Move on already

If there is one thing we Americans love, it is being outraged. Hand wringing, massive protests and boycotts seem to be the norm, even if it is over nothing. No one knows how to use outrage more to their advantage than politicians, and unfortunately, most of it is manufactured to get votes and divert attention from other more important issues. \nThe most recent fake outrage came by way of the United States Congress reacting to a moveon.org ad. The ad, as many of you probably know, un-cleverly changed General Petraeus’ name to “General Betray-us,” insinuating that he lied about the Iraq War’s progress to help protect the White House. \nCongressional Republicans, apparently having nothing better to do with their time, passed (with support of some Democrats) a non-binding resolution condemning the ad. This surpassed the infamous congressional act renaming “french fries” to “freedom fries” as the dumbest, most useless thing ever done by Congress.\nFollowing the ad’s condemnation, many politicians and pundits took to the airwaves on the 24-hour news channels, barely able to contain their indignation and hurt. From their responses and speeches, you might think the brave Petraeus was at home, tears swelling from his eyelids as he attempts not to cry from all the name-calling. Politics can be so cruel. \nBut war is obviously crueler and Petraeus, as well as our brave armed forces, understand that they are not above criticism and name-calling. The very idea that they should be above reproach is repugnant in a free society. \nTo be fair, the fact that Congress felt it necessary to officially condemn the ad does not mean that they think the ad, and ads like it, should be banned. But Congress, in issuing condemnation in an official capacity (as opposed to individually as citizens) makes one wonder whether censorship is that far away. It’s sad, too, because if Congress had just left the issue to the public –where it belonged – there would surely have been many more pundits and writers condemning the ad instead of focusing on the utterly stupid congressional reaction. I know I would have. But politicians understand that to get votes they have to yell and scream, and fight the fights no one wants them to. The Terri Schaivo case illustrated perfectly that when Congress is desperate to politicize outrage and indignation, it gets bitten in the ass. \nThis episode reminded me of when the Danish government was asked by a variety of countries to apologize for the fact that a Danish paper ran incredibly stupid cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed. A slight shiver ran down my spine when this happened. Why should the government apologize? They don’t have – and should not have – any control over what the “free press” prints. The prime minister, a brave man to be sure, said: “ The freedom of expression has a wide scope and the Danish government has no means of influencing the press.” And neither does the U.S. Congress, and it is important to remember that.