By: Bill Egnor Thursday October 21, 2010 5:57 am
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I know that expecting consistency from conservatives is like expecting your Springer Spaniel to jump up and sing a chorus of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “I am the very model of a modern Major General” but somehow I continue to yearn to see some of it. This is why today’s announcement of a proposed $60 billion (60,000 million) arms sale to Saudi Arabia is another chance for disappointment.
One of the most common memes in the recent spasm of Islamophobia here in the United States has been that all Muslims are constrained by their religion to spread Islam by any means necessary. It is this kind of intellectual laziness that allows bigots to pick on the small minority of Muslims in the United States. It is the classic broad brush which paints all Muslims with the same calumny as those demented assholes of the Islamic faith who practice terrorism.
For these so-called defenders of the United States to be consistent they should be wetting their PJ’s with the thought of the sale of F-15 fighters, Helicopters and other high tech weapons to the nation that has both the Mecca, the city where Islam was founded and Medina the burial place of the Prophet in it. After all this U.S. military technology, the stuff that makes us think we can take on any force in the world and kick ass. Now it will be in the hands of the dreaded “other” the Muslims.
Will Bill O’Reilly rail against this sale with the same words of “the world has a Muslim problem”? To me the world has an O’Reilly problem, but that is another post altogether. Now that NPR has had enough of Juan Williams sullying its reputation on Fox will he be free to denounce the proposed sale?
Frankly I am not holding my breath on this. Even though the majority of the 9/11 hijackers were of Saudi citizenship and the founder of Al Qaeda is also a Saudi Citizen the bigots in this country are basically bullies. They are not going to take on a powerful ally of the United States over its Islamic nature. No, unless they out number their victims nearly 50 to 1 they don’t think it is worth the fight. If it is a few Muslims in New York or Murfreesboro who want to build a community center or a new Mosque then they are all big men and women. If it is a power nation whose support we need, not so much.
I will still be spending today looking around to see if Andrew Breitbart or Sean Hannity will take a stance that is consistent with their premise that all Muslims are at least suspect terrorists. I will, of course need to bleach my eyes and brain after a day of reading their shite but it is worth it see if there is a shred of consistency in their world view.
I expect that I will get the reading equivalent of crickets chirping.
The reality is that conservatives don’t really live in our consensus reality. They have an amazing ability to compartmentalize. It is what allows religious conservatives to argue that they are powerless when the majority of the Supreme Court is Catholics and the majority of the nation is Christian. It is the same thing that will allow them to say we should prop up our ally Saudi Arabia, the birth place of Islam, while saying that no Muslim in the United States can be expected to be a citizen first and a Muslim second (this is what got Juan Williams ignobly bounced from NPR, by saying when he sees someone on a plane dressed in traditionally Muslim clothes he wonders about their loyalty). Juan, just a little advice anytime you preface a statement with "I am not a bigot, but" you’re about to say something bigoted.
This central trait of conservatives, the inability to look at the big picture and see the inherent contradictions in their world view is one of the most frustrating things about them. I don’t find that all conservatives are jerks or dumbasses, but when the compartmentalization kicks in, there is almost no talking to them. They will not accept the other facts that expose the contradictions.
So, don’t expect a lot of hyperventilation in print or on TV today about this issue. The fact that Saudi Arabia is a Muslim nation and that most of the 9/11 terrorists were Saudis won’t even come close to touching the presumed fact that no Muslim can be trusted not to attack the United States and should be repressed at every turn. You have a much better chance or getting a canine rendition of Modern Major General.
