An Iowan's View of the Joe Wilson Flap
by Paul Deaton
I am okay with Joe Wilson shouting out “You lie!” during the President’s speech last week, and my perspective is from near the corner of Second Street and C Street in Washington, DC where I was having dinner with friends when Wilson made his remarks. The restaurant was within walking distance of Joe Wilson’s Washington residence and he was considered to be a neighbor by some at our table.
The next day my host, Joe Volk, wrote in his blog, “In shouting ‘You lie!’ at President Obama, Wilson sets himself up as a defender of truth.
If Representative Joe Wilson had taken time to remember, he would recall that, when President Bush explained to Congress his reasons for going to war in Iraq, he did not tell the truth or, at least, what he said did not fit with the facts. Joe Wilson stood and applauded President Bush. He didn’t yell out ‘You lie!’ Nor did any Democrat, as I recall. That would have been a time to shout at a president from the floor of Congress. It’s not so funny that no one did.”
Even though it breaks the rules, we could do with more of people calling out the lies and misrepresentations that characterize much of our lives. It is okay for this to seep into the congress. It is okay if the cry is misguided as Joe Wilson’s appears to be. We simply need more outcries.
The rough edges of our moral outrage have been sanded off by a false sense of propriety that serves our purpose of the day. Like others did, I worked many hours to make sure we elected Barack Obama President. It is unrealistic to think that because we won the presidency and congressional majorities that all at once the world would be our oyster. The truth is that the powerful interests in Washington, with their money, relationships and seductions are as powerful as ever. Whatever hope we had of reducing their influence vanished once Congress re-convened in January. I am not sure that these powerful interests had to significantly modify their approach when the Democrats took power.
Joe Wilson was rebuked by Congress in a procedure that contained elements of Kabuki Theater. It was entertaining and saddening. It was saddening because beyond the song and dance, beyond the makeup, I saw the same visage of powerful interests continuing to concentrate wealth in a smaller number of people. We see the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continue, the environment continues to be degraded, and poverty flourishes around the globe and in the United States. It is ironic that a man who sought to keep a symbol of the confederacy on the South Carolina state flag and introduces himself as “the guy who introduces those provisions to name buildings and places after his hero, President Ronald Reagan” brings these things to our attention in two words.
And now, our work goes on.
~Paul Deaton is a native Iowan living in rural Johnson County. Check out his blog, Big Grove Garden. E-mail Paul Deaton
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