Dispatch from a Red State, which asked to remain anonymous

Biscuit's on a reduced posting schedule for a few days, as we are visiting my natal home to give the kid some quality time with my parents.

Unfortunately, I grew up in a red state. Fortunately, it's a warm red state, with fresh orange juice. (The state forgot to request that I obscure identifying features when it asked for anonymity.) Since Boston is buried in more snow than we've seen in a hundred years, it was a perfect weekend to leave town. Also, my father bribed us with tickets to some lunch with Russ Feingold, who for not-quite-clear reasons no doubt involving a potential presidential run, was making the rounds.

My hometown is, um, a lovely place full of thoughtful, intelligent, kind, and tolerant people. For example, just outside of town a group has generously invested in an educational billboard. Last time the biscuit family visited, we came down for the week before the election to get out the vote for the Kerry campaign. Biscuit baby spent many hours on the grimy floor of the campaign office playing with a Mr. Potato-head of unknown origin. We made it back to Boston just in time to go mill around outside of Faneuil Hall while Kerry conceded the election. (There may have been some angry chanting involved, and I lost a lens out of my sunglasses and didn't notice till we got home.) Like everyone sensible, we then descended into a pit of despair.

So we were a teeny bit reluctant to come back to what for us was the scene of democracy's last stand. But, sun, warmth, no snow. Feingold was very nice. I thanked him for voting against Gonzales and gave him crap for approving Condi Rice. The Senator seems to think there's some hope that this administration will dig its own grave in the next four years, causing Americans to finally see the light. It's adorable, this optimism. Me, I think Americans will be digging graves for their sons and daughters for a long time yet, and all the time preaching of Patriotism, and Freedom, and Prosperity, and Strength, and Resolution, and Liberty. And the more graves they dig, the worse things get, the more certain people will become that the cause for which they sacrifice is a great one, that we are living in historic times, and have an opportunity to end tyranny forever and ever and ever. Cause geez, if that story's not true, then what are we dying for?

Feingold said something -- I don't quite remember what his exact words, but he was talking about Condi Rice comparing the post-WWII period with today and saying how we too had to work to spread liberty so that future generations -- points to Biscuit baby, nursing at the table immediately in front of him -- would reap the fruits of their vision. I'm not sure what particular statement he was referring to, but the general sentiment to which he referred is clearly part of the current 'message' from the administration. And don't get me wrong, Feingold was certainly not approving the administration's vision. He was saying yeah, we do have to think about future generations, and this administration is not.

But actually, he reminded me that I've been meaning to discuss the new message, and just how dangerous it seems to me, not because it's utterly hypocritical for the administration to talk about spreading freedom (although it is), but because it is a prophetic, totalizing, and apocalyptic vision of the future. Here's Condi in her opening statement during her confirmation hearing (all the emphasis is mine):

And in these extraordinary times, it is the duty of all of us, legislators and diplomats and civil servants and citizens, to uphold and advance the values that are core to our identity and that have lifted millions around the world. One of history's clearest lessons is that America is safer and the world more secure than ever and wherever freedom prevails. It is neither an accident nor a coincidence that the greatest threats of the last century emerged from totalitarian movements. Fascism and communism differed in many ways but they shared an implacable hatred of freedom, a fanatical assurance that their way was the only way, and a supreme confidence that history was on their side. At certain moments, it seemed that history might have been on their side. During the first half of the 20th century, much of the democratic and economic progress of earlier decades looked to be swept away by the march of ruthless ideologies armed with terrible military and technological power. Even after the Allied victory in World War II, many feared that Europe and perhaps the world would be forced to permanently endure half enslaved and half free.

The cause of freedom suffered a series of major setbacks: communism imposed in Eastern Europe, Soviet power dominant in East Germany, the coup in Czechoslovakia, the victory of Chinese communists, the Soviet nuclear test five years ahead of schedule, to name just a few. In those early years, the prospect of a united, democratic Germany and a democratic Japan seemed farfetched. Yet America and our allies were blessed with visionary leaders who did not lose their way. They created the great NATO alliance to contain and eventually erode Soviet power. They helped to establish the United Nations and created an international legal framework for this and other institutions that have served the world well for more than 50 years. They provided billions in aid to rebuild Europe and much of Asia. They built an international economic system based on free trade and free markets to spread prosperity to every corner of the globe. And they confronted the ideology and propaganda of our enemies with a message of hope and with truth. And in the end, though the end was long in coming, their vision prevailed.The challenges we face today are no less daunting. America and the free world are once again engaged in a long-term struggle against an ideology of hatred and tyranny and terror and hopelessness. And we must confront these challenges with the same vision and the same courage and the same boldness that dominated our post-world war period. In these momentous times, America has great tasks and American diplomacy has great tasks First, we will unite the community of democracies in building an international system that is based on shared values and the rule of law. Second, we will strengthen the community of democracies to fight the threats to our common security and alleviate the hopelessness that feeds terror. And third, we will spread freedom and democracy throughout the globe. That is the mission that President Bush has set for America in the world and is the great mission of American diplomacy today.
[...]
[Re: Cold War]The road was not always smooth, but the basic unity of purpose and values was there and that unity was essential to our eventual success. No president and no secretary of state could have effectively protected American interests in such momentous times without the strong support of the Congress and from this committee. And the same is true today. Our task and our duty is to unite around a vision and policies that will spread freedom and prosperity around the globe. I've worked directly with many of you and in this time of great challenge and opportunity, America's co-equal branches of government must work together to advance freedom and prosperity. In the preface to his memoirs, published in 1969, Dean Acheson wrote of the post war period that, Those who acted in this drama did not know, nor do any of us yet know, the end, close quote. Senators, now we know. And many of us here were witness to that end. The end was a victory for freedom, the liberation of half of a continent, the passing of a despotic empire and vindication for the wise and brave decisions made at the creation. It is my greatest hope and my deepest conviction that the struggle we face today will someday end in a similar triumph of the human spirit. Working together, we can make it so.

I distrust all talk of ends. Stories end. Movies end. Individual lives end. But history does not end. We could do with less rhapsodizing on these momentous times, our great mission, the end of tyranny, and the need for unity of purpose and values. From the mouths of reasonable people, these words would seem to me merely misguided hot air. But this administration is not 'reasonable people'. They are revolutionaries in the name of freedom! They will spread their freedom and democracy throughout the world, once and for all, even if they have to kill us all to do it.