PrettyFakes

. . . at tonight’s Republican presidential debate.

Via Darren, I read a recent piece in which Ariel Sharon recalls that, when asked what he would do when he captured Osama bin Laden, President Bush vowed, “I will screw him in the ass!” Strong words, as Darren notes, from Our Christian President.

But here we are in 2007, and we don’t seem to have bin Laden in custody yet—no doubt he’s running even scareder than before, with the thought of a slowly unbelting George Bush deviling his every step. Since it’s decreasingly likely that we’ll catch bin Laden on Bush’s watch, I think it’s important that we know how those individuals vying for his party’s presidential nomination plan to handle the terrorist mastermind if they were to apprehend him. I don’t know if CNN is taking suggestions at this late date, but one question I’d like to hear asked in tonight’s debate is, “How will you punitively sex up Osama bin Laden if captured? What appropriately severe sexual act would you personally perform on Osama bin Laden?” I would anticipate a wide range of enlightening answers, with each candidate trying to top the last. (So to speak! Only terrorists get topped!). Some post-debate spin from each candidate’s camp on why their candidate chose this position or that orifice would be inevitable.

Another question I bet no one will ask is, “(Why) do you hate America?” We liberals have gotten used to condemning such questions as uncivil. It’s the sort of question that’s usually directed at a wide-eyed brand-new low-level operative for the Democratic party or some non-profit organization who has come on Hannity and Colmes to suggest, politely, that maybe torture isn’t always moral, or that maybe we’ve killed more people than we’ve helped in Iraq. In such instances, liberals and principled Americans of all political persuasions rightly protest that it’s not right or civil to impugn someone’s commitment to our nation and its principles simply because he or she holds a different point of view on an issue. These good and earnest watchdogs of public discourse would never think of flinging such a charge in the face of one of their opponents.

But such questions, of course, are really only uncivil if asked in bad faith, if used as a bludgeon. Slacktivist in particular has written thoughtfully about this important distinction on a couple of occasions. Sometimes individuals do believe in things that are un-American and that lead one to assume that, whatever their other merits may be as people or even as politicians, they don’t much care for America—or, more accurately, for the United States, defined not just as a geographical location but as a nation with a flexible but well defined tradition of laws and liberties. For example, the belief, held by some of the frontrunners for the Republican nomination, that the President of the United States should have the ability to seize and hold American citizens indefinitely without charges or trial is un-American. There are a lot of civil traditions and points of constitutional law that are up for debate and interpretation. This doesn’t strike me as one of them. The absolute best you can say of a person who holds such a belief is that he or she is ignorant of our nation’s basic constitutional principles. One assumes that Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney, for instance, are not ignorant.

Civility in public discourse is important. Vital, even. It’s integral to the functioning of a democracy like the one that we still mostly have. But it’s not a gag order. It’s not an agreement to never name a belief or a principle un-American. In fact, true civility obliges us to identify and decry such beliefs when they are introduced into the public sphere. And by “us,” I don’t just mean “jerks with blogs,” but journalists, pundits, and especially politicians running against those with un-American beliefs. Because to entertain such ideas at all seriously —to place them anywhere on the right-to-left spectrum, even on the very end—is corrosive to democracy and the rule of law.

In a random but related note, did you know that Marvel Comics (then Timely Comics, I think) in general, and Joe Simon and Jack Kirby specifically, received death threats from American Nazi sympathizers when they published Captain America #1, featuring Cap socking Adolf Hitler in the jaw? True fact!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 5th, 2007 at 3:41 pm and is filed under Comixx, In the Nation, Professor Fury. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.