Still trying to work out the Sullivan piece, because he's usually a level-headed guy, though I don't agree with him all the time. He's a senior editor at the New Republic and has been a strong member of the center-liberal coalition through the Clinton years (don't know about before then because I wasn't really paying attention). He astutely draws a picture of the country, but seems to go out of his way to take an extremely unwarranted and divisive swipe at the Gore voters. Essentially he sets aside a paragraph to give his opinion that he is suspicious of the centers of population, finance, manufacturing, politics and education and that he feels they could subvert the efforts of the "great red zone" (I think "great" here means large, not spectacular) to combat terrorists, all the while living in the cities which are and will remain the targets of terrorist attacks. Like it or not, when foreigners think of America, they think of its "alabaster cities", and not the "fruited plane". The threat to the terrorists is not in the central regions of the country, but on the coasts and will continue to be. Rob and I talked about the piece and he took away a very different feel than I did, but after going back, I feel stronger than I did about this paragraph essentially staining the article. Sullivan may be thinking of the protests during Vietnam as a fifth column, but to even use the term would be to understand the difference between the two. Once again you're left with political vitriol as the root of his using the term. One can make a case that without the left, America can't win a war. Coincidentally, that is also the part that is the most skeptical and wary of going to war, as it is their lives that are most in danger. Moreover, that fraction of the public has shown that it will not be bullied or intimidated by its political opponents. There are other issues I have with the article, but that paragraph remains the crux of it.

Main Entry: fifth column
Function: noun
Etymology: name applied to rebel sympathizers in Madrid in 1936 when four rebel columns were advancing on the city
Date: 1936
: a group of secret sympathizers or supporters of an enemy that engage in espionage or sabotage within defense lines or national borders
- posted by levinson @ 9/18/2001 07:31:00 AM