Pakistanis & Tea Baggers? So Not a Tea Party.
Yesterday, Foreign Policy (dot com) released a biting article by David Rothkopf (a scholar at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace) entitled, “A Tea Party Made in Heaven: Should Islamabad be the Next Stop for Angle & Co?” In the piece, Rothkopf claims that two of the biggest threats facing America – “the decay of nuclear Pakistan and the rise of the Tea Party movement here at home” – can be resolved by sending the Tea Party away to Pakistan. He noted,
We need to keep an eye on Pakistan, but can’t officially send troops there…At the same time, at home we are confronted by a new political movement whose leaders drape themselves in the flag and then proceed to espouse a worldview that is alternatively un-American (anti-immigration in a nation of immigrants, anti-personal freedoms like choice, pro-infusion of politics with religion) and ante-diluvian (anti-science, pro-vigilantism, pro-solving problems at the point of a gun). They are out of place here and lord knows — given our history of success without them — they are expendable. The tea-baggers want a country? Let’s give them one: send them to Pakistan.
Rothkopf proceeds to compare the “Tea-bagger” worldview with the “Pakistani” one, gleefully noting similarities among sentiments toward taxes (the rich don’t pay taxes in Pakistan and they don’t in the U.S., so if Tea Baggers left for Pakistan, maybe the government could actually implement sensible tax policies in the U.S.), gun control (both Tea-baggers and Pakistanis LOVE guns! Whee!), religious tolerance (they both are intolerant! Who knew!), love of foreigners (no love! Sad face 😦 ), and foreign policy (both likely to see Russia from respective houses).
Is Rothkopf being facetious? Of course. Was he successful? Not really, especially with literary gems like these,
Here is a country with a large population committed to policies rooted in the values and outlook of centuries ago and a large group of Americans with a similar nostalgia for hangings, gunfights, superstition, racial and religious conflict and witch hunts. So theoretically, despite Pakistan’s historically documented, deeply rooted strain of anti-Americanism, this may well be the one group of Americans with whom they have the most in common and thus, the ones with the best chance of building the bridge we need between our two cultures.
I am not denying that Pakistan as a whole tilts more right of center, (when I asked the Twitterverse to weigh in on the issue of Pakistan’s right-wing, @umairjav noted that politically it’s about 30-35 percent right-wing, and about 95 percent socio-culturally right-wing). Regimes in the last 40 years have also approved legislation that have increasingly legitimized intolerance and violence towards Pakistan’s minorities, and the paranoia among the “right wing” has been discussed at length. But to paint an entire country with the same brushstroke as a right-wing socio-political movement? That’s offensive.
Maybe the better solution would be for Pakistan’s militants to run away with American Tea Party supporters. That way we’re both rid of them.
and this guy works for Carnegie? even in satire he’s intellectually lazy.
if this is the state of think tanks in america, no wonder we’re in the mess we’re in.
[…] Co?” In the piece, Rothkopf claims that two of the biggest […] Read more at: CHUP! – Changing Up Pakistan ante diluvian, carnegie endowment for international peace, david rothkopf, facetious of […]
Maybe the better solution would be for Pakistan’s militants to run away with American Tea Party supporters…
As someone who shares a lot of the same values as the Tea Party, such as lower taxes and fiscal responsibility on the part of government, and has even attended a couple of their rallies, I am not sure why I am being lumped in with twisted religious fanatics who go around blowing people up.
Colin,
First I was kidding. Second, my point was only to say that we don’t want the militants who have been targeting local citizens either, so if Rothkopf wants the Tea Party supporters to leave, so should our militants.
In all seriousness, I found his tone condescending and ignorant, not just to Pakistanis, but also to conservatives who may subscribe to the same views as Tea Party supporters. Calling them Tea Baggers? Pretty derogatory.
30-35 percent “politically right-wing” and 95 percent “socio-culturally right-wing”?
What are these numbers based on? And even if one accepts them for argument’s sake, would the 95 percent of the population that is socio-culturally right-wing not vote “politically” right-wing? Are the politics of the remainder 60 odd percent aligned to the center-left or progressive elements?
Saleem,
I was quoting merely to point out some of the responses on Twitter – I’m not sure if there have been exact percentages about the country’s ‘right-wing” (politically, socio-culturally), but from my understanding the country as a whole does sit right of center, and has becoming increasingly so in the last 30 years (thanks Cyril!), but I’d be interested if anyone has more information about what exactly this means and what it means for the remainder of the country.
considering that i was the one who gave the figure, i should explain why i chose this rather off-the-cuff stat. 30-35 percent is the rough percentage of the electorate that votes for clear-cut right wing parties (PML, JI, JUI etc). By 95 percent i meant that socio-culturally, most people in pakistan are conservative i.e. personally religious, imbibe conservative family and moral values, primordial in outlook etc etc.
Thanks Umair – I didn’t want to misrepresent what you meant by the quote, so thanks for clarifying.
About the social conservatism – I don’t know if most people view it as a bad thing and/or equate it to the political right, but I definitely wouldn’t. The two might be correlated, but…
What about the others? Is there anything inherently wrong with being right-of-center or having socially conservative values?
One question that comes to mind…is there actually that much cognitive dissonance in Pakistani society? If almost everyone is ‘right-wing’ in their personal lives, why doesn’t that translate into politics?
Also, given that we haven’t exactly had lots of elections, WILL we see a large scale political move to the right? Especially after all the rabid anti-Americanism and after the era of Zaid Hamid et al? Those who say that the religious right has failed to succeed politically in Pakistan (eg Ahsan of 5rs) point to old electoral results…does anyone think that will change?
Someone from poli sci or sociology is probably best placed to answer these…
I think it’ll be interesting to see what will happen in the next elections, though currently the MMA (religious party alliance) have so far failed to revive their coalition: http://tribune.com.pk/story/21144/religious-parties-fail-to-revive-mma/
The JUI-F are part of the current ruling coalition and don’t see it as politically beneficial to join the coalition. But what’s interesting is that the religious parties need a coalition in order to garner a significant vote bank, and even then the MMA only won in the NWFP (right?).
As you rightly mentioned nsahmed, I’m not sure how this “right wing” translates into politics, just as how I’m not sure how the tea party movement will express itself within the next elections, esp. since many Republicans dislike their approach.
Kalsoom
one black sheep ruins it for everyone
Someone like Faisal Shahzad does NOT represent the thought process of entire pakistani population but the sad reality is that he is afterall a Pakistani and no matter what we do we cannot simply disown that fellow
So yeah this is how these media hawks work. What can we do
David Rothkopf obviously has never set foot in Pakistan, nor does he even understand (or care to articulate) the philosophies driving the Tea Party movement.
Obviously Mr. Rothkopf disagrees with the “write what you know” strategy for authors…
The real question is, what motivates these intellectuals to spout opinions on topics for which they’re totally unqualified to comment on?
Who is this Rothkopf guy? And why does he want to send Tea Baggers here? This is a Doodh patti chai kind of place…. no tea bags allowed here.
-Aly
http://discomaulvi.wordpress.com/
http://www.twitter.com/DiscoMaulvi
Good one! 🙂
So v apt. Thank you! *APPLAUSE* etc. etc. Kalsom FTW 🙂
Thanks for posting this Kalsoom. This guy obviously has never been to Pakistan and does not understand the nuances. He’s painting a broad brush.