Redrawing political fault lines
By Jerry Burris
Advertiser Editorial Editor
One interesting thing to watch in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks is to determine where the political fault lines develop.
And they will.
The country is united today, certainly. Senate Democrats and Republicans who weren't even speaking to each other a few weeks ago are suddenly holding hands and planning unity strategies.
Partisan political fights from Washington to Ho-nolulu have been put on hold as everyone looks for answers to our economic and security crisis.
But sure as the sun rises, political lines will emerge in the days and weeks to come.
On the matter of the "war" on terrorism, hawks and doves will develop. On the question of increasing our security systems at home, politicians will take sides on the ever-delicate business of balancing civil rights with social order.
As the economic regrouping begins, long-standing divisions between the free-marketeers and the government interventionists will once again emerge.
Just who will be on which side is anyone's guess. To parse out the political fault lines, one can look either at World War II or the Vietnam War. During the Second World War, the political fault lines — while there — remained largely in the background.
In Vietnam, as with the civil rights movement that coincided with it, things were murkier. It became possible to pass political judgment on people based on where they stood on Vietnam or on civil rights. That lens was even used to pass judgment on issues. If you felt that former Alabama Gov. George Wallace was wrong on civil rights, you could easily (and probably mistakenly) assume that you'd disagree with all the other ideas he presented in his third-party campaign for the presidency.
If you felt that anti-war presidential candidates George McGovern or Eugene McCarthy were off base, then you could excuse yourself from listening to their ideas on social policy or political reform.
Even locally, the great divisions on Vietnam and civil rights acted as a shortcut in making political decisions. As long as you knew where a candidate for Congress or the Legislature stood on these issues, you could convince yourself you knew enough to make an informed decision on their worth as a leader.
We may be seeing a repeat of this experience. As the political fault lines develop in the war against terrorism and the economic and social challenges at home, we will be presented with a new prism through which to view the candidates in next year's historic election cycle.
Smart candidates will watch and wait carefully to ensure they stand on the correct side of the dividing line. Courageous ones will not.
Reach Jerry Burris at letters@honoluluadvertiser.com.
