Joe Klein, author of Primary Colors and contributor to Time magazine, is very defensive about criticism of the current administration and Congress.
Of Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck, he says the two talk “borderline sedition.”
Nice hedge, that word “borderline.”
But he’s merely repeating something he wrote last year about Senator Tom Coburn. The Oklahoma senator, responding to the Democrats’ extremely unpopular (and later successful) machinations to enact a form of national medical insurance, said that he understood why some would give up on their government. For this, Klein dubbed Coburn’s comments “borderline sedition” as well as “hate speech.”
How do I see it? Well, to note that Congress is unresponsive to Americans (and thus a cause for hopelessness) is not even close to sedition. It’s to recognize the obvious.
I’m not saying it doesn’t incite a kind of rebellion. But remember: In America, rebellion against those in charge is not just allowed, it’s been institutionalized.
The institution is called “elections.”
The current unrest in America — exemplified, at present, by the “Tea Party” protests — seems to be very much a patriotic thing. If the bulk of Democrats and Republicans get targeted as deserving to go, then the means to their removal is obvious. It comes next November, and in November 2012.
And it does not mean that restive American critics of unconstitutional government and habitual over-spending are not “loyal to the most important American ideals.” It means they understand these ideals better than does Joe Klein.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.