The Marcy Kaptur Controversy

Democratic Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur represents the 9th District in US Congress that includes the city of Toledo in northwest Ohio. Last week she found herself in the center of a political storm because of her reference to American Revolution. During an interview with the daily Toledo Blade her comments about revolutionaries and their motives earned her the wrath of the Republicans and caused their talk radio proxies to froth at their mouths. In a feeding frenzy reminiscent of McCarthyism, these flag-wrapped self-styled patriots have questioned her integrity and patriotism. What a shame!

Here is what she said in the interview: “One could say that Osama bin Laden and these non nation-state fighters with religious purpose are very similar to those kind of atypical revolutionaries that helped to cast off the British Crown”.

Where did she say, pray tell, that the founding fathers of this country were like Osama bin Laden or in the mold his ilk? She was referring to the Revolutionary Green Mountain Boys, a vigilante band of zealots under the command of Ethan Allan who used intimidation and violence to prevent Vermont from becoming a part of New York.

While most of our lawmakers are oblivious of the pervasive discontent against corrupt and autocratic regimes in the Arab and Muslim world and in turn against the United States, Marcy Kaptur has been in the forefront of encouraging public debate on these crucial issues. She tells it as she sees it and at times this does not resonate well with the establishment. She had voted against the 1991 Gulf War and then in 1995 she defied her own Democratic president Bill Clinton and voted against North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Her stance against the impending war against Iraq is not popular with the hawks and her insistence on looking at the root cause of the Middle East turmoil has not endeared her to Washington establishment.

To conclude that our country is vilified because of our wealth and power is to ignore the root causes of such discontent. The size of one’s flag is not a measure of one’s patriotism and renaming French fries as freedom fries and French toast as freedom toast is not the true reflection of our love for our country. A meaningful debate on America’s role in the world or the merit of impending war with Iraq should not be considered unpatriotic and anti American. But in this charged climate it has certainly become.

Marcy Kaptur’s remarks have been used to stoke the fires of bigotry and intolerance that have become part of the neo-conservative agenda in this country. The rightwing talk-radio hosts and their hordes of ditto heads were all too pleased to find fodder for their verbal volleys against those who look at things through different lenses. Their visceral dislike of democrats, the liberals and to some measure minorities is obvious. The airways are awash with the diatribe of the likes of Rush Limbaugh against those who dare to think different. They are just intolerant of any dissent against the intended march towards Baghdad. By their sweeping generalization former presidents Carter and Clinton also qualify for the anti-American label.

There is an interesting parallel between religious orthodoxy and nationalistic fervor. Contained within the bounds of accepted behavior these qualities are noble and time-honored. But when they slide towards extremism - and here the only move is to the far right - religious orthodoxy turns into militancy and nationalism turns into ultra-nationalism bordering on fascism. No matter where these sentiments germinate they end up in the lap of intolerance and xenophobia. Throughout history mankind has suffered at the hands of such extremist ranting.

It is surprising that in a vigorous democracy like ours the voices of dissent, whether on a city street or in Congress, are being shouted down by the cheering pro-war crowd who are quick to define national interests and patriotism with their own skewed standards. The massive street demonstrations here in this country and elsewhere in the world had no effect on the adrenaline-driven hard line thinking of the highly charged pro-war crowd. Under these circumstances it takes uncommon courage and unhampered vision to look at the world beyond our borders and critically evaluate our role in it.

Perhaps what they need to do is to re-read a centuries old document, our constitution, which has been the guiding light of this republic through good times and bad and which has stood the test of time without tampering with the cherished values of free speech, right to dissent and personal freedom.

Marcy Kaptur has been upholding those cherished values as our representative in Washington. She has not shied away from addressing difficult or thorny issues during her eleven terms in Congress. Before we get carried away and start casting stones we should look at her record and her positions and also look inwardly to understand the world around us.

(Dr. S. Amjad Hussain is an op-ed page columnist for the daily Toledo

Blade. E-Mail: aghaji@buckeye-express.com).