America Betrayed: Will Progressives Take the Fall?

The story of Iraq will be told as a story of betrayal. But which version of that story prevails -- who is cast as the betrayer -- will have profound and lasting consequences for the future of our country.

As we enter this crucial election year, progressives need to be wary that our greatest strength, our longstanding opposition to the debacle in Iraq, could become our greatest weakness. A trap has been set to clamp down on progressives when the apparent progress from the "surge" inevitably unravels into a new round of intense violence.

Are we going to sit idly by while right-wing millionaires and billionaires fund campaigns like Freedom's Watch, with its plans to spend $250 million this year to smear progressive leaders as betrayers? We need to set the terms of the debate before the barrage of deceptions issue forth. At this critical time in our nation's history, the consequences of inaction and complacency could not be more dire.

The truth is that we have been betrayed by an extremist right-wing ideology that currently goes by the name "conservative." Its well-funded message machine lulled the public into a false confidence that led to the most devastating abuse of our military for private gain in this country's history. Contrary to the arguments of many critics, this is not simply a botched policy or misguided approach.

An exceptional story

A trap has been set for progressives, and it comes in the form of a story. The betrayal has been made possible by the conservative take on the Myth of American Exceptionalism. This belief that we are the Great Nation, whose military endeavors always side with the Good, has set in motion a vicious cycle. It is the belief that our country is inherently good and our military strength is unrivaled. Consistency requires that our "enemy" must be evil and is always the lesser foe. Failure is impossible in a fair contest. If we lose, it must be a failure from within. We must have been betrayed.

Kevin Baker, in a Harper's article published in 2006, distilled this tale of betrayal into a political formula used by conservatives:

• Advocate some momentarily popular but reckless policy.
• Deny culpability when that policy is exposed as disastrous (and remain steadfast even when it becomes unpopular).
• Blame the disaster on internal enemies who hate America.
• Repeat, always making sure to increase the number of internal enemies.

(The betrayal story is also discussed on Alternet and in the Atlantic Monthly.)

The stage has been set for laying the blame on us. In the runup to the escalation, these phrases were repeated far and wide by unknowing journalists:

• "defeatist"
• "cut-and-run"
• "embolden the enemy"
• "not supporting the troops"
• "break the will of the American people"
• "lack of resolve"
• "demoralizing the troops"
• "the party of appeasement"

Often innocently quoted from interviews with conservatives, these phrases reinforce associations in people's brains between peace activists and the disaster in Iraq.

The debate has been framed against us. Our brains have been conditioned through repetitive accusations that opponents of the Iraq occupation are "emboldening the enemy" with their "defeatism" until the only thing that makes sense is the betrayal of America by war-hating peace mongers.

Talk about a twisted role reversal.

Tell a different story

Conservatives have spread a virus, incubating their ideas in our brains with the hope that they would replicate across the country. They have planted seeds of conservative thought to be born by a media that doesn't realize it is complicit in propagating the Betrayal Myth. Our responsibility as citizens is to get the truth out there ahead of the next round of lies. We can take away its capacity to influence our thinking by becoming sensitized to the hidden meaning of these words.