On NPR I caught a clip of Scott McClellan commenting on the upcoming search for Sandra Day O'Connor's replacement. He said that the White House hoped that the Democrats wouldn't be prisoner to "liberal special interest groups." That means you, girls.
There was the snark part of the post, and here is the serious part. Once again the administration and its mouthpieces demonstrate their contempt for the basic foundations of the democratic pluralism our republic is built on. Perhaps contempt isn't wholly correct, as the interest groups are A-OK as long as they are the right ones (Focus on the Family? Anyone?) , and in that case they aren't special. Let's say then, the cynical use of tactics that weaken support for democratic pluralism in order to increase their own power. Not that it's anything new.
It's even hard to write a post about something like McClellan's comment, because it seems so minor, so silly. It's boring. We're used to it. There are bigger fish to fry. Everyone smears the opposition.
The opposition is not democracy. Yet even as I type that sentence I imagine inner suspicious voices saying, "oh yeah?" and then thinking about walking and quacking.
There is a difference in attacking a president versus attacking the presidency. There is a difference in smearing the behavior of a corrupt elected governor and smearing the idea of elected governors. You can call your opponent dumb, corrupt, clueless, whatever you will. But the institutions of democracy? Setting up interest groups as special (like those "special rights") and liberal smears interest group politics as anti-democratic, fringe and suspicious.
Poor Tocqueville, spinning.
Posted by binky at October 1, 2005 11:42 AM | TrackBack | Posted to Gender and Politics