Talking Turkey (and other things)
[ by Charles Cameron — Turkey, Perry, Cheney, also Havel, Dylan and the Stones ]
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I’m always interested when someone, left or right, uses a juxtaposition of quotes or soundbites to show parallelisms or oppositions between opinions, and today the blogger at Emptywheel did just that with a quote from Rick Perry at last night’s Republican debate and another one from Dick Cheney‘s memoir.
Here’s the result, presented in my own characteristic DoubleQuote format:
I guess my questions here would be about the specific phrasings, “ruled by what many would perceive to be Islamic terrorists” (Perry) and “an Islamist government” (Cheney). Are the two statements virtually identical, somewhat similar – or are there significant nuances separating them?
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While we’re at it, here’s another DQ — this one struck me while reading a piece about Vaclav Havel today.
Interesting, too, that the Havel piece was fronted by that pic of Havel talking with Mick and Keith…
January 18th, 2012 at 4:10 am
I think the difference is that the former Vice-President is concerned with long-term geopolitical trends if Turkey’s “soft” Islamist AKP turns “hard” and the governor of Texas is, by contrast, regurgitating something he was recently told by a debate briefer and doesn’t understand, beyond Islamist= “terrorist”.
January 18th, 2012 at 12:27 pm
No, I don’t see it that way, Zen. To me, what Cheney is doing is dogwhistling. It’s a signal, an innuendo. To you and I the statements are very, very different. First, because we are educated and can read between the lines, and also that we understand the important nuances–an Islamist government versus and a government of Islamic terrorists do not sound that different in flyover country.
January 18th, 2012 at 9:30 pm
Charles, take it back even further. From 1750-1815(?), the Colonial Radicals(less than 10% of populace) that wanted to separate from the British Empire had to coerce/influence/convince the majority that we needed a United States of America. How did they do it? Propaganda and Deception Acts to include books, music, pamplets, sermons, etc…
Additionally, after the British left, we had to figure out how to bring in and absorb the Tories into the new government.
January 19th, 2012 at 3:53 am
Hi Sean Paul,
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Well, innuendo or not, I think Cheney is voicing a valid concern – like all large and broad political parties, the AKP has factions and some of them have wingnuts, this comes on top of a general authoritarian tendency in the AKP toward secular critics. Many ppl will take it as you suggest, the cohort above those paying no attention whatsoever. Presidential candidates, though, in either party, ought to be a cut above
January 19th, 2012 at 1:00 pm
Zen,
Paying attention is critical. But having lived and seen the AKP up close, I’m underwhelmed. Sure, some of the AKP have authoritarian tendencies, but Erdogan is no dummy: he knows his electoral prowess rests on one main result: the explosive growth of the Turkish economy since 2003. From conversations I’ve had with Turkish intellectuals they basically say the majority of secular Turks tolerate the AKP because there has been a general, across the board, increase in wealth in Turkey. Again, not a perfect situation, but I’m pretty convinced Erdogan knows what the limits are.
January 19th, 2012 at 4:09 pm
Mike:
Could you expand? I’m not quite following you…