COMMENTARY: The Arrogance of Victory -- Minus the Pride
By Joseph J. Honick
It was the conservative icon Rush Limbaugh who once gravely intoned
that “words mean things” when taking to task some target or other of
his. Indeed they do.
Growing up in this country, the son of immigrant parents who readily displayed their pride in America that gave them so much, that sense of democracy embedded itself in me as well. One of the aspects that always assured me and millions about the nation’s future were the words of political victors and losers once the campaigns were over, words that promised mutual commitment for the good and stability of the country.
That illusion was shattered within 24 hours of one of the least dignified election campaigns on record. Oh, of course, harsh, sometimes even hateful words are trotted out during campaigns. But, as noted earlier, once the ballots are counted and the winners and losers announced, there typically has been some dignity for the good of the order.
Not this time. And that is both shameful and dangerous.
Hardly had the winners been announced that the pretender to the Senate leadership, Mitch McConnell declared his mission to be singularly so great an assault on the Constitutionally affirmed election of President Obama as to insure there would be no second term possibility. Nowhere in McConnell’s rash assertions was there one single affirmation of positive commitment to rebuilding an economy that fell apart when his party occupied the White House or to bring to a conclusion one and a half wars begun nearly a decade ago, wars that have no ends in sight.
Worse than even this inexcusable declaration was the virtually total avoidance of what Republican leadership would do bring the wars to an end…only a commitment to destroy a presidency.
Then, at the first press conference featuring the likely new Speaker of the House of Representatives, the handsome and well spoken John Boehner, he, too, avoided the war until asked a very soft question by one of the media. His response said virtually nothing. He asserted merely that it was necessary we “succeed” which may or may not mean actual “victory” and the exited quickly without saying what that doubletalk meant.
Add to this the so called “Pledge to America” as the marketing slogan for the Republican campaign. When pressed for specifics in this “Pledge”, a lot of those “words” were tossed around, but only after the election did the GOP leadership admit they now have to figure out the details of what they meant. But none of that would keep them from undermining the presidency for the next two years until they can figure out what it was they had promised.
When I wrote the plea for real American leaders to stand up, I challenged Democrats and Tea Baggers as well as Republicans to speak to American needs instead of their political declarations of war…suggesting this might be our last chance political dignity.
We (and they) failed.
But there is another culprit: the media who failed to demand precise answers to major declarations from all sides. Hardly anyone even feebly raised questions about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the candidates accommodated their failure by also avoiding the subject.
The silence of the media lambs on this and other subjects was, well, deafening.
In many ways, it’s difficult to blame voters who may have switched their allegiances at this midterm, bombarded as they were by confusing promises of something called a Pledge to America and the realities of economic circumstances that threaten both the unemployed AND the employed.
So, had the leaders of the victorious Republicans merely have performed as proud winners with respect to the vanquished, as has always been a reflection of what a democracy looks like, how different that could have been. But now even the winners are mired in promises called “Pledge” with no meat on its bones and a declaration of destruction instead of a commitment to rebuild.
Indeed Limbaugh was right on target: Words do mean things.
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Joseph J. Honick is a frequent contributor to Huntington News Network and is president of the international consulting firm GMA International Ltd., based in Bainbridge Island, WA.