Election year politics - The politics of fear may be driving law-making. What happens when controversial legislation is proposed? Rather than cool-headed deliberation about what would really keep America safe, while remembering constitutional principles safeguarding citizen rights, Congressional Republican leaders have over-reacted. Too often their emotions take over the process. Republicans may be feeling anxiety about outcomes in the fall elections.White House/Congressional leadership alliance - Congressional Republicans seem unable to unite to act decisively upon measures dealing with national security. What emotion is behind stubbornness? I propose that it is shame and anger. Shame can follow the loss of power and control. Anger can come from being challenged. The Washington Post reports that Republican leadership may filibuster a detainee rights bill proposed by members of their own party opposed to the White House's position, and referred another bill on warrantless wiretapping to a committee generally allied with the White House. This is a kind of good news/bad news dilemma for the nation. It is good news that bad laws have failed; it is bad news that constitutional rights are still getting trampled upon.
Earlier this year, I wrote several posts that continue to be of interest to readers, who read them from my archives. This is an example on emotions from which I quote: 3/31/06 Politics: Do emotions drive actions? It begins:
Politics is not a mere intellectual exercise. All over the world people run for elective office. They do not walk, they run. Women and men have political ambitions upon which they act. My post today will explore one of the drivers of these actions, human emotion. . . Noting my biases at the beginning, they include being a female, a senior, a Westerner, a psychotherapist, and a progressive Democrat.
. . . Wars happen when political action does not solve the problem and emotions take over. War is a form of organized violence within and between political systems. Think about the war in Vietnam. We were eventually drawn into that conflict because of cold war fears. John Foster Dulles' domino theory convinced politicians that Communism would dominate the world if South Vietnam were the first of many Southeast Asian countries to fall. Of course we absolutely could not let that happen. But we lost that war; in fact we were humiliated in the eyes of some. And that loss has colored the United States' international politics ever since.
The emotions of fear and humiliation, in my opinion, drove the 9/11 terrorists. And it is my view that those feelings also influenced the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
Three other links to posts include another on emotions: 9/2/06 - Do emotions precipitate actions?; and two on fear: 1/29/06 - Keeping the Fear Level High, and 8/21/06 - Freedom from Fear.
Lapopessa (on my bookmarked list of bloggers) at Make it Stop! Make it Stop!, said,
Oh Good Grief. Do We Really Scare That Easily?The Republicans are pushing hard with the terrorism card. Apparently if the Democrats win, we will all be killed in our beds. The insane thing is that at least one poll is showing that it is working. Give me a %@^T$@ break! Can we really be such idiots that we are going to fall for this yet again?Another blogger, betmo's comment to her post was right on,
You know what is making us less safe? The neo-con-led, utterly insane policy of this administration to push aside and ignore a real war on terror for a war against a guy who was mean to W's daddy.
i can't figure this one out either. maybe it is that we like melodrama so much as a nation. perhaps people have such small lives that this irrational fear titillates them. i have no other explanation because it is pure stupidity. yes, we should be alert and take steps- but in a free society you have to take risks to remain free. that's the point. 4:54 PMTags: politics Republicans Congress legislation security
My current "creative post" at Southwest Blogger is about standing on the shoulders of those before us.
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