Proportional Response

One of the largest egos to ever pass across the American stage belonged to U. S. Army General Douglas MacArthur. With a finely tuned sense of the dramatic, he addressed a joint session of Congress in April 1951 after being fired by President Harry Truman at a crisis point in the Korean War, stating (among other things) that "old soldiers never die, they just fade away."  

In the months that followed, MacArthur seemed a sure bet to be the Republican candidate for President in 1952. He was that popular. The notion that an accidental President such as Truman could relieve one of the greatest living Generals from his Far East command offended many Americans. This sentiment was borne out in national polls - MacArthur's popularity skyrocketed while Truman's approval rating sank below 25% - an historic low that has never been eclipsed since.

For months afterward the President said very little on the subject. Certain he would be vindicated after Congress concluded their inquiries on his removal of MacArthur, Truman assured the White House press corps that he would make a statement at the appropriate time.

After investigations on Capitol Hill concluded, President Truman needn't have said another word. MacArthur had broadly overstepped his authority in repeated statements critical of the President's foreign policy, as well as publicly advocating for the use of nuclear weapons to "irradiate" the Chinese/North Korean border. The Constitutional crisis - like the General - "faded away." Long dead in their graves, the Founding Fathers repeated themselves; there could be only one Commander-in-Chief. Harry Truman's public reaction and response to a matter of national significance was statesman-like - patient, measured, and proportional. His private observations, however, were far more colorful (and amusing):

“I fired him because he wouldn’t respect the authority of the President…I didn’t fire him because he was a dumb son of a bitch, although he was, but that’s not against the laws for generals. If it was, half to three-quarters of them would be in jail.”

The 21st century could take a page from President Truman's public playbook. Overreaction seems to be a permanent part of our national conversation. But I guess it has to be, right? How else can anyone with a political, philosophical, or public agenda get noticed in this era of 24-hour news, short attention spans, and the infinite universe of cyberspace.

MacArthur was unfamiliar with a future that didn't include total war. It frightened him. His response? Drop more Fat Man and Little Boy bombs and the Devil take the hindmost. Many people in power in the halls of Congress today represent such MacArthur-like constituencies - people frightened of futures that bear little resemblance to some idealized, mythologized past.

I get it. Acceptance of what is rather than what we want is difficult. So clinging ever-tighter to what was is natural, even understandable. Combine this fact with the endless number of platforms available to air our opinions and the result is so much noise, noise, noise. No response seems proportional anymore.

Instead, we bark about anything and everything - shouting down dissent and disagreement. Positions harden on the extremes and intolerance reigns. Accept the following and move forward? Never.

Such as: 

1. No single faith has a monopoly on Eternity. I simply cannot believe God is that spiteful, even if humanity often is.

2. No President has ever said he was going to take away Americans' guns. Ever. Special interest groups who claim this President or that President has or will confiscate guns are flat out lying to get your vote. Period.

3. Socialism is not a dirty word. Yes, legislation to purchase affordable healthcare insurance via state or federal funding is a form of socialism. So what? So is the VA. So is Social Security. So is Medicare. So is Medicaid. So is Headstart. So is public education. So was the entire New Deal. So was the Interstate Highway Act. So is a military draft. So is immunization against infectious diseases. So is the monopoly of public utilities such as water, electricity and natural gas. And on and on and on. Big whoop. Socialism is NOT Communism, never was. Calm down.

4. The planet (much less the universe) is not a mere 6,000 years old. To believe so is to look truth in the face and deny it. Science and faith can co-exist if we let them. Carbon-dating is real. Cherry-picking pre-history is not logical.

5. We are damaging the planet. Climate change (both naturally occurring and human-caused) is not some vast conspiracy to pick taxpayers' pockets (that conspiracy belongs to the military-industrial complex) or phase out the internal combustion engine. We are mucking up the only home we have. If smokers and drunks can die from their toxicity so can Terra Firma.

6. Legal same-sex marriage is not going to wreck the institution. And stop with the religious arguments. 100 years ago men were up in arms because women wanted universal suffrage. Equality was not a woman's place in the natural order of things. Subservience to men is Biblical, they said. Ring any bells?  Emancipation for slaves 150 years ago? Jefferson Davis spoke on behalf of his rebellious new nation by calling President Lincoln's measure "the most execrable measure recorded in the history of guilty man." Really, Jeff? This too - like so many other things before it - shall pass.

I don't know. Perhaps my coffee was a bit too strong this morning. But if you're at all like me, you too get awfully tired of the screed of misinformation that is bandied about these days. The result? We hear what we want to hear, believe what we are told to believe. Fingers are pointed - heels dig in -differences exaggerated. Reconciliation? Rare. Progress? Puny. And no responses ever seem proportional. So, might as well . . .

. . . Give 'em Hell, Harry. And Rush. And Bill. And Sarah. And Ted. And Glenn. And Wayne. And Michelle. And Newt. And Sean. And Ann. And Mike. And  . . .