Quid Nimis - Journal

Political debate in Western ("Old") Europe has been confined to the Left and the Far Left for as long as many can remember. As a matter of course, anyone speaking up in favor of less government, more direct representation, freer markets, has been branded a "Fascho." The words Nazi and Hitler and Fascist have long since lost their true meaning and therefore their utility for identifying anti-democratic forces. The use of name-calling to shut down debate is now virtually institutionalized, and its spread to the United States as a commonplace occurrence should be greeted with horror by those who love democracy.

For four years now we have been treated to the rhetoric of the Left against President Bush and his policies. The extravagant comparisons to Hitler and Fascism began early and asymmetrically; there was no comparable thematic calumny from the Right. Spare us if you want to go tit-for-tat in arguing this point. Since the presidential elections in 2000, we have gone from being really shocked that anyone would call Bush "Hitler," to nostalgia for those days of moderate tone. As the years have worn on, the extremist invective has gradually been adopted by those higher up the Democrat party food chain, so we have seen it progress from the kook fringe to overwrought college students to church parishioners to people at fashionable dinner parties to the party chairman and now, to elected officials of the Democratic party. It's like mold creeping up the bathroom sheetrock in the days after a toilet has overflowed.

So now we have US senators, members of the "Greatest Deliberative Body," that "cooling saucer of democracy," joining with their less dignified, less preeminent bretheren in the escalation of smears, a trend which culminated this week with the midnight remarks, for the record (though not for prime time) of Senator Richard Durbin. He has seen fit to compare the US government, and its policies towards terrorist detainees to Nazi practices, to the Soviet Gulag, to Pol Pot. The comparison, of course, is completely false in its scale, in its historic basis, in its premise. It was made solely and cynically to curry favor with the most extreme, anti-American elements of his constituency: those most likely to pony up at the next fundraiser.

What does this have to do with the progress of democracy, with the Carnival of the Revolutions? Natan Sharansky spoke about how important it was to hear that the United States was with them, the real victims of the real, historic gulag. It gave him and his fellow prisoners hope to hear the President of the United States acknowledge their plight. Our words were all that stood between them and despair.

Conversely, Osama bin Laden and our enemies have said many times that they know that we are weak: they see it in our lack of solidarity. They see that our military is held in deep disdain by a hefty minority in our own country and the vast majority of the press. They see that nearly 50% of our own people seriously question the notion that America's interests, including our national security, should come first.

They also see that our grasp of history is seriously impaired, and with it our understanding of real suffering, death, and the despair of those who live under the jackboot of our enemies. Historical ignorance abetts our culture and geography to cushion us from those realities: there is nothing like first-hand experience to create understanding. Most Americans have no experience with real curtailment of basic freedoms, much less actual torture. This naïveté and ignorance is a great comfort to our enemies, from Fidel Castro to Osama bin Laden to Kim Jong Il to Hu Jintao. They exploit it to a fare thee well, with the help of our sterling patriots in the Lawyers Guild, the willfuly-blind moral-equivalence mongers, and some of the august denizens of the world's greatest deliberative body.

Senator Richard Durbin, let this be the beginning of your education. Below are just three links that offer a small taste of the brutality of the regimes you cited. The blogosphere, the internet, libraries and even your daily newspaper are full of accounts, first-hand and historical, of what it is like to be in a gulag, to suffer under Pol Pot. You could also open your newspaper to read David Gelernter's most recent op-ed about why your ignorance is so dangerous. If, at the end of reading these accounts, you feel an iota of the shame that your words rightfully bring to you and the Senate, you will resign. The memory of the people who really suffered and died trying to escape oppression to get here, to America, demands it.

On Pol Pot
On the Soviet record of repression
On Nazi Death Camps: Go to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., Senator Durbin. It's right down the street.

We invite readers to comment and give Senator Durbin and his colleagues a history lesson. Your first-hand accounts, links or favorite reads (keep them short- the Senator is very busy) as well as your opinions, are welcome.