Ruminations, May 2, 2010

Seven habits of highly deceptive people

StevenCovey published his best seller in 1989 – 7habits of highly effective people. Maybe people have become more effective sincethen by reading his book and maybe not. But some can make the argument thatpeople (especially politicians) have become more deceptive. So herein is a listof 7 common deceptive tactics of politicians. (Note: these deceptions are usedby politicians on both the left and on the right. So if your favorite sideseems to be singled out for more criticism than the other side, maybe they justoffer better examples – or maybe my viewpoint isn’t totally objective.)

• Habit 1: Claim the American people are on your side. This gives the impression that you are leading a great crusade. These politicos say thing like “The American people want (deserve, etcetera)…” This is a cop-out. True leaders lead: President Lincoln issued the emancipation proclamation because he thought it was right; President Truman ordered atomic weapons used on Japan because he thought it right. Neither of these leaders justified their action by saying, “The American people want …” It would be nice to hear a politician say, “I believe this is right regardless of what the American people think.”
• Habit 2: Begin rumors about your opponents based on nothing. For example, former Representative Cynthia McKinney (D, GA) once issued a statement saying: "I am not aware of any evidence showing that President Bush or members of his administration have personally profited from the attacks of 9-11. A complete investigation might reveal that to be the case."
• Habit 3: Conflate your enemies with other commonly held enemies. Take, for example, the new Arizona immigration law. The left has now equated the supporters of the law with terrorists (Al Sharpton) and Nazis (Joe Scarborough). On the other side of the political aisle, just google “Obama Marxist” and see how many hits you get.
• Habit 4: Infiltrate an opponent’s demonstration. Donald Segretti, a member of President Nixon’s reelection team, regularly made a habit of having members of his team show up at opponent’s rallies with outrageous signs of support. And then there were the left-leaning students of Stanford who showed up at a rally for President George H.W. Bush dressed like Klan members and cheered Bush vociferously. 
• Habit 5: Frame your question so only your answer seems rational. During the 2000 Presidential campaign, Democratic candidate Al Gore asked voters if they preferred the Democratic tax plan or the Republican “risky scheme.”
• Habit 6: Set your own financial parameters. A current practice is to provide certain financial assumptions for a proposed law and submit it to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The CBO then works the numbers but are not allowed to question the original assumptions.
• Habit 7: Use selective memory. In 2001, President George W. Bush proposed tax cuts to stimulate a slowing economy. The Democrats proposed tax cuts of their own that ranged from 70 percent to 96 percent of the final cuts. Given the current deficit, some Democrats are blaming the Bush tax cuts as if they were not involved in the decision. Similarly, although widely supported by both parties, the Democrats often forget that they had any role in the decision to go to war in Iraq, No Child Left Behind and the Patriot Act.

It seemsas if we could go on ad infinitum.But, since Covey stopped at 7 habits, we will, too.

The cross in the desert

Last week, the Supreme Courtruled that a cross placed on federal land in the Mojave Desert in 1934 tocommemorate World War I war dead was not a religious expression; its placementwas not an endorsement of Christianity and therefore was not a violation of theConstitution. Specifically, the ruling stated: “Placement of the cross on federal land byprivate persons was not an attempt to set the state’s imprimatur on a particular creed. Rather, the intent was simply to honor fallen soldiers.…and the cause it commemorated had become entwined in the publicconsciousness.” (For the complete Court Decision, go here http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/09pdf/08-472.pdf.)

The Court decision hasbeen hailed by many Christians but is it really a loss for Christianity?

Perhaps one of the peoplewho most succinctly observed the interaction of religion and secular societywas French essayist Charles Péguy.  Péguy said that what begins as mystiquefinishes as politique. In 21^st century society that translates towhat begins in the mysticism of belief morphs into the secular world ofunbelief. Looking back on history, we have to admit that Péguy had something. For example, “holydays” were originally days representative of some religious event. They havenow evolved to “holidays” which represent some secular event (e.g., the 4^thof July, Labor Day) or a secularized version of the religious holy day (e.g.,Christmas, St. Patrick’s Day).

And now the Supreme Courtsays that a cross represents not Christianity but “fallensoldiers. … [It has] become entwined in the public consciousness.” The Courtrather than breaking new ground is just stating fact: In today’s world, a whitecross is a secular memorial. 

So, is the cross in the MojaveDesert a victory for Christians or a victory for secularists?

Liberal labels

Is it my imagination thatwhenever the American left feels anger, they identify a conservative group, redefineit and attack?

Let’s take, for example, thelabel neocon. A neocon is a newconservative, someone who previously held liberal views; hence the term. Among the first to becalled a neocon was Norman Podhoretz, former editorof Commentary magazine.Sometimes, neocons call those who have been life-long conservatives paleocons. As for political views,sometimes neocons are a little to the left of paleocons; after all, they didcome from the liberal side and may have a few vestigial views.

But, for some reason, theleft views neocons as militarists who hold people in other lands as inherentlyinferior. “Neocon,” according to Roger Cohen writing in The New York Times, “has morphed into an all-purpose insult foranyone who still believes that American power is inextricable from globalstability and still thinks the muscular anti-totalitarian U.S. interventionismthat brought down Slobodan Milosevic has a place, and still argues, likeChristopher Hitchens, that ousting Saddam Hussein put the United States ‘on theright side of history.’”

Another pejorative that theleft has taken over is “Tea Partier” or variation thereof. People who supportthe Tea Party Movement consist primarily of Republicans, a number ofindependents and some Democrats, all of whom believe that government spendinghas exceeded rational bounds and needs to be reduced. But columnist Courtland Milloy, writing of those in the TeaParty Movement in the mainstream WashingtonPost said that he wanted to “spit on them.” If that’s not enough, he alsowants to “knock every racist and homophobic tooth out of their Cro-Magnonheads.”

Jason Levin, creator of http://www.crashtheteaparty.org: "Do I think everymember of the Tea Party is a homophobe, racist or a moron? No, absolutely not.Do I think most of them are homophobes, racists or morons? Absolutely."

Who are members of the Tea PartyMovement?

• According to a Rasmussen Poll, 52 percent of American voters (with 170 million voters that translates to 88 million Americans) believe the average member of the Tea Party Movement has a better understanding of the issues facing America today than the average member of Congress.
• 62 percent (105 million Americans) believe that the Tea Party is close to their views.
• 16 percent (27 million – 30 million according to the New York Times/CBS Poll) consider themselves part of the Tea Party Movement.
• 35 percent (60 million, according to an ABC News/Washington Post poll) have a favorable opinion of the Tea Party.
• 45 percent (77 million) agree at least somewhat with the Movement's positions.

Cro-Magnons, racists and homophobes? With numbers likethose we have just quoted, there are likely to be representatives fromvirtually all beliefs. There are just as likely to be civil rights advocates,intellectuals, lawyers, plumbers, laborers and columnists for major newspapers.

If one wants an intellectual discussion, wouldn’t it makemore sense to address the issues the Tea Party Movement raises rather thanredefining this group and resorting to adhominem attacks? 

Burkas for men

Some of these jihadists whorelease video tapes are … let’s just say that they appear to have never read Gentlemen’s Quarterly. With their lack ofknock-‘em-dead good looks, you can understand why their culture includesarranged marriages. Kind of makes you wonder: Why is it that they put women in burkas?

Quote without comment

CharlesPéguy (1873-1914), French essayist and editor: "Tyranny is always betterorganized than freedom."

Rob Kulak