A New Stoopid Party?

The internet is abuzz with howls of protest about the TSA's new procedures for screening airline passengers. I wasn't too interested in this at first, probably because I haven't flown for years. But then I saw an angle that did interest me.

When an issue fits neatly into the Left-versus-Right paradigm, it can be quite boring. All the shibboleths and slogans are so predictable. If you ask somebody for their opinion, it ends up being a mere recording. But it is much more interesting when an issue produces mixed feelings and cross-currents on both sides.

Let's consider the poor Democrats first. A good liberal's instinctive reaction to some -- nay, to any -- new or expanded federal government program is that it must be a step towards Progress. At least its intentions must be good; what else matters?

And yet, this is part of the War on Terror, which is Bush's War. And the airline unions hate the new procedures. Furthermore privacy issues are a not-insignificant part of the liberal coalition. Remember the bumper stickers of years ago: Get Your Laws off my Body! It must give a good liberal pause to imagine female passengers ordered onto an ob-gyn table, told to spread their legs, and then get poked and prodded by night-stick-wielding, bottom-of-the-labor-pool cretins who work for the TSA.

Most of the howling is probably coming from the GOP. They must be torn. After all, the new procedures are a positive step towards making an American police-security state, and as the American Likud party they should be supportive of that. Oh sure, Small-Government folks are a part of their coalition and the dominant wing of the GOP has to let a few crumbs fall off the table every now and then to that minority. But how can they do that here?

Of course when all is said and done, partisan advantage -- and not theories or principles -- will decide the day. The new TSA rules are a godsend to Republicans. It is the most recent example of the unlikeable personality and image of the Democrats: that they are imperious, intrusive, and even perverse. Recall that famous photograph of the 1990's: Janet Reno's storm troopers grabbing the screaming little Cuban boy to give him back to Castro.

Well, I want to end on a positive note. America has always prided itself on its healthy, stable two party system. The new TSA procedures show that, indeed, we do have two Stoopid parties in competition.