Wednesday, October 06, 2004
Editorial: Democracy suffers under message discipline
Insider critics are vigorously squelched, outside critics are accused of abetting terrorism and needed debate over Iraq is stifled.
From the RoundTable blog
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But the rest of the country - also regardless of party affiliation - should resent and fear that discipline. It may serve George Bush's political ambitions well, but it also stifles meaningful debate over the most important issue of this presidential campaign: Iraq. Courtesy of L. Paul Bremer, Donald Rumsfeld and John Kerry, the public got a good look recently at the message-control rules.
Rule 1. All public statements shall indicate the White House is right and has always been right.
Rule 2. Any public official who says differently shall be privately squelched.
Rule 3. Any outsider who says differently shall be branded weak on security, unpatriotic and possibly an unwitting abettor of terrorism.
Rule 4. When the White House is wrong, see rule No. 1.
Kerry, of course, feels the sting of rule No. 3 whenever he suggests the occupation of Iraq was a bad idea, isn't going well and requires a different approach. In their debate and in one stump speech after another, the president has dismissed such criticism as helping the enemy.
As for rule No. 2, Bremer, the former U.S. administrator in Iraq, and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld became the latest violators to apparently be reined in by the White House.
Bremer said the administration committed too few troops to Iraq, resulting in chaos and violence. Rumsfeld undercut one of the key justifications for the invasion when he said, "I have not seen any strong, hard evidence that links" Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida.
Each provided strong reason to doubt the administration. And, once word of that began to get around, each quickly revised his message. Bremer declared his full faith in Bush's Iraq policies. Rumsfeld claimed he was misunderstood.
And so, with nothing in Iraq going as the administration foolishly assumed, more than 1,000 Americans dead and $120 billion spent, and conditions worsening by the day, criticism remains intolerable to the leader of this democratic republic.
That's message discipline. And it's frightening.
