Columnists :: Holding The Center
Withdrawal symptoms by Richard J. Rosendall
contributing writerThursday Nov 29, 2007 Reality seems unusually malleable in an era when torture becomes enhanced interrogation, pseudoscience is the basis for public policy, and a majority of the population is branded as disloyal for demanding accountability from their president. With the American electorate bitterly divided on a range of issues, and with ubiquitous electronic devices allowing us to retreat into an alternate world, it is unsurprising, if troubling, that many people have withdrawn from their surroundings to listen to the voices in their heads. Here I offer a few examples.
Longtime D.C. gay activist Paul Kuntzler has spent the past few years squandering a considerable inheritance pursuing his theory that President Lyndon Johnson was behind the assassination of President John Kennedy. In service of this he has maintained a globetrotting itinerary with himself as the international man of intrigue. Last year at a Washington fundraising banquet, he dropped a two-inch-thick sheaf of documents in front of me, including old KGB files. (If you like American intelligence circa 2001, you’ll love Kremlin speculation from 1963.) Anticipating his impending fame, he began planning his memoirs and offered me $80,000 to write them for him. On July 31, he ran a two-page ad in The New York Times detailing his theories. He is unfazed by comments from friends that he is crazy. His conspicuous consumption continues; I recently received an engraved invitation to his holiday party. I can’t help wondering about the difference all those funds might have made in electing gay-friendly officials or defeating anti-gay ballot initiatives. But of course it’s his money.
Rev. Mark Thompson, with whom I work on the NAACP D.C. Police Task Force, has never met a conspiracy theory that he didn’t like. He hosts a new talk show on Sirius satellite radio in which his maiden broadcast on Nov. 14 featured such radicals as Professor Leonard Jeffries, comedian Dick Gregory, and reparations-for-slavery advocate Conrad Worrill. They talked about how nothing has really changed to relieve the disempowerment of African Americans. This after the U.S. House of Representatives appointed Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) chair of the Ways and Means Committee, John Conyers (D-Mich.) chair of the Judiciary Committee, Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) chair of the Homeland Security Committee, and James Clyburn (D-S.C.) the Majority Whip. Rev. Thompson and his guests do not deny such facts; it is simply that no advance measures up to their ever-receding horizon of perfection.
At the other end of the spectrum, David Horowitz (whose conservative FrontPageMag.com has published several of my articles critical of the far left) wrote on Nov. 20, "Why do liberals love water-boarding? Because it gives them yet another opportunity for self-righteous anger and the moral hatred that goes with it - hate as always directed against America and its democracy. It gives them a chance to deflect their attention away from what they have actually been doing, which is to sabotage the war against terror in Iraq ... For four years ... progressive America - most of progressive America - has not wanted us to win the war but has done everything it could to help the enemy and encourage his war against us." When I criticized him for labeling war critics collectively as traitors, he replied, "The NYT regularly prints classified information about America’s national security programs and has destroyed two of them. Used to be called treason. Worse byfar than anything Tokyo Rose or Axis Sally did. Most certainly will or already has gotten people killed. What do you prefer to call it?" I replied, "Journalism."
True Believers like these, for all their publications and broadcasts, are essentially talking to themselves. In some cases, they make a living at it. What they are not doing is reaching the vast majority of the population that wants more of a response to our nation’s challenges than paranoid conspiracy mongering and scorched earth politics.
In this climate, candidates who can credibly bridge the divide may gain an electoral edge. I am not talking about taking both sides of every issue or making softheaded appeals for us all to get along. I am talking about
engaged, reality-based politics - building sufficient support to advance policy goals. We have had enough rhetoric designed to persuade ourselves. To persuade enough others to win elections, we need to go outside our comfort zones.
In response to the controversy over a campaign appearance by antigay gospel singer Donnie McClurkin on behalf of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), the senator wrote, "There are good, decent, moral people in this country who do not yet embrace their gay brothers and sisters as full members of our shared community. We will not secure full equality for all LGBT Americans until we learn how to address that deep disagreement and move beyond it. To achieve that goal, we must state our beliefs boldly, bring the message of equality to audiences that have not yet accepted it, and listen to what those audiences have to say in return." Many gay people refused to accept his answer, but Obama, whatever one thinks of his candidacy, is right.
Of course, it’s easier just to throw up your hands. Last week, Joel S. Hirschhorn of delusionaldemocracy.com wrote, "In the end, without honesty, every reason we use to vote for someone is a joke. Delusional thinking about candidates has produced our delusional democracy. Time to stop voting for liars. Better to not vote at all. Voting for liars only encourages more lies."
That’ll show ’em.
Richard J. Rosendall is a writer and activist whose work has appeared on Salon.com and the Independent Gay Forum (www.indegayforum.com). He can be reached at rrosendall@starpower.net.
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