Speaking just now on MSNBC James Zogby made a very good point -- and pressed Andrea Mitchell on it. His point was that sure, this Pastor Jones fool is one guy, who's managed to get worldwide attention for his stunt. But you cannot separate him, as I noted below, from the whole climate of hate speech and anti-Muslim agitation from the Newt Gingriches and the Sarah Palins and the rest of them.
At that point, Mitchell jumped in and said, wait, Palin said she disagrees with the Koran burning. To which Zogby replied, something to the effect of 'C'mon'. ANd that's just the right reply. This is the standard approach of race haters and demagogues. They keep stirring the pot, churning out demonizing rhetoric and hate speech. Then some marginal figure does something nuts and suddenly ... oh, wait, I didn't mean burn Korans. Where'd you get that idea from? We were just saying that Islam is a violent, anti-American religion and that American Muslims should stop building their mosques and focus on apologizing for 9/11 and maybe get out of America. But burn the Koran? No way.
That's a bit much.
Precisely because media figures like Gingrich and Palin and Beck are quite clear that Islam is, at heart, a religion that is antithetical to American values and political practice, it creates an atmosphere where there is more than tacit approval for outrageous acts of defiance. After all, if Islam is, indeed, a religion whose views do not conform to acceptability, why not go out of one's way to protest the mere presence of Islam, as well as the the role of that religious belief in an act of horrid terrorist violence against our country?
As with so much else in our current social and political milieu, I am quite disgusted by the whole thing. For the most part, I am concentrating on other matters in my life. I did not think it appropriate to let this particular event pass without some comment of my own (not that it's worth much).
Along with the refusal of Republicans to take responsibility for eroding our political and physical infrastructure; for refusing to go along with any proposal of the Obama Administration, to even consider them on the merits; for displaying an ignorance of economics in our current moment that is breathtaking in its potential for finishing off what they started; and for fomenting hatred and disgust toward gays and lesbians int he latter's pursuit of state recognition for their unions; in all these things plus the climate of hatred against Islam, the right and the Republican Party recognize no responsibility, feel no shame, see only an opportunity for regaining political power and control without any sense that it might be important to have a plan to get our country working again.
I mention all this because it is of a piece with our current historical moment. The Republican Party represents nihilism - nothing at all. It is only the pursuit of power for its own sake, and the sake of its wealthiest benefactors and supporters. Period. There is evidence enough for this, and the tacit approval given to the burning of the Q'uran is the final evidence that, in the end, the Republicans hold nothing of value, see no ethical problem with a particular act the direct result of which will be, in all likelihood, an outburst of anti-American violence across the Muslim world. It wasn't always like this, of course; if the Republicans were truly "conservative" in some Burkean sense, it would have some set of values upon which to rest for a plan not just for governance but for speaking out on matters of social and cultural concern. Their lack of any ethical or moral sense is now clear for all to see.
Our country may just go up in those same flames that will engulf the Q'uran on Saturday. It is that dangerous. And not a single large-name Republican has gone so far as to point this out.
