EA Special: Mitt Romney's "Deviant" Politics, a Slain Ambassador, and the Death of American Objectivity
Wednesday, September 19, 2012 at 12:47 | James Miller in EA Global, EA Middle East and Turkey, US Foreign Policy, US Politics
There are legitimate reasons to question the administration on many issues, including foreign policy. There are looming questions, like whether drone strikes in Yemen have made us safer, whether there should be intervention in Syria, or how the US can stop Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu from pre-emptively striking Iran and dragging us into a war that our military commanders do not want to fight. There are questions about Pakistan and Afghanistan, China and Mexico, Bahrain and Egypt and Libya. But we're not discussing these because, rather than confront President Obama within the sphere of legitimate controversy, Romney and the GOP have resorted to pulling our entire political dialogue into the sphere of deviance.
This has dangerous implications for American politics. And the media has played an important role in the downward spiral. Terrible daily coverage of the Middle East has led to sensational coverage of events that are more drama than substance. At the same time, a fear of confronting deviance has lent legitimacy to questions that are not legitimate. Those wishing to exploit the media's fear of perceived bias have poisoned the well of public discourse, and the media has distributed the water because, well, they think that it is their job.