By: Alex Gallo
Is it possible? Is it possible that our national dialogue has hit an all time low? I think it has…
Yesterday, in anticipation of GEN Petraeus’ testimony in Congress, the liberal, anti-war group, MoveOn.org, bought a full page ad in the New York Times defaming GEN Petraeus as “GEN Betray Us”.
It is absolutely unconscionable to me that any group, even those that are reflexively anti-war, would stoop so slow as to use anti-intellectual, defamation tactics in order to make a political point – all within the context of the most critical dialogue that a nation will ever engage in – whether or not to commit young Americans to fight a war for our nation. In fact, MoveOn.org chose to engage in these low-brow, purely political tactics even when it and its affiliates are the first to criticize the Bush Administration of engaging in the very same anti-intellectual, defaming tactics. I’m pretty sure that MoveOn.org would vigorously argue that the anti-intellectual nature of President Bush embodies much of the reason why are are engaged in an unnecessary, illegal, and immoral war.
While I strongly disagree with MoveOn.org’s sentiment, it is not unreasonable in a democracy for citizens and activist groups to take strong positions — particularly on issues of life and death. But is it unreasonable to ask those, who strongly hold these views, to do it in such a way that they argue their points on the merits of the issues and not on the quality of their smear?
