A house divided

Monday, 2:55 pm

By Kate

Apr

30

2007

Robert Novak wrote a column that appears in today’s Washington Post, called Hagel’s Stand. In it, Novak says that Hagel just returned from his fifth visit to Iraq. He spoke on the record to Novak and says that Iraq is coming undone and growing weaker by the day. We need to start pulling back some troops and we have a very large mess—thanks to people like Elliot Abrams. (Welcome to reality, Mr. Hagel.) Novak puts a lot of faith in what Hagel says because, well, Hagel is a Republican. In fact, Novak devotes the last paragraph of his column to reminding the party faithful of Hagel’s bona fides.

These judgments come from someone credited with rebuilding Nebraska’s Republican Party and who has earned a lifetime conservative voting rating of 85.2 percent from the American Conservative Union. Hagel represents millions of Republicans who are repelled by the Democrats’ personal assault on President Bush but are deeply unhappy about his course in Iraq.

I think the inescapable point that Novak is making is this: If a respected Republican says it, we should pay attention. Never mind that Democrats and independents across this country have been saying the same thing for quite some time.

When a respected Republican says it, we should pay attention.

Even lefty blogs are noted for quoting Republicans when they stray off the reservation. As if the Republican’s words give weight to the argument they’ve been making for years now. When a Republican says it, that lends gravitas and affirmation to the same argument they’ve (we’ve) been making for the last 3 years, at least.

But such are the times we live in.

And that, I believe, is going be one of George W Bush’s enduring legacies. He and his faithful so divided this country that policy arguments were no longer considered on the basis of merit—they were considered on the basis of which party faithful said it. That was calculated, intentional, encouraged—and they accomplished that division with ease. All the right ingredients were in place for it.

Now that a few of the Republican faithful have begun to stray off message, that division may become more muddied. It’s still a powerful force in the minds of many, particularly the media, when assessing issues. And I think it’s becoming a source of confusion for a good many people in this country. Perhaps the media more than anyone.

It was a dangerous experiment that worked very well. I hope that, collectively, we will eventually have the hindsight to recognize what that calculated and orchestrated division in the people wrought. It was and is still dangerous. Fact and truth are never the province of one ideology over another. When we discard intelligence (brains) based on party allegiance, we are only half a nation and you know what they say about a house divided.