And Every Knee Shall Bend
At the reliably inane Huffington Post, Paul Eaton accuses Rep. Joe Wilson of a breach of military discipline for insulting his commander in chief. Eaton, who publicly criticized the secretary of defense after retiring as a military officer, hangs this argument on the fact that Wilson is a retired military officer, and therefore should adopt a deferential posture toward those in his chain of command.
Better yet, a long stream of Huffington Post commenters race to agree, and to expand on the point. Look at this brutally stupid comment, for example:
"You are so right, Maj. General. We are raised, in particular in the south, to respect our elders, respect positions of authority and strive to treat one another equally. Somewhere along the line Joe Wilson forgot that he was sitting in the room with his Commander in Chief. This deserves more than some halfhearted attempt at an apology."
And so Obama's notionally progressive supporters embrace the dumbest and most offensive argument of the Cheneyite, neoconservative right: The president of the United States is the commander in chief of the country, and we are all his soldiers -- obligated by military custom to respect and obey him.
A member of the legislative branch, sitting in front of the head of the executive branch, is in the presence of his commander.
That's really some change you can believe in.
If you weren't on active duty in the military during George Bush's presidency, he was never your commander in chief. If you are not currently on active duty in the military, Barack Obama is not your commander in chief. If you want to yell that he's a liar, you should do so. The only arguments against that choice are social arguments about politeness between two human beings. In Wilson's case, you could also make an argument about congressional rules and customs. But Obama is not Wilson's commander, and has no claim at all to any privileges of command over a member of Congress.
Some people really aren't fit for citizenship in a republic.