Dub-ya, Dubai and the Democrats

The editorial in the March 20th edition of The Nation begins, "Rise by fear, fall by fear." True, the xenophobia Bush complains is fueling others' alarm over the Dubai Ports World deal is the very same xenophobia on which he capitalized to retain his office. But no one can pretend that Bush has had a change of heart or ideology; certainly, he's still using xenophobic fearmongering in his characterizations of Iran, Iraq, North Korea and any other "rogue nation" he'll be sure to lump into the "axis of evil." If we play Greg Palast's favorite "follow the money" game, I'm sure the true motives behind Bush's drive for Dubai will be uncovered, and I'm equally sure his claim that the deal would have strengthened relations with moderate Arab allies is specious at best. Dubai's relinquishment to an American entity seems to have defused the issue, at least in its presentation and airtime in the MSM. Following the money might still be worth the trouble, though.

Later in the same issue of The Nation, Eric Alterman bemoans the Democrats' move away from issues such as, "trade unionism, regulation of the market, and various welfare measures." Alterman quotes Michael Kazin who said, "Liberals [have morphed in the public imagination] from people who looked, dressed and sounded like Woody Guthrie to people who look, dress and sound like Woody Allen." This may seem unrelated to the Dubai Ports World issue unless we think about what it means for our own economy that Bush wishes to outsource our infrastructural jobs, no matter to whom. Where are the Deomcrats who would speak for the American workers? Where are the Democrats who, rather than using Bush's own xenophobic rhetoric against him, would change the terms of the debate? Perhaps this is a good time to recall that Dennis Kucinich, when running (and losing) in the Democratic primaries, noted repeatedly that the American infrastructure was crumbling and that a neo-WPA would create jobs and strengthen our nation from within. One election and two hurricanes later, that view is as much a distant footnote in the MSM as Kucinich's campaign once was.