I have recently heard Rush Limbaugh trying to work his listeners up about human rights abuses and read a column from Mona "airhead" Charen decrying a foreign policy that looks the other way at persecution of christians in a third world hellhole. No, I have not ventured into a parallel universe where conservatives actually care about peace and justice - although at times one must seriously wonder at how these notorious Republican apologists can all of a sudden repudiate the foreign policy promoted by Newt Gingrich, George Bush, Bob Dole and Dick Armey. Are the christian conservatives going to openly break ranks with their corporate sponsors over the issue of human rights abuses in China and put pressure on the fat cats who benefit from the human misery inflicted on brother christians and millions of slaughtered innocent fetuses in the world's largest autocracy? Will they, like outraged blacks in the 80s against South Africa, lead the movement for a consumer boycott and disinvestment in China and other countries which persecute brother christians?
The political reality is that the religious conservatives - political whores that they are - are doing nothing more than act as a wing of the Republican party and trying to lay the blood of their brethren at Bill Clinton's feet. Furthermore, they are trying to score points against human rights groups - who are not, as airhead Mona has suggested, placated by the release of a few dissidents - for remaining quiet about the abuses done against christians. Human rights advocates like myself are not impressed with the release of a few high profile dissidents and have been taunting christian conservatives all during the Bush administration for their silence when the chinese government did the very same thing. I will personally guarantee that no major leader of the religious right will call for a consumer boycott [for christian conservatives these are reserved for important issues like adult situations depicted on TV] or disinvestment in China. These measures would work far more effectively than any and all possible government sanctions such as revocation of most favored nation status or even an economic boycott because it would toss the problem into the hands of those make such behavior profitable to the chinese leadership. Until pressure is put on the parasites who profit from the misery in places like China, nothing will change.
3/16/97