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Ralph Peters is a regular columnist with the New
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PETERS |
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MoveOn's Smear: A Vile New Low
by Ralph
Peters [author,
novelist] 9/12/07
MoveOn.org's exploitation of the Internet misleads the public into thinking it's a breakthrough phenomenon. It isn't: Technology aside, MoveOn belongs to the first half of the 20th century, not to the 21st.
Pretending to represent grass-roots democracy, it is totalitarian in outlook and practice. Complete with on-line commissars to enforce party discipline, this neo-Stalinist group crushes dissent mercilessly.
Far from populist, MoveOn is elitist, made up of the same sort of pseudo-intellectual activists who "knew" that Bolshevism, Maoism or fascism was what was best for the common people.
And make no mistake, you are the common people these activists despise: In their lofty view, you're not qualified to choose presidents, senators or even alder-men. They mean to make your choices for you.
MoveOn has been a cancer within the Democratic Party for years now, and not one leading Dem has had the guts to recommend surgery. Indeed, Democrats are terrified of the group's much-exaggerated power - but, then, it's always been the illusion of power, the bravado, that put totalitarian minorities over the top.
Contributor
Ralph Peters - Contributor
Ralph
Peters is a retired Army officer and the author of 19 books,
as well as of hundreds of essays and articles, written both
under his own name and as Owen Parry. He is a frequent columnist
for the New York Post and other publications. [go to Peters Index] |
Monday, MoveOn reached a new low. Unable to refute the changed facts on the ground in Iraq, the commissars questioned Gen. David Petraeus' personal integrity in a very expensive ad in The New York Times. (Nice "populism": an ad in a newspaper no working man or woman ever reads.)
In our democracy, it's fair to disagree with the general's analysis - hopefully, from an informed position. But attacking the man himself in a back-door bid to undercut his testimony is reminiscent of the Stalinist practices of the 1930s.
Gen. Petraeus is a thoroughly honorable man who has dedicated his life to protecting us. I feel particularly qualified to defend him - not only because I know him, but because he and I have disagreed ferociously on many issues in the past, in print and in public. But I never doubted his integrity. This is a man of whom every American, Democrat or Republican, should be proud.
And MoveOn's smear tactics should shame every conscientious American.
It's high time for the Democrats, who so love revisiting the McCarthy era and their myths of courageous resistance (in fact, it was a Pentagon lawyer, not a liberal pol, who stopped Tailgunner Joe), to stand up to this un-American tyranny of an intolerant minority.
Having seen MoveOn attack legislators who dared to deviate from its party line, Democrats are terrified of offending the Internet's "Ministry of Truth." But how can politicians who lack the courage to stand up to a pack of e-thugs be expected to lead our country in these perilous times? New York's Sen. Hillary Clinton projects an image of strength and resolution; will she condemn MoveOn's personal attack on Petraeus? Hasn't a single Democrat got the guts and decency to say, "Enough!"?
I'm always labeled a conservative, since I write about military affairs and foreign policy - fields where the Republicans, even at their worst, have been more convincing than the Democrats. But on many domestic issues, from conservation to women's rights, I'm distinctly left of center.
In other words, I'm a typical American - a political mongrel who votes on issues and the candidates' qualities, not the way party mandarins insist I should. But I couldn't bring myself to vote for any candidate so morally weak and cowardly that he or she won't stand up for our common values against MoveOn. And take warning, Democrats: There are tens of millions of voters just like me.
Oh, the political right holds plenty of intolerant, single-issue groups, too. I don't like them much, either. But MoveOn is in a neo-Stalinist class by itself, since cultural elitists fund and publicize it, and the media refuses to subject it to serious scrutiny (while happily dissecting conservative organizations).
Let's hope that MoveOn's vile attack on Gen. Petraeus marks a turning point - that Democrats of conscience will stand up and condemn such behavior carried out in their name. ExileStreet
Ralph Peters' latest book, "Wars of Blood and Faith," is on the street.
This
piece first appeared in the New York Post
copyright 2007 - NY Post
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