The Blame Game

There is a sickness of discourse sweeping the political landscape of late.
It is more than just a little to blame for the chasm that has developed between the Right and the Left today in America. Neither side is immune from its use or its effects.

It is a failure of logic that in the past would have been dismissed as most probably coming from a lazy, but more likely, a dishonest intellect. But not in today’s climate. In modern, sound bite politics, it thrives.

What is it, you ask...

Well, let us look at the recipe.

First, we begin with an accusation or conspiratorial theory. But this is old hat. So what here is new? Wait, there is more to the equation. The first part of which is the accusation or theory must evoke an instant emotional response. Second, and this is the most important, it must neither be provable or unprovable. And that is it what makes it so perfect for the pundits and political attack dogs. It is then, less of an accusation based on any provable fact, but simply an opinion wrapped in emotion and released into the political arena to infer guilt.

It releases the accuser of any responsibility as the accusation is ephemeral and can never actually be shown to be true or false. Yet it does put a pall of guilt over the head of the accused, who in the same light, can neither prove or disprove his guilt.

Here are a few recent examples in order to clarify the point:

-“The American president is closing his eyes to the economic and human costs his land and the world economy are suffering under natural catastrophes like Katrina and because of neglected environmental policies."-Jürgen Trittin, Germany's Environmental Minister.

-"We must not forget that the citizens of New Orleans tolerated and welcomed the wickedness in their city for so long... May this act of God cause us all to think about what we tolerate in our city limits."-Repent America director Michael Marcavage

-"As Hurricane Katrina dismantles Mississippi’s Gulf Coast, it’s worth recalling the central role that Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour played in derailing the Kyoto Protocol and kiboshing President Bush’s iron-clad campaign promise to regulate CO2...Now we are all learning what it’s like to reap the whirlwind of fossil fuel dependence which Barbour and his cronies have encouraged...Perhaps it was Barbour’s memo that caused Katrina, at the last moment, to spare New Orleans and save its worst flailings for the Mississippi coast."-Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

-“It's not your fault that 30 per cent of New Orleans lives in poverty or that tens of thousands had no transportation to get out of town. C'mon, they're black! I mean, it's not like this happened to Kennebunkport. Can you imagine leaving white people on their roofs for five days? Don't make me laugh! Race has nothing - NOTHING - to do with this!”-sarcasm provided by the pea sized brain of Michael Moore.

-“The hurricane that struck Louisiana and Mississippi on Monday was nicknamed Katrina by the National Weather Service. Its real name is global warming.”-Ross Gelbspan of The Boston Globe.

- “...it is no a coincidence that it is exactly 50 years from the time of ...lynching and murder. That it is not a coincidence that the storm’s name is a sister. Katrina. For she represents the collective cries of mothers who have lost their sons to the brutality and the murderous grip of this racist white supremacist American culture.”-Reverend Lewis E. Logan II, senior pastor of the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church.

-“Are People Dying Over Here Because We're Fighting Them Over There? Is the aftermath of Katrina part of the price we are paying for Iraq? To the growing list of collateral damage caused by the Iraq war and Bush's stunningly inept leadership, we can now add the city of New Orleans.”-Arianna Huffington.

Any facts here, anywhere? No. Just accusations. Some subtle, some less so, but all eliciting emotion. And here is the kicker, here is what makes these accusers such mental pansies, not a single claim can ever be substantiated. They can never be proved wrong. And worse, if you are the accused, you are now compelled to try to prove a negative.