from AlterNet's PEEK:
Lee Atwater's Diseased Patriotism Continues to Infect American Politics
Posted by Jill Hussein C.,
Brilliant at Breakfast at 4:24 AM on April 7, 2008.
The debate about what constitutes patriotism has afflicted our discourse since Atwater went after Dukakis.I've always been skeptical of deathbed conversions. Some of it has to do with this notion that seems to exist among conservative Christians that salvation has nothing to do with deeds, just faith. You can bugger little boys in the choirloft, cheat on your wife, embezzle money, burn down your neighbor's house, and none of it matters as long as you believe Jesus died just so you could do all these things.
When Lee Atwater, who was Karl Rove's mentor in the politics of destruction, was dying from a brain tumor, he called for an excision of the "tumor of the soul" in American politics. Horse, barn door, etc. Perhaps bigger people than I am can forgive, but when you look at what Atwater's politics of destruction used against Michael Dukakis in 1988 led to, including the presidency of his then-employer's son, it's hard to look at what happened to Atwater as anything other than "Payback's a bitch, asshole." The only thing that kept me from doing that is the desire to be perhaps just a bit better. Not too much better, because sometimes trying to rise above people who want to drag you into the gutter just leaves you face down flat in the mud with a jackboot on the small of your back.
Bill Moyers talked about Lee Atwater a number of years ago:
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/81516/Atwater may be best known for turning Willie Horton into not just a household name, but also a generic term, like "Kleenex", for any kind of demonology done in politics. The most recent example, of course, is the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. But what I remember Atwater most for is how he turned the Pledge of Allegiance into a major campaign issue.
In 1988, Joseph Sobran wrote in National Review about the Pledge dustup:
WHILE THE MEDIA were preoccupied with whether Dan Quayle had once squeezed Paula Parkinson a little too close, Mike Dukakis ran into some real trouble: tbe Pledge of Allegiance.
Dukakis explained what his problem was: the Massachusetts state supreme court had given him an advisory opinion that it was unconstitutional. "If the Vice President is saying he'd sign an unconstitutional bill," Dukakis retorted, "then in my judgment he's not fit to hold the office (of President)." Wrong answer, Mike.
Though in practice the Constitution means what the Supreme Court says it means, Dukakis must be the first to suggest it means what the Massachusetts supreme court says it means. He only made things worse by falling back on New Class elitism: the judges know best!
Meanwhile, Bush, who had been down as much as 18 points in the polls, shot ahead by as much as nine points.
(snip)
THE MEDIA themselves were shrieking that the Pledge issue was dirty pool. Newsweek charged that Bush had "seized the low ground," Time loftily deplored "the efforts to impugn Dukakis's patriotism." The New York Times hauled out its own constitutional experts to declare Dukakis correct. Anthony Lewis sniffed McCarthyism in Bush's tactics.
All these defenses may have compounded the damage to Dukakis. In a presidential campaign, you don't want to be the sort of guy whose patriotism has to be debated.
Indeed. .......(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/81516/
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