Yesterday afternoon, in the post, "Something Askew," I noted that the recall efforts of 8 Democratic state senators in Wisconsin was being undertaken at the behest of a group, not from Wisconsin, but Utah. On the surface, this seems like a clear case of subverting the intent of a state law that allows Wisconsin citizens to send a very strong message -- We don't like what you're doing -- to their own elected representatives.
However, as the day wore on, I realized that this tack of interfering in the affairs of people outside of one's legal jurisdiction is as American as baseball and apple pie. Our own government -- often under the auspices of the CIA -- secretly has supported coups in many parts of the world. If a particular government doesn't behave the way WE think they should (i.e., for OUR benefit), our leaders habitually have had no qualms at all of trying to subvert the will of another nation's leaders and/or citizens.
We didn't like the Allende government in Chile in the early 1970s, so we helped to finance a coup to replace him with a brutal dictator. We didn't like the leader of Iran in the 1950s, we supported the coup that installed the Shah. The list of these matters of intrigue is legion.
Consequently, the group from Utah merely is following in the footsteps of America's infamous history of subverting the will of people in other locales. I am certainly NOT suggesting that this makes the situation in Wisconsin all hunky dory; it's more than it is par for the course.
However, as the day wore on, I realized that this tack of interfering in the affairs of people outside of one's legal jurisdiction is as American as baseball and apple pie. Our own government -- often under the auspices of the CIA -- secretly has supported coups in many parts of the world. If a particular government doesn't behave the way WE think they should (i.e., for OUR benefit), our leaders habitually have had no qualms at all of trying to subvert the will of another nation's leaders and/or citizens.
We didn't like the Allende government in Chile in the early 1970s, so we helped to finance a coup to replace him with a brutal dictator. We didn't like the leader of Iran in the 1950s, we supported the coup that installed the Shah. The list of these matters of intrigue is legion.
Consequently, the group from Utah merely is following in the footsteps of America's infamous history of subverting the will of people in other locales. I am certainly NOT suggesting that this makes the situation in Wisconsin all hunky dory; it's more than it is par for the course.
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