"Mosque" fight reveals Cheney-ization of GOP

[kpete]

"Mosque" fight reveals Cheney-ization of GOP

Jonathan Chait makes the case that the battle over the "Ground Zero mosque" is more than just a war over issues surrounding the Constitution and religious freedom. Chait notes, crucially, that this is also an intra-party struggle over the future direction of GOP foreign policy:

The second question is about laying the groundwork for Republican foreign policy for the next GOP presidential administration. George W. Bush pursued a policy of attempting to divide the mass of the Muslim world from the dangerous and radical hard core, reassuring and praising the former while opposing the latter. President Obama has pursued the same policy, adding onto it the personal touch of using his identity and unique history to dramatize the same basic message.

The Park51 episode has become a proxy fight on this question among Republicans, many of whom see the foreign policy struggle as a clash of civilizations between Islam and Christianity/Judaism.

It's also worth adding that if the battle over the Islamic center has revealed an intra-Republican struggle over whose foreign policy vision will prevail, it's clear who's winning this fight: The Cheney-ites. Consider: Virtually all leading Republicans who are currently in positions of power, or are currently lining up to run for office in 2012, have adopted the Liz Cheney line.

http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/77189/why-the-park51-fight-matters

[groovedaddy]

1. But Bush also used the term "Crusade" in 2001. That got the attention of many, many Musliams around

the world and not in a positive way.