In this column I hope to address the issues of government and society at large from my perspective as a political science major and as a progressive, and the latest big news story provides me with a great opportunity to do just that.
It seems that with the 2010 midterm elections only a few months away, Republicans have deployed a strategy to use wedge issues, rather than any new ideas, to try to win back the House of Representatives. Case in point is the controversy over the building of an Islamic community center, which will include a mosque, in downtown Manhattan two blocks from the former site of the World Trade Center. Many major Republicans and several spineless Democrats have attacked this project and President Barack Obama for supporting it. In fact, even the President hedged his support, saying that the group had the constitutional right to build there but that he would not comment on the wisdom of such an action. Altogether this argument is just a thinly veiled method for the Republicans to attack Obama and the Democrats in view of the 2010 and 2012 elections.
Even though the plans for this building were publicly know for months, it wasn’t until recently that the project became such a focal point for the media. While Justin Elliot of Salon.com tracked the emergence of the uproar to a right-wing blogger and the New York Post, what really brought the issue to center stage were the comments of Sarah Palin. Last month, Palin tweeted that the “ground zero mosque” stabbed the hearts of those “throughout the heartland.” The fact that Palin holds the concerns of “the heartland” over those living in New York, shows that she is just playing to what she perceives to be her base — the place she once called “real America.” She is seeking to portray herself as standing up for “real” Americans while the president defends “radical” Muslims.
Lately the media focus has been on how important this issue will be in the midterm as Republicans have indicated they plan to use the issue in their campaigns. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, for instance, argued that the issue should be brought up in campaigns because it highlights a supposed disconnect between D.C. and “mainstream America.” The issue has also become a factor in the slowly reemerging 2012 Republican presidential race. Potential candidate Newt Gingrich has sought to one-up Palin on the issue by comparing the building of the mosque near ground zero to Nazis putting up a sign next to the Holocaust museum. In reality, banning the mosque would be more analogous to prohibiting a sauerkraut cart on the National Mall.
The mosque isn’t the only example of the Republicans trying to scare and divide the American people, however. Just remember the big story of the previous news cycle, which concerned some Republicans who wanted to change the natural-born citizenship provision in the 14th Amendment. The theory was that immigrants were having babies over the border just to suck this country dry, or worse, to train American-born terrorists. When Anderson Cooper pointed out that Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, that no evidence existed supporting such a claim, Gohmert’s ridiculous reasoning was that we wouldn’t see the results of these “terror babies” for “10 or 15 or 20 years.”
Overall, it’s clear what the Republicans’ motives are. They feel that they have a shot at the House this November, but they don’t have any plans to fix the economy to campaign on (besides extending the budget-busting Bush tax cuts.) So, the Republicans target distressed middle-class, white voters by painting Democrats as radical defenders of Muslims and immigrants who are trying to desecrate 9/11 and destroy America. I never thought the party that represents the “real America” would ever use the First and 14th Amendments as wedge issues. It looks like not even the Constitution is sacred to divisive, partisan attacks anymore.
Nick Field is a junior in the School of Public Affairs and a liberal columnist.
