When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
It's the very first sentence of the American Declaration of Independence. One might think it to be the least contentious sentence in all of Americana. But that is just not so.
More below the break.
Yesterday....
I proposed that there are two primary approaches to every good or bad thing in America these days, and despite a prepossessing need for some to insist upon individualism and take a stand against generalization, massively-redundant experience supports the contention that how so-called Reds and Blues see even the most elemental values is at drastic variance.
The Declaration of Independence is as clear a statement of what Americans fight for as has ever been written. It is the template for American-style wrath, and there are now two very different interpretations of it. I made a case for divergent Red and Blue interpretations of the beginning of the most basic building-block of freedom: Demanding it.
I was taken to task for generalizing, though I submit I am considerably more empathetic (not sympathetic) to Republithink than most of my Kossack colleagues. I suspect it was having the temerity to impose a generalizing framework that included Blues. That's okay; Reds don't like drawing comparison, either. But I'm not going to stop, on account this is important.
Still...I might have been inclined to back off my contention....
Then HE spoke
Alas, that was before Bush's speech last night, making a disingenuous distinction between honest criticism (which gets you excoriated and fired and perhaps worse) and dishonorable defeatism (which gets you excoriated and fired and perhaps worse). The FoxNews reporter on the scene summed it up for anyone who missed it: "The President is bluntly asking his critics to lay off." The premise is that honest criticism seeks to right the wrong, defeatism maintains that everything is wrong.
If we truly despaired, we'd have seceded already
Perhaps it's just me, but if Democrats and Independents and Republicans who took issue with lies and spies were such defeatists, if they just did not care and despaired of the situation getting any better, by chance or by action, then they (mostly WE) would pack up and leave, or make our own Declaration of Independence.
Instead, we have offered honest criticism, as a string of generals and advisors have before us, and been met with sneers and deaf ears and treacheries from the very men who insists that we yield our advice and support now, when he would have none of it before.
I got your 'honest'
He asked for honest criticism. So be it. He shall receive it, as we have always rendered it. Bravely, fully, truthfully and justly.
You speak of honor Mr. President, and in the same breath dishonor those who have told you for years the difference between a knight's quest -- and a fool's errand. But you would not listen. Like a churlish knave, rather than a warring prince in need of good counsel, you splashed wine in our faces and held your court to laughing at us. Now, most of your court is being sent to the courts, one by one. What honest advice do such blackhearts and brigands have for you, Sire?
How dare you, sir. How dare you speak of honor. You have wronged us for years, and wrong us anew, and yet you ask for our allegiance.
Know this, sir: What good we do you is incidental to the fulfillment of our oaths to the Republic. If you would have our honest assistance, if you would command our respect, then give in kind, and we are yours.
Mock us afresh, and by no word spoken or unspoken, by no deed done or undone, will we ever serve you.
And we will consider our oaths to the Republic honored by doing so.
You have raised our gorge, Majesty. It is not YOU who needs to be appeased. It is not your cabal of thieves that requires more tribute. Is not your star chamber that requires more secrets. And it is not Your Majesty that requires more power.
You wanted honest criticism. That was some.
Here's more: You were first a citizen, then an elected official, and someday you will be a citizen again. Remember that you are of us, and we be of us again, next time you think us of no account...Mr. President.
Appendix: Readers Digest Version of Yesterday's Diary
Reds: The rest of the world is a place that needs to watch what it says and does, even in its own borders, lest it attract the easy wrath, easily acted upon, of America. That goes for Blues, too. We are powerful because of our faith in God, and God has given us principles to share with others, and we're not afraid, no, we're eager to share them at gunpoint if you oppose or contradict us in any way. What America wants, it better get, it better get it hot, and it better get it now, or reap the whirlwind.
And what we want, in our America, changes often. So pay attention. We might ask something completely different of you tomorrow, and if you can't deliver, we'll find someone who can.
Blues: the world is our home, a place in which we have a special power and prominence because of our respect for the twin pillars of scientific knowledge and reasoned discourse, informed by experience with applying that knowledge to solve real problems in the real world. This Blue America, the land of American know-how and rolled-up shirtsleeves and getting things done. We go to worship, too, we fall in love, we go to war when the cause is just and the stakes are clear. We are slow to wrath and slow to appease.
We will know with clarity of thought, of purpose and of conscience who we fight, what victory looks like, and when to set aside the gun and take up the shovel, bury the dead, then bury the hatchet, and make fast friends out of reconciliation and patience and no small measure of forgiveness. And we have done this before, surely and successfully.
Do not mistake our wisdom for weakness. Fear reaping the whirlwind, if you must. But dread the nightmare that will be visited upon you, if you press us.