I find it endlessly amusing when pundits and politicians think they have an “a-ha!” moment while more normal people see it as “duh!” It happens all the time when people who consider themselves elite and intellectuals experience something or come across a bit of information that is completely foreign to them but a regular part of everyone else’s everyday life.
The greatest example of this, though more apocryphal than real and blown way out of proportion, was in the early 90s when then-President George H. W. Bush saw a barcode scanner in a grocery store for the first time. He’d been Vice President for eight years, then President – there was no reason he would’ve known about advances in checkout technology. Still, he was slammed by the press and the left (but I repeat myself) as out of touch.
It's one of those things about politics that seem counter-intuitive, or at least counter-productive – that the higher you climb in politics (elected or punditry), the more detached from the people you are supposed or claim to represent you become. And the longer you do it – commentary or hold office – the more disconnected you become from the majority’s reality.
I saw this column in the Wall Street Journal the other day entitled, “Welcome to Dearborn, America’s Jihad Capital.” The sub-headline tells you where the article is coming from: “Imams and politicians in the Michigan city side with Hamas against Israel and Iran against the U.S.”
As someone who grew up in Detroit and lived for six years in Dearborn, I speak for everyone in southeast Michigan when I quote the great hero John McClane when I say, “Welcome to the party, pal.”
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How did this reality escape anyone? It shouldn’t surprise anyone. Why it does is a testament to why punditry is so terrible – the people practicing it would rather walk over well-worn footprints than break new ground. It’s why politics and punditry are so disrespected.
I was living in Dearborn in 2000 when Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon. I was at home, renting the upstairs in a home at Warren and Schaeffer when I heard horns and fireworks from outside. It sounded like a party, or a riot, or both. I flipped on the news and thought that really couldn’t be the reason for the celebration, could it? These people lived in Michigan, not Lebanon, so why would they be so emotionally invested in the happenings on the other side of the planet?
I hopped in my car to check it out.
Bumper-to-bumper traffic, with people blasting their horns, hanging out of cars, waving Lebanese flags, stomping on, and setting fire to Israeli flags, was pretty crazy. Mostly men, young men who’d probably never set foot in Lebanon (I assume the women were at home, as I didn’t see many covered heads), yelling celebratory praises to their God and cursing Israel.
They were not fans of Israel. They didn’t seem to care that Lebanon had been bombing Israel from southern Lebanon or that Israel had kicked their ass for it; they treated them leaving like an accomplishment – like winning by forfeit because the other team didn’t show up and your team spewing champagne all over each other as they’d won on a walk-off homer with two outs in the bottom of the 9th.
Whatever. Glory isn’t passed down from generation to generation, but hatred is.
This is not a state secret or any kind of secret at all. It shouldn’t take a war or terrorist attack for people to notice it or report on it, just like it shouldn’t take a video of Ihan Omar saying something stupid to a group from Somalia to notice that the concentrated Somali community is not super-friendly to Jews or doesn’t feel much loyalty the country that saved them from theirs.
This is the end result of identity politics. There’s no other way for it to go. It should not surprise anyone.
My favorite and probably the most popular Lebanese restaurant in Dearborn closed down a few years ago because its owner was tied to funneling money to terrorist groups. It’s all out there for anyone to see; all you have to do is look. The real question is, why aren’t people looking until something major happens? Sunlight is the best disinfectant, but political correctness keeps everyone in the dark. Maybe that’s by design?
