Democrats Playing Catch-Up in Media War
by Norman Solomon
Dissident Voice
October 10, 2002
Many news stories and commentaries have marveled at the
failure of Democrats to seize the high political ground this fall. With the nation's
economic stride continuing to falter under a Republican president, the main
opposition party should be cruising for a triumph in the midterm elections.
Instead, the Democratic Party may be lucky to hold its own in the House and
Senate.
The key problem, we're told, is that Democrats come off
second-best as defenders of national security and wielders of military might.
Republicans have positioned themselves well to exploit their advantage on such
issues when Americans vote on November 5. But we ought to be asking deeper
questions about why this situation exists.
No political clash takes place in a vacuum separate from
the media din. Yet, to hear countless journalists spin the received political
tales, they're merely flies on the wall, noting events in the political arena.
That pretense is absurd. The behavior of editors, reporters and pundits is
crucial to the big dramas of politics.
In recent days -- despite the outspoken and sometimes
courageous positions taken by some members of Congress -- leading Democrats
have been shamefully deferential to war planners. If there is an afterlife, the
late Americans now weeping at events on Capitol Hill this autumn surely include
Sen. Wayne Morse and Rep. Patsy Mink, early opponents of the Vietnam War who refused
to put their consciences on hold.
When antiwar Democrats stick their necks out, of course
they're targeted by the GOP. But the ferocity of the assaults they undergo is
greatly heightened by the dominant militarism of their own party -- and of the
news media. Head-patting cliches about freedom to dissent don't make up for the
dire shortage of media support for pro-peace positions in the face of fierce
propaganda attacks.
No one in Congress better symbolizes the convergence of
political opportunism and media pandering than John Kerry. Thirty-one years
ago, as a Vietnam veteran, he denounced the war in Southeast Asia. Today, Kerry
is gaining distinction among Democrats as one of the prominent hollow men in
the Senate.
It was no surprise on October 9 when Sen. Kerry announced
that he would vote for the pro-war resolution. Gearing up for a presidential
run in 2004, he never seems to miss an opportunity to make his peace with the
next U.S.-led war, as if to cleanse himself from the taint of past principles.
A week before his announcement, Kerry appeared for an hour
on MSNBC's "Hardball" program. With a backdrop of
earnest young cadets at The Citadel, the graying senator burnished his warrior
persona.
"Soldiers who love each other and really fight for each
other as much as for anything else, I think that that's what we want to make
certain is what happens if and when we go into Iraq," Kerry said.
"I'm prepared to go. I think people understand that Saddam Hussein is a
danger. But you want to go maximizing your capacity for victory, not beginning
with deficits. That's one of the lessons of Vietnam."
Millions of Americans actively opposed the Vietnam War
because it was morally wrong, not because it wasn't being won. But these days, while
drawing lessons from that conflagration, Kerry goes out of his way to tout a
more media-palatable imperative -- "maximizing your capacity for
victory."
In essence, like most Democrats in Congress, the junior
senator from Massachusetts keeps trying to have it both ways -- sounding notes
of restraint while helping to open the floodgates for a horrendous war. Pieties
about democratic procedures spiced the red meat that Kerry spent much of the
hour throwing out to the uniformed crowd and the national TV audience.
But in the race to the bloody bottom, Democrats will not be
able to keep up with the GOP. By failing to challenge the momentum toward mass
slaughter, Kerry and like-minded "liberals" are forfeiting their
souls without appreciable political benefit. Because much of its base is
inclined to be antiwar, the Democratic Party cannot hope to be united while
staying on a path of "me too" militarism.
Inside the amphitheater in Philadelphia at the 2000 Republican National Convention, I was struck by the blood-curdling joy that delegates expressed when speakers voiced enthusiasm for past and future wars. The Democrats will never be able to equal such mind-numbing fervor for military madness. It's tragic that so many seem to be trying.
Norman
Solomon's latest book is The Habits of Highly
Deceptive Media. His syndicated column focuses on media and politics.
Email: mediabeat@igc.org