. Now,
in the US media, they are calling one another names.
For the White House, the predicament is worsened by it having to
act in some way, even if that is inaction. Most US presidents like
making speeches about the importance of freedom, though Mr Obama,
for all his postures of change, doesn't make such speeches as often
as his predecessor did. Despite Mr Bush's rhetoric, he was largely
viewed as a puppet of the establishment.
But liberty is at best inconvenient when applied to allies whom you
have long-standing security pacts with. First Tunisia, Egypt, and
now Bahrain, where the US Fifth Fleet has been domiciled for many
years. Yemen, another ally, teeters.
Mr Obama, who has been required to make a public virtue of his
Christianity on account of the American public belief that he is a
Muslim, must be praying that the disputatiousness of his American
conservative enemies gains greater popularity in countries the US
is not allied to, and actively dislikes: places like Syria, Libya,
and Iran.
Comment on Tim Wilson's commentary below.
Read more commentary by Tim Wilson here.
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