The "antiwar left" takes over America (critical of NYT story of today)

[rodeodance]

Saturday February 24, 2007 07:54 EST
The "antiwar left" takes over America

This New York Times article today, by Sheryl Gay Stolberg and John M. Broder, on the debate among Congressional Democrats over how to end the Iraq War, encapsulates so much of what is wrong with our national media. These are the first two paragraphs of the article:

WASHINGTON, Feb. 23 -- Congressional Democrats, divided over how to press President Bush to alter his policy in Iraq, are wrestling over whether to use the power of the purse to wind down the war, and they seem headed for a confrontation among themselves, possibly as early as next week, over a proposal to revoke the 2002 resolution authorizing the war.

Some Democrats acknowledge that they are in a sticky situation as they try to map out a strategy that will appease the antiwar left, which is pushing for conditions on war financing, without alienating moderate Democrats and Republicans who fear being painted as unsupportive of the troops.

There are so many lazy and fact-free assertions in these two paragraphs -- which shape the entire article and which, in some sense, are also shaping the overall Iraq debate -- that it is hard to know where to begin.

The insularity of these reporters means that some conventional premise arises among them, typically based in long-standing political stereotypes that they themselves created and perpetuated, and they are then incapable of thinking about issues in any other way even when facts make inescapably clear that their premises are false (the premise that Democrats are politically endangered by their "antiwar left" was the basis for an entire Fox show hosted by Wall St. Journal ideologues last week, and that theme then arrives unscathed in the pages of The New York Times this morning).

In what universe is it the case that demands for an end to the Iraq War are emanating from the dreaded and cliched "antiwar left"? According to the latest Pew poll:

.(much more and well worth it)

[Mojorabbit]

1. link? n/t

[kenny blankenship]

2. you can read it at Salon but you have to subscribe or watch an ad

the link you wanted

some other highlights: 23% of Republicans belong to this "antiwar left" Stolberg & Broder warn their readers about. 55% of independents also belong to this "antiwar left"

[TreasonousBastard]

3. Well, they are divided, and it is sticky, so...

what's the problem with the article?

[kenny blankenship]

4. the problem is the frame of the article: "antiwar left"

the problem is that the article portrays the Democrats as prey to some rampaging leftwing extremists, when in fact 53% of the US public which just voted Democrats in and the Republicans out of Congress, wish for the troops to be brought home from Iraq ASAP. As in, END THE WAR NOW is the hope and position of a majority of the public.
55% of self-identifying independent voters believe the same.
Even 23% of Republicans are part of this broad consensus that Bush's war in Iraq is a failure and needs to be stopped.
Now if all these different people believe the war should be stopped and soon, they must believe that Bush's war juggernaut needs to be opposed--since Bush has shown no inclination to do anything in response to outcry against the war's progress but to stomp on the gas pedal. And there isn't any other body with a say in this continued war policy but the Congress.

Nevertheless it is the continuing practice of these "journalists" writing for a once respected paper to refer to the Democrats as somehow goaded by an implacable splinter group of crazies--aka, "The Anti War Left"--into their present collision course with Bush. The implied payload of the term "antiwar left" is to make being "antiwar" into an apposite almost synonymous term with "Left". Since "everyone knows the Left is a tiny minority!" this calculated pairing of terms paints the Congressional Democrats as a weakened, divided party, a party that has been driven astray from the mainstream of American opinion by the hectoring of a few wild eyed ideologues. However according to polling data the view that the Iraq war is a policy error to be stopped and reversed is in fact the mainstream view now held by the majority--and certainly by a majority of Democrats. It's not out of the mainstream to be against the war and Democrats are not divided about that at all.

Leftism has NOTHING to do with the broad consensus which exists in this country to pull the plug on Bush's war--remember those anti war sentiment figures for independent voters, a group usually fellated by the Washington press corps for their supposed all-American non-partisanship and their pliable lack of ideological convictions. But that is exactly how Stolberg and Broder choose to portray antiwar sentiment: as a function of leftist ideology.

That is a FRAME-UP. Portraying the differences among Democrats and their general antiwar movement as the product of a Left wing --or in other words Marxist/anticapitalist-- ideology. And if you notice in other stories reported today this frame appears to have been borrowed directly from Mitch McConnell's ugly mouth.