Smart Bombs: Fear itself is the danger

Some say it started with the “borking” of Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork. Others say it was the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. Still others blame the rise of the Internet, where people can enter their information silos without having to deal with opposing viewpoints or the facts.

Whatever the case, the paranoid style of politics that Richard Hofstadter wrote about in the 1960s has reached unimaginable heights – or should I say depths? The flap over President Barack Obama attempting to “indoctrinate” schoolchildren is just the latest example. The weekend resignation of green jobs czar Van Jones is a direct result of this hyper-partisanship.

Jones’ acid tongue was part of his problem, but what was really indefensible and probably caused him his job was signing a petition that charged the Bush administration with participating in and covering up the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. That is, he aligned himself with the so-called Truthers, who believe to this day that the United States attacked itself to produce a rationale for overseas military ventures.

You have to be awfully paranoid to believe such a thing, but being a blinkered partisan surely helps. Jones piloted his own crash.

David Paul Kuhn of Real Clear Politics notes a 2007 Rasmussen Poll showing that only 39 percent of Democrats believed that President Bush did not have advance knowledge of the Sept. 11 attack. Similarly, Daily Kos commissioned a Research 2000 poll that found that only 42 percent of Republicans believed President Obama was born in the United States.

The emergence of the Truthers and the Birthers coincides with the rise of political paranoia.

Kuhn also notes after six months in office, 60 percent of Republicans approved of President Kennedy and 51 percent of Democrats were fine with President Nixon. At the same juncture, 23 percent of Republicans approve of Obama and 28 percent of Democrats approved of President George W. Bush.

Obama Derangement Syndrome has replaced Bush Derangement Syndrome. So stay tuned for more trumped-up crises as one side tries to paint the other as a danger to America. The truth is, this clash of closed-loop craziness is the larger threat.

Labor daze. Can someone explain this poll result? Gallup says that support for unions is at its lowest point. In the 1950s, as many as 75 percent of Americans approved of unions. Now, it is 48 percent. What strikes me as odd is that union membership has declined over the years and was a mere 12.4 percent of workers in 2008. In 1981 (also in the midst of a recession), about 20 percent of the workforce was unionized and the approval rating was 55 percent.

So the less influence unions have on the workforce and the economy the more people dislike them?

In any event, it has become increasingly untenable to blame unions for the nation’s economic ills. Since the mid-1980s, median pay and benefits have not kept pace with the growth in the economy.

So if unions aren’t the problem, what is?

Must’ve been a boxer. Tuesday headline at the S-R’s Web site: “Dog beating suspect turns himself in.” Maybe a hyphenated America wouldn’t be so bad after all.