Walk the Walk

I was on a panel this morning about the 2006 elections with two consultants--Republican Ed Rollins and Democrat Doug Schoen--and Time magazine columnist Joe Klein. The conversation was fairly civil. After all, the early morning event at the tony Regency Hotel in midtown Manhattan was sponsored by The Common Good, a group dedicated to civil discourse on current affairs.

So, I'm not sure why Joe Klein turned on me with such ferocity halfway through the panel, virtually grilling me like the drill sergeant he never was: "Do you even know what counterinsurgency is?" (This after Klein argued that we were making real progress in Iraq because Iraqi and US forces were embarking on a door-to-door sweep to secure Baghdad.) Klein is certainly entitled to his views about Iraq and the nature of occupations--however uninformed. But for a man who preaches about the need to restore civility in American political life, he is a hypocrite.

Put aside my morning encounter with the man, but in these last weeks Klein has been all too quick to label those who disagree with his views about national security and Iraq as people with a "hate America tendency" His favorites are "many writers at The Nation and Michael Moore." As Paul Krugman wrote last week, " That's a grossly unfair characterization."

Klein seems to have a desire to depict all of the American left, and too many good liberals, as crazy, malign or unpatriotic. Consider how Klein recently assailed John Conyers, the courageous and distinguished Congressman who will be chair of the Judiciary Committee if the Democrats win control of the House in November. Klein wrote of Conyers, "...in addition to being foolishly incendiary, he is an African American of a certain age and ideology, easily stereotyped by Republicans. He is one of the ancient band of left-liberals who grew up in the angry hothouse of inner-city, racial-preference politics..." Klein is certainly making Karl Rove's job easier.

After the panel, I pulled out something I'd written a few weeks ago, replying to Klein's ugly charge that "many writers at The Nation" were examples of people with a "hate America tendency":

I am not sure exactly who Joe Klein has in mind when he says 'many writers at The Nation.' We have a range of scholars, public policy analysts and writers who cover US foreign policy but none of them would fit that ugly label. Since when it is anti-American to believe that American foreign policy ought to be consistent with international law, that the use of military force should be limited to legitimate self-defense or sanctioned by international organizations, that American foreign policy should be democratically accountable and guided by American republican principles, that the United States should not only oppose empires but eschew imperial policies, that wherever possible the United States should act like a good neighborhood in trying to work with other nations to solve common problems, and that the United States should promote the advancement of human rights, shared prosperity, and ecological sustainability.

"Many of the writers at The Nation opposed the Iraq war not because they hate America because they understood that Iraq posed no threat to the United States or to regional security and that a crusade to remake the Middle East would be resisted by the great majority of people in the Middle East and would more likely create chaos and more terrorism that it would advance the cause of democracy. Klein is either lazy in that he has not read the Nation writers he seeks to smear or is trying to score cheap political points by dismissing the left so as to establish his own hawkish centrist credentials. Or perhaps he understands America less than he would like his readers to believe because he is uncomfortable with the American tradition of principled dissent and with The Nation's faith in the common sense of the American public as a source of democratic accountability.

If you're going to talk the talk, walk the walk. If you're going to preach political civility, the very least you could do, Joe, is be civil--even to those you disagree with.

Comments (22)

1. "Klein seems to have a desire to depict all of the American left, and too many good liberals, as crazy, malign or unpatriotic. Consider how Klein recently assailed John Conyers, the courageous and distinguished Congressman who will be chair of the Judiciary Committee if the Democrats win control of the House in November. Klein wrote of Conyers, "...in addition to being foolishly incendiary, he is an African American of a certain age and ideology, easily stereotyped by Republicans. He is one of the ancient band of left-liberals who grew up in the angry hothouse of inner-city, racial-preference politics..." Klein is certainly making Karl Rove's job easier. "

   Actually, Rove job couldn't be made easier than Conyers has already done...forget Klein.....

   Posted by john maasch at 06/20/2006 @ 6:04pm

2. Off to Venice Beach...

   Posted by john maasch at 06/20/2006 @ 6:05pm

3. Hey VanDumbEvil,

   Frankly, I wished he would have slapped your liberal ass out of the chair!!!You are part of the "Hate America Crowd" and deserve to be shouted down and rebuked for YOUR hypocritical comments and hate America speech!!!

   KUDOS TO JOE KLEIN!!!!!!!!!!!!

   Posted by LibzHateusa at 06/20/2006 @ 6:06pm

4. HateUSA

   ...and no one knows hate around here better than you!

   Posted by leftofcenter at 06/20/2006 @ 6:14pm

5. "I am not sure exactly who Joe Klein has in mind when he says 'many writers at The Nation.' We have a range of scholars, public policy analysts and writers who cover US foreign policy"

   Puleeeeze.....dont flatter yourselves....you are a bunch of silly NITWITS that are good for one thing....wasting good trees with Anti-American treason

   Posted by LibzHateusa at 06/20/2006 @ 6:14pm

6. A US air strike on a fleeing vehicle killed a senior al-Qaeda in Iraq leader on Friday in the same area where two American soldiers went missing a few hours later, a US military spokesman said.US forces had been on the trail of Mansur al-Mashhadani, identified as the top al-Qaeda religious leader in the country

   ANOTHER VICTORY FOR THE GOOD GUYS AND ANOTHER DEFEAT FOR THE TERRORISTS AND THIER ALLIES ON THE LIBERAL LEFT

   Posted by LibzHateusa at 06/20/2006 @ 6:37pm

7. If you're going to preach political civility, the very least you could do, Joe, is be civil--even to those you disagree with.

   Please. This from a woman who just a few months ago stated she wouldn't talk to political adversaries in the green room prior to going on the air.

   Yeah. Real civil, sweetheart.

   Posted by usc1 at 06/20/2006 @ 8:19pm

8. Gee, Katrina, you seem to have Nazis crawling out of the woodwork, here.

   Yeah, HateUSA, I'm talking to you. Your attitude of "The Leader is right, no matter what he does, and everyone who opposes him hates the Fatherland" is exactly what all Hitler's little buddies said.

   Please stop smearing the honor of any of us who ever wore a uniform and stop calling yourself a patriot - you hate everything this country has ever stood for - dissent and distrust for the government - and it starts to embarass me that I served to protect your right to spew such drivel.

   Posted by sdeleve at 06/20/2006 @ 9:58pm

9. If "distrust of the Government" is a liberal ideal, why is it that the left strives to Federalize, unionize, and put more and more capital into the public sector?? In this respect, GWB has been quite liberal. There are many conservatives who publicly denounce his "federalizing".

   Posted by Sliver at 06/20/2006 @ 11:21pm

10. Klein seems to have a desire to depict all of the American left, and too many good liberals, as crazy, malign or unpatriotic.

    Shamelessly exploiting the deaths of the two American soldiers captured and killed by insurgents, right wing pundits are mounting a seemingly coordinated assault upon critics of Bush's Iraq quagmire. In addition to Joe Klein, on Tuesday Bill O'Reilly attempted to whip up patriotic fever by denouncing the ACLU, the BBC, and Air America for "helping the enemy" because they dare to question Bush. Joining O'Reilly was right wing distaff Laura Ingles who with controlled rage effused hatred at war critics for not denouncing the bloody insurgents.

    I am no Hillary fan, but maybe she is right about that vast right wing conspiracy.

    Posted by seattlescribe at 06/21/2006 @ 03:46am

11. Laura Ingles? From Walnut Grove?

    Posted by usc1 at 06/21/2006 @ 08:44am

12. Gee ....Michelle Malkin, now Joe Klein...

    what is it with Ms vanden Heuval and her barrage of "They wuz being mean to me" self-indulgences?!?!?

    Posted by Mask at 06/21/2006 @ 08:45am

13. Posted by USC1 06/21/2006 @ 08:44am | ignore this person

    I think he's thinking of Laura INGRAHAM.

    Posted by Mask at 06/21/2006 @ 09:39am

14. KATRINA

    Are you kidding me? Who the hell do you think that you are fooling? Civility? Where to you get the audacity to be offended on the issue of civility?

    Especially when YOUR NATION mag, had printed countless mean-spirited and vicious attacks on those with which it disagrees.

    Go check Johnny Nichols' thread for an example of this right now.

    You just went from merely foolish to hopelessly ridiculous.

    Posted by CPT at 06/21/2006 @ 10:16am

15. Correction: I meant Ingraham.

    Posted by seattlescribe at 06/21/2006 @ 10:37am

16. (Raising my hand) Ooo! Ooo! Mrs Vanden Heuvel! Read this blurb from Liza's article:

    "Well, for starters, there's that stolen election people are finally talking about. But now the far right is attempting an additional travesty on the good people of Ohio. A bill being pushed by a gang of American Taliban in the state's House of Representatives would criminalize all abortions, with no exceptions, even to save the mother's life. (Go to Planned Parenthood's website to help fight this )."

    Stolen election? Far right? Travesty? American Taliban?? I don't mean to be a tattle tail but she's not being CIVIL, Mrs. Vanden Heuvel!!

    Posted by woodyee at 06/21/2006 @ 11:41am

17. One can sense the rising desperation in the positions of the right by the stridency of the attacks and by the lack of any plan, other than stay the course, that is.

    Or maybe those righties on this blog are out of school for the summer, lacking jobs due to the terrific jobs picture, away from their buds in the young republicans and, needing a well deserved respite from surfing the net for naked pictures of the well endowed Ann Coulter (or is it Jeff Gannon? Whatever), rightously deciding that they would provide a little levity to the otherwise way too serious subjects discussed in the pages of The Nation. Well,I for one wish to offer my thanks righties. The one thing we on the left can always count on is your predictability and lack of imagination. Job well done.

    Posted by way left at 06/21/2006 @ 1:32pm

18. Posted by WAY LEFT 06/21/2006 @ 1:32pm | ignore this person

    How do you square "the stridency of their attacks" (first para.)

    and the entirety of your second paragraph, which was a strident attack?!?!?!?

    Posted by Mask at 06/21/2006 @ 1:48pm

19. Geesh! Please, there must be some intelligent conservative thinker out there. Please! Anybody! Somebody that can make a post without using prefab phrases like "Libs hate America". Somebody with an IQ higher than 35... Thank God (or html programmers) for the "Ignore" button...

    Posted by jmburgos at 06/21/2006 @ 2:41pm

20. At the risk of being uncivil - Klein is an idiot. First you hit the nail on the head when you said he is trying to establish his own credentials. He's a media "bushie" by his mecinary behavior. (I saw the attack on you by him.) I thought he 'outted' himself as a bigot they way he almost leaped across the table at you as he rudely interupted which no one else did on that forum - as if to say "don't you dare challenge me"!! Asshole

    I loved your characterization of our values. I would only change the shared prosperity to prosperity for all. I also can't believe the hate and discontent I see from your opponents. Klein is a wishy washy opportunist only inteseted in making more money - he is discusting and is following the template of fox news.

    As far as these hateful posts it's likely the 'trailer trash pie' that Cal Thomas described as the main viewers of Fox (so-called) news needing to vent their own frustrations. They need to go to right wing rehab - The NAtion would be a definite part of that rehab - AirAmerica might be helpful also. Oh my, when will they realize they are the problem. Ask anyone of them if they like the idea of 9 trillion in debt - it was five and declining when Clinton left office. It may be the only good thing he did becuase he was just right wing lite as well. Who is going to pay that debt and keep borrowing by the way - the banks love you being their slaves with corrupt usury and creation of money from nothing. We all need to quit this slandering each other and concentrate on the people laughing at all of us as we agrue adnausium with each other. The bankers and the corporations (Not the little guy but the huge conglomerates) are ruining America. If you really loved America you'd serch hard for the root problem. The root problem is monetary madness. A fantasy system that keeps all of us from the American dream.

    One last thing - what do you hate mongers do - just search the net for anything left of hitler to demagogue? Why are you even reading stuff you so violently disagree with? You in no way resembe freedom lovers which is the Amercia I love - you are control freaks wanting to tell eveyone else how to behave. Bone up on the founding of the country and read a little Thomas Jefferson - he'll straighten you out on what freedom is and if you don't like his views go some where else. Some people think Iraq would be better off with Saddam in power - maybe try there - sounds like a hateful enough place for hateful people. Good fit.

    Posted by frizzle at 06/21/2006 @ 3:11pm

21. what do you hate mongers do - just search the net for anything left of hitler to demagogue?

    Posted by FRIZZLE 06/21/2006 @ 3:11pm | ignore this person

    Geez, I thought the main thing here was Ms vanden Heuvel's self-indulgence....

    then the HYPOCRISY starts rising.

    So THEY are "hate mongers"....but YOU can say they support anything "Hitler or right there of", huh?

    Add in WAYLEFT....and we can re-title this whole thread "The Pots Decry the Blackness of the Kettles!"

    Posted by Mask at 06/21/2006 @ 3:44pm

22. It astonishes me with how quickly and with how much confidence some people -- usually, but not always, conservatives -- ascribe hate to other people whom they do not know.

    I have attempted to explain this tendency with my theory of stages of development toward maturity. There are three stages, or perhaps phases of maturity, and I suppose one does not always progress from one to the other. We all backslide from time to time.

    The first stage or phase consists of lack of confidence, low self-esteem, and shame. Most of us rise up out of this stage eventually, but we all have memories of it, and some of us slip back into it occasionally.

    The second stage consists of pride, which is a repudiation of the first stage. Most of us reach this stage sometime during our youth, when we are especially confident and believe that we have all the answers. We also believe that we are the work of our own hands, as self-creators. We crave recognition, and above all what we regard as just financial remuneration for our achievement in self-creation. Fortunately, most of us outgrow this stage. Most, but not all.

    The third stage consists of humility. This emerges from the awareness that we did not create ourselves after all, but that we are all the inheritors of a certain measure of good fortune that has nothing to do with what we deserve. Those of us who descend from European immigrants learn that much of our wealth was not created "out of nothing" by "our" hard work and ingenuity, but has been inherited from the theft of the North American continent from its native inhabitants and the enslavement of Africans. Those of us lucky enough to be college-educated discover that many others are unable to afford this privilege. Those of us lucky enough to enjoy good health, or at least good health insurance, discover that many others in our country have neither one nor the other. This leads to self-criticism. We cease to look down on those less fortunate than ourselves. We recognize that they are unfortunate, rather than undeserving, and that we are not more deserving, but merely more fortunate than they. We recognize that our prideful notions of self-creation were foolish. We become able to ask for help when we need it. We also develop the desire to share our good fortune with others who have had less. And for all these reasons, we become better people.

    If only all of use reached the third stage of development and stayed there! But most of us will often fall back into the sin of pride. Indeed, a certain number of us (including quite a few conservatives) seem to be prisoners of their pride who have hardly tasted humility. This, I believe, is the reason why they ascribe "hate," and often "self-hate" to those who are self-critical. Having never themselves felt genuine humility for long (if ever), and having only memories of shame and low self-esteem with which to compare it, they can only imagine that self-criticism must be motivated by self-loathing. This, I believe is where the term "self-hating liberal" comes from. The prisoners of pride, who have not yet attained humility, can conceive of no other reason to criticize America except that one must hate it.

    But in fact, those who criticize America out of true humility love America more, because they understand that through humility and self-criticism comes self-betterment. Those who condemn America's Socratic critics fear that America is as incapable of further development as they are (or as they suppose they are), for which reason they get quickly angry with all those who are not satisfied with America exactly as it is today.

    Progress is not easy, neither for an individual nor for a nation. Pride, contrary to popular belief, often stands in the way of progress(though I'll admit that low self-esteem, which befalls the least fortunate among us, is worse and an even greater hindrance than pride). It is above all humility that makes progress possible. This humility, for those of us who know it, is nothing like shame or low self-esteem. It is a higher stage of pride, the kind that can endure self-criticism and become something better. It is my heartfelt wish that more of us may ascend into this higher state of maturity, and that more of us will sustain it longer than in the recent past. When we do, then I believe you will see our country no longer wallowing in pride (which today is clearly revealing itself as only an advanced state of self-pity), but once again springing forward.

    Posted by JakobFabian at 06/23/2006 @ 12:27am