Could It Happen Here?…

By Don Barnett

Is it true that we have “voluntarily chosen to live together”?  Most of America’s future population growth will come from an immigration that proceeds without the consent of the American people - not to speak of America’s history of slavery and conquest of native peoples.

And what are racially gerrymandered voting districts if not an expression of the fact that “none of the ethnic groups trust being ruled by the other” and reluctance of the “ethnic groups” to “trust the …majority and believe that its basic interests will still be protected”?

These are attributes which Friedman properly found disturbing in the Balkans.  But does anyone doubt that U.S. voting districts won’t eventually be redrawn to concentrate and “empower” say, the Muslim vote or the Hispanic vote or even the white vote?

Friedman noted that in the Balkans “corrupt nationalist parties manipulate the still substantial 'fear and pain' of the people”.

This sounds a whole lot like the Democratic party. But even Republican Spencer Abraham’s Senate campaign appeal to Arab Americans contained this gem:

(T)his campaign is about more than one man in a race for the U.S. Senate -- It is a national referendum on Arab Americans….Can we as a community afford to lose the only Arab American serving in the U.S. Senate? Who will then represent our interests and concerns?

(I wonder what this means for U.S. energy policy now that he is secretary of the Department of Energy.)  

Identity politics, of course, is not new to America. It does not necessarily imply corruption. But the more important ethnic identity becomes as a basis of political power, the more tolerant the system will be of corruption because nothing else matters except for ethnic identity.

Friedman’s fellow Times editorialist Frank Rich is not above summoning these elemental forces.  During the Times' monomaniacal drive to stop the Ashcroft nomination, Rich wrote

[Ashcroft] has not just attacked African-American candidates for federal jobs (including the distinguished surgeon general David Satcher), but has also targeted Asian-Americans (the assistant attorney general for civil rights, Bill Lann Lee)….

If opposing Bill Lann Lee is an example of “targeting” Asian-Americans then it follows that any criticism of an opinion held by someone from my group is an attack on my group and therefore an attack on me.

Go get ‘em, Slobo.

It is not likely that someone familiar with the Balkans would miss the growing parallels with life in the U.S.. The battle over the U.S. Census ("who counts depends on who counts"), "hate" crime legislation, the Elian affair, and the Presidential election are just a few recent manifestations of these similarities.

Friedman concluded that “Bosnia can be democratic and self-sustaining, but only if the country gives up being unified and multi-ethnic. Or Bosnia can be multi-ethnic, democratic and unified, but not self-sustaining.  NATO would have to hold it together forever.”

No kidding.

Perhaps there is more here than meets the eye.  Bosnia, USA is looking less like the fantasy of a warped imagination.  Upon reading his column, I wondered if Friedman had found a clever way to disguise an exposé of diversity in such a way that it would slide past the censor and still make its point to the alert reader.

Okay , so I’m dreaming. But Friedman’s is  an instructive essay that every American should read. And worry about.