Quote Of The Day: Kathleen Parker On Angry Partisanship

There’s apparently a new traitor in America. Her name is Kathleen Parker, a conservative writer who dared write a column in the National Review giving thumbs down to Republican Vice Presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin. The result: a mailbox filled with angry emails — mostly from Republicans — accusing her of all kinds of things such as being a traitor, and even wishing her dead.

Welcome to American politics in the 21st century mega-partisanship, where longtime friends will detest you, red-faced relatives will scream at you, partisans will regurgitate talk radio points derived from party talking points and people will try to demonize you if you dare differ on candidates.

But the BIG DIFFERENCE today is that it isn’t just partisans doing this to partisans of another party (or everyone on each side doing it to those wishy washy ol’ moderates and independents who are also accused of being hypocritical closet partisans if they dare take a stand) — the long knives of vilification and demonization are now thrown at partisans who dare to criticize their own party.

In her column, which must be read in full, Parker said Palin was way out of her league. A few brief excerpts:

Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.

….Only Palin can save McCain, her party, and the country she loves. She can bow out for personal reasons, perhaps because she wants to spend more time with her newborn. No one would criticize a mother who puts her family first.

Do it for your country.

That created a huge stir — a lot of it in Parker’s emailbox.

Here’s a large chunk of a column “The Omen In My Mail” in the Washington Post addressing the hatred via email that she has received. Parker first starts out recapping her column and the reaction she has received. Then she talks about how partisanship sunk the supposed bailout deal. Then she writes:

That we have become a partisan nation is no secret. This week has provided a vivid example of where rabid partisanship leads with the failure of Congress to pass a bailout bill vitally needed to keep our economy from unraveling.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gave a partisan speech, blaming the credit crisis on the Bush administration (omitting the Clinton administration’s role in launching the subprime lending debacle). Republicans responded by voting against the bill.

Everyone’s to blame, by the way.

Such extreme partisanship has a crippling effect on government, which may be desirable at times, but not now. More important in the long term is the less tangible effect of stifling free speech. My mail paints an ugly picture and a bleak future if we do not soon correct ourselves.

And here it comes:

The picture is this: Anyone who dares express an opinion that runs counter to the party line will be silenced. That doesn’t sound American to me, but Stalin would approve.

Readers have every right to reject my opinion. But when we decide that a person is a traitor and should die for having an opinion different from one’s own, we cross into territory that puts all freedoms at risk. (I hear you, Dixie Chicks.)

I’m sure it is coincidence that, upon the Palin column’s publication, a conservative organization canceled a speech I was scheduled to deliver in a few days. If I were as paranoid as the conspiracy theorists are, I might wonder whether I was being punished for speaking incorrectly.

Unfortunately, that’s the way one begins to think when party loyalty is given a higher value than loyalty to bedrock principles.

That’s the issue.

It’s easy to be turned off from politics these days. Many people increasingly don’t want to discuss politics but want to demonize candidates and discredit those who don’t agree with them. Fact based journalism is under fire as newspapers die (New York Sun) or wither as they’re up for sale (my former employer the San Diego Union-Tribune yesterday offered its last day of buyouts and a major exodus of newspaper talent has occurred). Weblogs (including this one) have evolved mostly into Internet op-ed pages and dismay those who don’t know what blogs are and mistakenly assume that most blogs do original reporting and painstaking research.

Many people won’t even read a blog or newspaper unless they know they totally agree with it in advance. Cable news is polarized between the brand names that now represent the right (Fox) left (MSNBC) and the center to center right to center left depending the beholder’s viewpoint (CNN).

The bottom line: many Americans simply do NOT want to hear viewpoints that contradict what they already believe or what they have become conditioned to believe by listening to left and right radio talks show that spend three hours demonizing one party and mentally embedding a party line. He — or she — who doesn’t tow that line and who belongs to party is The Enemy. This personalization of American politics involving the pushing of hot imagery buttons to get partisans to the polls by demonizing a candidate can also unleash dangerous passions.

Parker writes:

Our day of reckoning may indeed be upon us. Between war and economic collapse, we have enormous challenges. It will take the best of everyone to solve them. That process begins minimally with a commitment to engage in civil discourse and a cease-fire in the war against unwelcome ideas.

In that spirit, may Sarah Palin be fearless in tomorrow’s debate and speak her true mind.

And yes, Palin may do better than increasingly low expectations.

Will our polity do the same?