Posted on 03/16/2006 11:57:00 AM PST by WatchingInAmazement
For a political junkie, the Dubai ports debacle has been a bit like the movie “Pulp Fiction”—just one freaky story inside another, unfolding at a rapid pace and leading to an unexpected ending that made no darn sense and yet was really quite satisfying emotionally. I give it two thumbs way up.
Unfortunately for the President, he played the part of “Marcellus Wallace” in “Port Fiction.” He talked tough at the start of the whole thing, but really took it hard in the end. (Bada bing!) And along the way we got to see Chuck Schumer support racial profiling, Hillary Clinton claim to be concerned about national security, Lawrence Kudlow play the (Arab) race card, Fred Barnes complain that some conservatives were too cantankerous, and Rush Limbaugh congratulate his own audience for defeating him. Now that’s a movie that should have got an Oscar!
Two of the subplots really stood out in my mind though. One was how eagerly the disciples of “free” trade took to attacking the conservative base as a bunch of xenophobic ignoramuses storming the harmless castle Globalstein with torches and pitchforks. That sort of animosity couldn’t be over just one relatively minor business deal for Dubai. I’m sensing that the Beltway Boys and the Wall Street Wonks have been entertaining some animosity against Main Street and the Heartland for some time.
Whatever their motivation, they came across as nothing less than petty and absurd. The restructuring of the world economy and the American legal landscape by the proponents of free trade over the last two decades has been nothing short of a revolution—and it was all made possible, ultimately, by the votes of the fly-over country conservatives with whom Kudlow and company have shared a big tent for so long.
And yet at the first sign of hesitation or reluctance to indulge further on mom and pop’s part, the free trade faithful turned on them with epithets and disdain. According to some pinstriped pundits, the most open nation on earth, at the most internationalist time in its history, is suddenly and dismissively labeled “xenophobic,” “isolationist,” “protectionist,” “nativist,” “racist” and “ignorant” of the fact that world is global, or some such insight. Given 99% of everything they want, some free traders turned petulantly on their enablers over the 1% they didn’t get.
This behavior is very familiar to anyone who has small children. You can take them to the park, the mall, the museum, a game, an arcade, an ice cream shop, McDonald’s and Chuck E Cheese’s, then after spending the whole day and $200 on them, you tell them it’s time to go home and they explode into tears and theatrics while flopping about on the floor calling you “a meanie,” which is like “xenophobic,” but without the overeducated pretense.
And what was the tone-deaf expectation behind conservatives of any stripe, pin or otherwise, playing the race card in an internal political debate? Perhaps, like an abused child who grows up to be a child abuser, the name callers thought that they might get the same sort of instant capitulation from their base that they are used to giving to Democrats and the media when they themselves are accused of racism—or of just having used the word “niggardly” in a college essay once.
Way to solidify the base! Why not just say that Republicans are "a pretty monolithic party. They all behave the same. They all look the same. It's pretty much a white Christian party," or "The Republicans are not very friendly to different kinds of people"? When some in the party start sounding like Howard Dean while bashing the rest of it, it could be time to take a deep breath.
The second subplot that really stood out to me, is how clueless many in the Republican Party are to the true source of public misgiving about the port deal. This does not bode well for avoiding a repeat of the debacle in the near future. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that the average voter does not normally concern himself with the minutiae of cargo management and port personnel. So why the big opinion all of a sudden over Dubai Ports World?
Well, in my opinion this is sort of like an argument in a marriage. It may have started over a specific incident, but it’s really about something else and has been building for a long time.
This minor uprising was about a general feeling that, whatever merits free trade, open borders, and corporate globalism may have financially, they are often not good for the nation in many ways that fail to be accounted for in the theoretical models of economists. Free trade fails to take account of cultural consequences, and it places no value on concepts such as national loyalty. To the value-free traders, labor is simply a commodity, and people are interchangeable parts. And they are entirely correct—economically speaking. A widget is a widget, and the cheaper you can get them made, the better.
But the problem is that all nations are more than just economic systems. They are each somebody’s home. And each has a culture, and a language, and a set of common ideals that they want protected—even more than they want another 0.3% added to next year’s GDP. Some things matter more than the economic opportunity cost we pay for having them. The American Revolution, for example, was bad for the economy while it was under way. But that was not really the point of the whole thing, was it?
The emotion surrounding the ports deal, and illegal immigration, and outsourcing, and homeland security and a dozen other aspects of breakneck international economic integration is no longer simply a quiet misgiving. It is rapidly being formed into a single coherent message from average citizens to those in power—both on the right and on the left- that see it as their job to make sure the “inevitable” rise of a single world economic entity actually happens. People are saying, “Stop!
They’re saying “OK, we’ve tried it your way and it never seems to end. No amount of globalization, tolerance, equalization, outsourcing, internationalism, interventionism, human smuggling, and security risk is ever enough. There is always a push for more—even before the last round has proven itself wise or foolish. Treaty piles upon treaty, migration upon migration, integration upon integration. Now people want a break and a reassessment. They’re not sure they are against it all. They’re just no longer sure they’re still for it.
It is not Xenophobia. It is Xenonausea. People are sick of having the whole world shoved down their throats at once and being told it tastes like ice cream. They are sick of every street corner and parking lot being filled with criminal aliens waiting to work off the books and outside the laws that are applied so enthusiastically to actual Americans. They are sick of pressing “1” for English. They are sick of being at war with foreign terrorists and simultaneously being economically and demographically bound more tightly to the nations producing these terrorists. They are sick of being told that the world is global or flat or smaller or at their doorstep or all coming for dinner on Tuesday.
They are sick of hearing that America is just an economic opportunity zone and not a distinct nation, a culture—their home. They are sick of being told that human beings are interchangeable parts, that the nation-state is passé, that there are some jobs that Americans just won’t do, that there are some contracts that Americans just won’t bid, and that any cost that cannot be measured in money cannot be very important. They are sick of having the world purposely knit together in a tighter tangle everyday and then being told we are so entangled that America must now run the whole world and solve all its problems. And they are sick of being called ignorant and racist and xenophobic just for having the temerity to raise questions when abstract trade theory conflicts with their common sense.
And they want a break. They want some breathing room and some limits; and they don’t want to hear elitist children cry themselves hoarse after all they’ve been given already.
If absolute globalization really is inevitable, it doesn’t need such a vociferous lobby. It will happen at its own organic pace. Trying to force it prematurely will just cause a backlash here and abroad—as it already has from Van Nuys to Venezuela to Vladivostok.
And if it is not inevitable, then it needs to be justified beyond the boardroom and the lecture hall. It may not be something that everyone wants to pay the costs of, whatever benefits it may bring to our bank accounts and stock exchanges.
Soon, Congress will consider a new illegal immigration bill. Failure to acknowledge the new mood in the country could break the Republican Party.
Mr. Johnson, a writer and medical researcher in Cambridge, MA., is a regular contributor to Human Events. His column generally appears on Mondays. Archives and additional material can be found at www.macjohnson.com.
Not a subscriber to HUMAN EVENTS? Sign up now!
Human nature never changes...
The bit-players and tactics sometimes modernize or shift, but the basic story-line is always there.
The WoT is fundamentally no different from the Muhammadean atrocities, and subsequent Christian Crusades that have been taking place to some extent ever since Mad Mo put pen to paper.
Their goals; domination/subjugation/extermination of 'infidels', and control of the Holy Land haven't changed a bit. The weaponry is a bit more high-tech, they've gained some advantage due to the oil trade, and picked-up a few subtleties from General Mao's teachings. That's the only real difference.
Better to fight on their turf than here. Bush got that much right in his doctrine, but then proceeded to contradict himself by supporting this deal. Methinks his family's personal friendships with the Saudi and UAE royals have become a weakness in his ability to recognize a threat.
So true. And their argument is flawed even in that pitiful measure. Amazing how few can look past their fingertips when they're holding a fist-full of cash.
If the UAE is a staunch ally, I wonder how our enemies vote in the UN.
According to Rep. Louie Rep. Gohmert, Texas on Hannity stated, the UN had 79 votes last year. 62 times the UAE voted against the US. 62 TIMES. 5 times they voted in favor of the US. 10 times they abstained and were absent the others.
Not sure current economic free trade models adequately account for so-called exogenous factors. Like tort, red tape, corruption, safety regs, etc.
Man, you are goooood.
What forges alliances is loyalty. Loyalty is developed over time, and is based upon trust and several human instincts (partial list):
1) Economic Loyalty
2) Defensive Loyalty
3) Offensive Loyalty
4) Social Loyalty
5) Political Loyalty
6) Racial Loyalty (not condoning racism, just acknowledging that it does exist)
7) Religious Loyalty
8) Cultural Loyalty
9) Tribal Loyalty
UAE makes an inherently weak ally for us in the long-term. They share some short-term goals, but have endemic rifts with us on some very fundamental levels. Economic loyalty is traditionally a weak bond in time of war.
One more 'food-for-thought' tidbit...
Over 85% of muders are committed by a personal acquaintance of the victim.
Reason to lock your doors, and never go out? Nope.
Reason to be cautious about who you invite into your home? Absolutely.
Good rant. I can't stand those folks, either.
"...despite our objections, even. Sound like the actions of a nation that has the our best interests in mind?"
Yup, they are about as duplicitus as they come.
Why yes, as a matter of fact, as it is wholly-owned and controlled by the Emirate leadership. A state-owned enterprise that was more-than-willing to go along with and facilitated A.Q. Khan's nuclear proliferation logistics. They only cooperated...under point of our bayonets...in 2003 to 'bust' the Khan network. Some 'bust.' The cat was already out of the bag...the horses out of the barn, so to speak. They could afford to 'cooperate'...when it was already too late. They could afford to rat out the funny-boy in Libya. Iran was always their big hope. Iran seems to be merrily coasting on into nuking Israel before we get around to doing something about it.
With a nuclear Iran...there isn't a safe port in the world.
Also interesting how all the plans were marked up in Chinese. So precisely where is the War on Terror's follow-through with the obvious ring-leader of the Axis-of-Evil? The ultimate enabler. The one with the Implausible, Plausible Deniability. The 1.3 Billion person Gorilla in the Living Room.
Meanwhile, the most-recent dictator in charge of the UAE who just retired last month, has been busy writing "Nabati" (an Arabic-Jihadist form of poetry) that fairly clearly alludes to the frustration of a jihadist wanting to knife the world capitalists in the back, but having to bide their time, and play the dupe.
Nothing to see here, move along, move along.
Helloooooo, wake up and smell the coffee.
The Saudis already threw us out of their country. Didn't hear you RINO/NWO/Globalists screeching about your precious principles being violated then. And it is also their money primarily funding good old Al-Queda and the jihadist Maddrassas in Pakistan, churning out the jihadist foot soldiers.
And the Chicoms? Do you propose throwing them out of the exact same deals that they currently occupy?
Damn straight I do.
Wonderful post!
Pinging.
Mac Johnson might also want to consider the impact this is having on the body politic:
Yes. That very accurately encapsulates the RINO/NWO/Globalists mentality.
Their arrogant brazen effrontery and tantrums blew up in their faces, and they are still here whining. I don't think that simply telling them to "Go to your room" is enough.
Some of these guys show they needed a good paddling they evidently never got when they were younger. Hopelessly spoiled, and just plain rotten.
Great graphic!
The wonderful U.S. of A. is the only nation in the entire world that encourages its enemies to store its military assests on their national soil. Are we braindead or is their any hope left?
I am not positive but I think perhaps I have come across the solution as to why we have 'Port Lovers'. These people do not have any idea whatsoever of how to think like a terrorist. They have no idea how to destroy a shipyard or docking facilities. They have no idea what simple things can be done to bring a major city to a grinding halt. They think that our enemies only want the American dollar and not our land that is chock full of national assets.
Sorry folks, but I will never be a globalist who wants to share a meal with my enemy.
Interesting map! Frightening, but interesting.
It's bad enough having to vote for them!
Now that I have swapped over to the Constitution Party those days are gone.
Hi:
To repeat myself for the ump-teenth time, that is not what I consider "evidence" of terrorist activities.
I've pretty much dropped this debate, cuz thru several threads now your side seems to have no idea what "evidence of terrorist ties" would mean to someone like me.
The insults, scary pictures, posting to support those who are in your choir, etc, that your side considers 'debate tactics' just don't influence me, I'm sorry. I'm looking for actual facts, evidence of wrongdoing by these specific individuals. I'm looking for hard evidence, of the "he did this to them, so he might do it to us" kind of mold.
Apparently there is none. And ya'll not only don't understand why I might want it, but ya'll have no interest in even trying to understand why anyone *might* want such evidence.
So there we are. I still believe this was a knee-jerk emotional reaction, and the UAE is an ally. Ya'll still believe the UAE is an untrustworthy enemy of the US.
This thread has become repetitive, with me asking the same simple question and ya'll ignoring me and repeating the same things that weren't persuasive the first 50 times.
Until some new information becomes available, have a nice day.
We got your message: Don't confuse me with facts, my mind is made up.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.