posted May 12, 2006 01:09 AM              

Leveraging Xenophobia and Other Bush Administration Policies
by SusanG
Mon Apr 10, 2006 at 11:19:32 AM PDT

If you think "leveraging xenophobia," as the Washington Post article examined by Hong Pong claims the military is doing in Iraq, is confined to our Middle East policy, think again.

Leveraging xenophobia, and every other incidental difference between individual Americans, is the heart and soul of nearly all Bush administration's policies, foreign and domestic. This constant appeal to our most primitive fears - of scarcity, of violence, of foreigners, of our neighbors - is a calculated manipulation designed to divide Americans against each other, and it is destroying the very premise upon which this country was founded: E Pluribus Unum, "out of many, one."

For this administration, out of one nation, many splintered factions are being created in a systematic way. Take a look around.

Consider how the Social Security privatization debate pits the young against the old, how tax cuts pit the rich against the poor, how the immigration debate pits underpaid native-born Americans against cheap laborers. Listen to the right-wing rhetoric about the "war on Christians" and think about how feeding the paranoia of the fundamentalists sets that faction up against nearly everyone else, even tolerant Christians. Anti-intellectualism, railing against affirmative action policies, labeling pacifists as "traitors" ... these are all divide-and-conquer tactics, used and abused throughout human history.

The truth is, every American can be sliced half a dozen different ways: by gender, by class, by education, by age, by region, by religion ... and in this day and age of niche marketing, even by whether we are NASCAR fans or latte sippers. And the Bush administration has figured out, if you slice us, ultimately you can dice us.

We are a nation devolving to tribalism under this administration, and this nurturing of the worst side of human nature has allowed us to accept policies that were unthinkable a mere six years ago: We can torture people, because they are foreign and different. We can wiretap anyone, because we are a nation bursting at the seams with people harboring different ideas. We can calmly discuss in the halls of Congress slapping a felony on Samaritans who give water to human beings dying of thirst in the desert, if the dying are foreign and different. We can draw up plans to use nuclear weapons on people who are foreign and different. And so on.

This is not just empire building or corporate hegemony or a natural outcome of capitalism. This is war against the fundamental idea of America itself.

Our differences - seen at the time of our nation's founding as the seeds of our vitality, strength, creativity, endurance and ability to build community - are now portrayed to each of us, overtly and covertly, as the root of evil.

Funny, isn't it, how one of the reasons we were told we needed to invade Iraq was to spread the western model of democracy and tolerance. Instead, with each passing day, America itself looks and sounds more like the country we set out to "cure" of its factionalism.

We are being leveraged on every level, dear readers, by the most massive marketing machine in the history of humankind, the U.S. government under George W. Bush. And the future of our experiment in democracy depends on each of us uniting and recognizing our shared aspirations instead of our exaggerated minor differences.

It's come down to this: Living our lives around a presumption of shared humanity has become a rebellious and provocative act to this government, by definition almost a felonious conspiracy. Attendance at a Quaker meeting hall can get you wiretapped without a warrant. Calling scholars overseas can get you data mined.

While there is pain in the realization of how quickly a national identity can be unraveled, there is also an element of hope in this drastic level of governmental intrusion as Americans begin to wake up. The truth is, it's now come down to each of us, as individuals and as a collective of citizens, to live out our beliefs in our daily lives. Are we going to go down like a nation of jackals, set upon each other by a government of master manipulators?

For myself, I'm choosing to live by Obama's words at the Democratic convention, which couldn't present a starker contrast to the "leveraging xenophobia" mindset of the Bush administration:

"If there is a child on the south side of Chicago who can't read, that matters to me, even if it's not my child. If there is a senior citizen somewhere who can't pay for their prescription drugs, and having to choose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer, even if it's not my grandparent. If there's an Arab American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties.
It is that fundamental belief -- It is that fundamental belief: I am my brother's keeper. I am my sister's keeper that makes this country work. It's what allows us to pursue our individual dreams and yet still come together as one American family."