March 19, 2007
Who Blames America First? II Posted by Alexander Burns at 01:05 PM EST I read the same Michael Barone column as John Steele Gordon did this morning, and I am only slightly disappointed that Joshua Zeitz managed to respond to it first. I thought Mr. Barone’s column was profoundly bizarre. As a college student, enrolled at the so-called Kremlin on the Charles, I expect I would remember being “bombarded with denunciations” of anything. I can’t recall the last time one of my professors denounced a historical figure or field of study. My experience is obviously only anecdotal evidence, but, as Mr. Zeitz has already pointed out, “Barone’s article is without evidence” altogether. The more disappointing thing about Mr. Barone’s column, in my mind, is his practice of what good statisticians call case exclusion. He has focused entirely on an elusive group of liberals who detest different subgroups of American society. Mr. Zeitz has named a few right-wingers who have condemned American social practices. I’d like to add a couple more instructive examples that conform to Mr. Barone’s description of people who “always blame America—or the parts of America they don’t like—first.” About a year and a half ago, Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast of the United States. The devastating impact of the storm is now legendary. Within days of the disaster, accusing fingers were pointing at different responsible and irresponsible parties. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco, FEMA Director Michael Brown, and President George Bush all found themselves taking harsh criticism, most of it deserved. A few right-wing Christian groups had other perpetrators in mind. A group called Columbia Christians for Life observed: “Louisiana has 10 child-murder-by-abortion centers, and five are in New Orleans.” The group also pointed out that the hurricane’s image supposedly resembled the shape of a fetus. This was taken as persuasive evidence that Katrina was intended to purge and purify Louisiana of abortionists. Another leader within the religious right exulted: “This act of God destroyed a wicked city. . . . New Orleans was a city that had its doors wide open to the public celebration of sin.” More famously, and in a similar vein, were comments by the Reverend Jerry Falwell just days after the 9/11 attacks. Appearing on The 700 Club, Fallwell declared: “The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America, I point the finger in their face and say, ‘You helped this happen.’” Never mind Al Qaeda. Our real problem is the Human Rights Campaign! Talk about blaming America “or the parts of America [you] don’t like—first.” Barone may be right that there are well-educated people who are excessively critical of the United States and its British allies. But what about the conservatives who see America as not just wrong but actually deserving of God’s wrath? To me, they’re rather more deserving of scorn than a college professor who detests American military power. One final note. It is ironic that Mr. Barone chose Adam Hochschild’s Breaking the Chains as an example of a right-headed history of English-speaking peoples. Hochschild is a graduate of the same degree-granting program in which I am currently studying. He helped found Mother Jones magazine and he currently teaches at Berkeley. He is also the author of King Leopold’s Ghost, a celebrated and disturbing account of Belgium’s conquest of the Congo. As a writer, he’s hardly uncritical of the Western European and American tradition. I wonder if Barone has read Hochschild’s wider oeuvre, or just the parts that celebrate his heritage.
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