Minister Al-X

Krugman: The Enemy Within

Paul Krugman has been pointing to the rise of the revolutionary Right since Bush was handed power by the Supreme Court. In his column today he takes a look at the Shiavo case and examines the threat that the Theo-Cons pose to our Democracy.

Democratic societies have a hard time dealing with extremists in their midst. The desire to show respect for other people's beliefs all too easily turns into denial: nobody wants to talk about the threat posed by those whose beliefs include contempt for democracy itself.

We can see this failing clearly in other countries. In the Netherlands, for example, a culture of tolerance led the nation to ignore the growing influence of Islamic extremists until they turned murderous.

But it's also true of the United States, where dangerous extremists belong to the majority religion and the majority ethnic group, and wield great political influence.

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One thing that's going on is a climate of fear for those who try to enforce laws that religious extremists oppose. Randall Terry, a spokesman for Terri Schiavo's parents, hasn't killed anyone, but one of his former close associates in the anti-abortion movement is serving time for murdering a doctor. George Greer, the judge in the Schiavo case, needs armed bodyguards.

Another thing that's going on is the rise of politicians willing to violate the spirit of the law, if not yet the letter, to cater to the religious right.

The rise of the ChristoFascists in this country should be seen as a direct threat to our liberal Democracy. If these people have their way more juries will be sentencing people to death based off of Biblical readings in the near future. And since this is clearly against the very nature of our government, the ChristoFascists will be attempting to place judges on the bench who have a blatant disregard for our nation's laws.

But the big step by extremists will be an attempt to eliminate the filibuster, so that the courts can be packed with judges less committed to upholding the law than Mr. Greer.

We can't count on restraint from people like Mr. DeLay, who believes that he's on a mission to bring a "biblical worldview" to American politics, and that God brought him a brain-damaged patient to help him with that mission.

What we need - and we aren't seeing - is a firm stand by moderates against religious extremism. Some people ask, with justification, Where are the Democrats? But an even better question is, Where are the doctors fiercely defending their professional integrity? I think the American Medical Association disapproves of politicians who second-guess medical diagnoses based on video images - but the association's statement on the Schiavo case is so timid that it's hard to be sure.

The closest parallel I can think of to current American politics is Israel. There was a time, not that long ago, when moderate Israelis downplayed the rise of religious extremists. But no more: extremists have already killed one prime minister, and everyone realizes that Ariel Sharon is at risk.

America isn't yet a place where liberal politicians, and even conservatives who aren't sufficiently hard-line, fear assassination. But unless moderates take a stand against the growing power of domestic extremists, it can happen here.

The simple fact that Sharon is now counted as moderate, and is targeted by the Religous Right of Israel, says a lot about how far that nation has moved to the right. Anyone who truly believes in and has love for freedom and democracy should be scared. The TheoFascists are on the march worldwide, and they threaten our values and our nation from both at home and abroad.

posted by Anonymous @ 9:31 AM