"Things Fall Apart, the Center Cannot Hold"

For more than a month the world will be holding its breath to see if the new Iraqi government's plan will take that country back from the brink of civil war. So far, the indications are not good. Whenever anarchy reigns, I am reminded of W. B. Yeats's famous line, "Things fall apart, the center cannot hold." That was his grim observation of the political scene after WW I. Europe failed the test of bringing a center back together, and extremists took over in Germany, Italy, and Russia. Now we will see if the vast majority of moderate Iraqis, who want an end to American occupation, but not until the insurgents stop destroying their country, represent a center that can hold. Some of what the plan proposes, such as offering amnesty to insurgents and compensation to former Baathists, is a high but necessary price to pay. Without a center somewhere in the Arab world, the future of the entire Middle East looks grim. The center isn't holding so well here, either. When idealists of both parties ran away from politics--under the impact of Watergate, fundamentalism, corruption, conservative smear tactics, and general apathy--the center became hollow. Just recently in Congress the Republicans blocked the renewal of voting rights, refused to raise the minimum wage, gave a windfall to the very richest people through the estate tax, and endorsed a military presence in Iraq with no scheduled end in sight. Is it possible that average Americans, who see themselves as centrists, could agree with this kind of governance? In the case of the Voting Rights Act, the holdouts were a minority in the Republican caucus. No bill can come to the floor without a majority of the caucus approving it. This is the worst kind of partisanship, because if 100% of Democratic members and 49% of Republicans favor a bill, it can still be blocked from coming to the floor. That's exactly what happened in this case. Now, the bill has become untangled from the Southern reactionaries who blocked it, and has passed the Senate 98-0, ready for Bush's signature. But think of the betrayal of democracy that this slam-dunk piece of legislation went through. One can only imagine how the draconian immigration bill passed by the House was forged. When the center doesn't hold, it's not just the fault of extremists and reactionaries, though. In the same poem Yeats wrote something that overshadows America today: "The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity." America's best are its centrists, progressives, and liberals. They have been responsible for countering reactionary tendencies and standing for the common man and woman. Now the average citizen is standing idly by as if passivity is a viable option. Power doesn't work that way. A hollow center is as dangerous for us as for the Iraqis. Without a center, they won't survive. Without a center, we will survive, but the future could bring about an America few of us will recognize. Click: www.intentblog.com