The Volokh Conspiracy’s Jim Lindgren quotes John Kerry, who, in the course of a speech yesterday at Grinnell College in Iowa, managed to cram a number of dubious assertions into an admirably compact soundbite—presumably as a way to reinforce the ignorance of the student activist class that the Democratic left so relies upon for vocal outrage:
Dismissing dissent is not only wrong, but dangerous when America’s leadership is unwilling to admit mistakes, unwilling to engage in honest discussion, and unwilling to hold itself accountable for the consequences of decisions made without genuine disclosure, or genuine debate. As Thomas Jefferson said, “dissent is the highest form of patriotism.”
Lots of question begging there, Senator.
Not to mention some rather loaded assertions. First, what constitutes “dismissing” dissent? Disagreement with it? Ignoring it because we find the substance of the dissent patently ludicrous? What? Or have we reached the point now, finally, where all ideas must necessarily be treated equally, and that to “dismiss” a particular argument—especially one that wears the sackcloth and ashes of “brave dissent”—is to engage in a kind of intellectual apartheid?
For Kerry, the assumption that this administration is unwilling to admit mistakes or engage in “genuine” debate and discussion rests a subjective notion of what, exactly, is meant by “genuine”—something that, like his oft-promised plan for Iraq during the 2004 elections, he doesn’t feel the need to share with us just yet.
It is clearly false that the administration has not engaged in debate or discussion over Iraq. In fact, Kerry himself debated the President three times, and if I recall correctly, the subject of Iraq came up once or twice; similarly, I remember lots of speeches by Bush and Cheney, as well as press briefings with Rumsfeld and Gens. Casey and Pace—so the discussion and debate is undisputed.
So the operable word here is “genuine,” and it is on this point, evidently, that the Bushies have been derelict.
Of course, one cannot help but note that the distinction between plain vanilla debate and “genuine” debate undefined is a bit of a slippery one, particularly when it is accompanied by the charge that in avoiding the “genuine” aspect of the debate, the administration is to be inundated with more “dissent” that it is not within its rights to “dismiss”. All of which seems to me to be arguing that the real problem with the Bushies is that they are in power, and they simply won’t listen to their betters.
Couple that with Kerry’s invocation of the phony Thomas Jefferson quote about dissent, and one can make that argument that Kerry has packed a lot of misleading and questionable rhetoric into his call for “genuine” disclosure, discussion, and debate.
Like Machiavelli’s The Prince—which (as an advice manual) deconstructs before our very eyes, “teaching” the Prince that, for all his machinations, he is ultimately answerable to fate—Kerry’s argument collapses on itself, relying as it does on a confusion of assertion with fact. What is left is vintage Kerry: a puff of smoke that looks a lot better than it smells.
(h/t Terry Hastings; see also, Ann Althouse and Tim Blair)
Yes, but what about the intent of the metanarrative of the JFn al Qerry’s audience. I eamn we have a metanarrative that Thomas Jefferson did stuff, and the left has a metanarrative that he was some dead white guy that held slaves and bitched about stuff?
What about the Sorel-derived hermenuet-techtonics that differentiate the covalent bonds implicit in yet not derivative of such imbroglio as one would expect from an institution of too much education and not enough learning?
I thought Machiavelli argued, following Virgil, that fortune favors the bold. Vague, to be sure, but not entirely vacuous.
Well certainly, Jefferson meant to say it! He probably just forgot! So, even though it’s not a real quote, it must be accurate.
You sniffle hypotenuse cheese.
The Sun never shined on a cause of greater worth, nor has it shined on Markos Moulitsas’ countenance. – Thomas Paine
“Does this armor make my ass look fat?” –King Arthur
We must do all in our power to keep the likes of Kerry, KOS and Dean talking as loudly as possible for as long as possible. The future of the Republic depends on it.
“Give me international consensus or give me a minute to change my mind!” – Patrick Henry
tw: History in the making.
He did. Or rather, his narrator did.
I read the Prince as a parody of advice manuals showing the ultimate futility of non-republican government.
I really should try to find that paper, which was slated to be sent off to Renaissance Quarterly. By the end of the book, all the advice about fortune favoring the bold, etc, is undercut. The Prince, for all his attempts at control, is not guaranteed any measure of success.
I’ll see if I can find the paper and refresh myself on my own argument (which used Linda Hutcheon’s book on parody as a guide for identifying the form).
Any moment now, I expect Ray McGovern to disrupt a Kerry appearance by accusing the Gallic-looking Senator with lying to the American people. It would be a nice “stopped clock” moment for the Sheehan-with-a-beard.
Cordially…
Yes Jeff. In order to understand the Prince one has to read M’s very republican Discourses on Livy.
“In politics, truth is so precious, it must be attended with a bodyguard of lies, and I am that bodyguard” – John Francois Kerry.
When John Kerry’s campaign started sink’in
Teresa resumed merlot drink’in
It’s really to bad,
cause we could have had,
the craziest First Lady since Mary-Todd Lincoln.
Judi Dench is an insult to Bernard Lee.
It goes even further than that. I think something like: “Well Jefferson thought it, so it’s OK to cite him.”
Obligatory ignore acthole comment.
Did you know that John Kerry was in VietNam – he served in the Navy.
“In the kingdom of the two-balled, the four-balled man is king.” – Gregory Efimovich Rasputin
I seem to remember an election, and Kerry lost. Why would anyone listen to Kerry or for that matter, Jimmy Carter. The electorate has spoken. What part of no don’t they understand?
The part that they don’t like, of course.
Rise up, my brethren, against the tyranny of the oppressor’s “logic,” “reason,” and “practicality.” These are the tools by which they wrongly keep us down! Embrace the new higher morality of intellectual egalitiarianism:
ALL IDEAS ARE EQUALLY GOOD!!
By the way, did I mention that I served in Vietnam?
“Stop crushing my dissent!”
– Benedict Arnold
Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what your country has done for you lately.-JFK
“I have not yet begun to eat.”
– Oprah Winfrey
Those who drink by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who drink only by night.
-Ted Kennedy
Through the principle of prescriptive easements, if Kerry attributes that quote to Jefferson for a period of 5 years, it legally becomes a Jefferson quote.
Kerry et al. are beyond parody, I’m afraid.
I guess dismissing dissent is only acceptable when the dissenters are 200+ decorated veterans who served together with Kerry. In that case, “honest discussion” and “genuine debate” can be dispensed with, and we can cut right to part where Kerry’s legal apparatchiks sift through the dissenters’ divorce settlements, looking for dirt to leak to the press.
Kerry was for dismissing dissent before he was against it.
They are paraphrasing what Kerry said. He actually used the entire Thomas Jefferson quote.
“When a CIA type offers you his magic hat to haul him up the river into Cambodia on Christmas day, and you refuse, do not feel unpatriotic. Dissent is the highest form of patriotism”.
Thomas Jefferson
Mekong Delta, December 1778
I think that quote belongs to ole TJ.
I learned about it in third period History, and that memory is seared…SEARED into me.
You sure that wasn’t ODub?
“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your earphones. Mine just gave out right in the middle of that blazin’ Roy Clark banjo solo.” –Marc Antony
Nothing like hearing a phony war hero who betrayed his country prattle on about the value of “dissent”. Honest dissent of the sort that Clinton faced in the 1990s is one thing—it is truly patriotic. But what the Democrats are doing today is not dissent, it is merely political point-scoring. Or attempts therefo.
Pelosi, Reid, Clarke, Kerry, Churchill and the rest are driven not by love of country but by hatred of Bush.
And that, my friends, is anthing but patriotic.
The only thing we have to fear is, Chimporer Bushitler himself. – FDR
Ok, so if I ever finish gasping, choking and wheezing between laughs…do I send the bill for the paramedics straight to you, McGehee?
Machiavelli, for his later fame as a cunning political strategist, was known in life as a particularly ineffective ambassador of notable credulity; in other words all talk and no results.
In a later life, he would have been Bob Shrum.
I only have one joke, by God, and I’m going to tell it as hard and as often as I can.
“The Patriot sees things that never were, and asks: what the fuck is in it for me?”
“In the kingdom of the ball-less, the one-balled man gets all the chicks.”
–Erasmus
Stephen Colbert  It does seem hard for you to tell jokes…
Major, no hablo ingles.
– All the Jefferson “mis-quotes” actually started with a state based virginia church he was in a pissing contest with over unregulated “sweetheart” taxes. He won the battle, but as an outgrowth of the churches smear campaigns, avered he would thenceforth just stop talking to the press or audiences period because “I’m simply weary of trying to correct all the comments attributed too me I never uttered”.
– Which of course is precisely why the Libturds mis-quote him freely.
– But then what do you expect of a dork who can’t find a single copy of the form 180?