The Dixie Chicks of Bridge

By Keith Boykin, in politics
Wednesday, November 14 2007, 1:16AM

Here we go again. The talk radio shows and right-wing TV shows are probably chomping at the bit this week to condemn the latest "menace to society" from the left. This time it's a group of women's card players who, after winning a bridge championship in Shanghai, held up a small sign declaring "We did not vote for Bush."

In response to the bridge group's act of alleged political indecency, the group has been attacked by critics and is facing a potential ban from competition. The ban is significant because some bridge players rely on the income they make to support themselves. “I earn my living from bridge, and a substantial part of that from being hired to compete in high-level competitions," team member Debbie Rosenberg told the New York Times.

So here were are back where we were at the beginning of the war in Iraq. The bridge story is eerily reminiscent of a previous incident in 2003 when Dixie Chicks' lead singer Natalie Maines told an audience that the Texas-born group did not support President George Bush. The Dixie Chicks were quickly banned from country music radio stations and forced to face death threats and condemnation.

That was a terrible time in America, when french fries were re-named "freedom fries" and french wines were poured down the toilets to protest that country's reluctance to join our rush to war. And yet four years later it is amazing what little we've learned.

Although some members of the bridge team have expressed regret about the remarks recently, three others have not. So the bridge federation has proposed a settlement that calls for the holdouts to issue an apology and accept a one-year suspension from federation events, including the world bridge tournament next year in Beijing. The suspension would be followed by a one-year probation and 200 hours of community service “that furthers the interests of organized bridge."

All that for holding up a sign?

The woman who actually held the sign told reporters she did so in response to questions from players from other countries who challenged the war in Iraq, American interrogation techniques and other foreign policy issues, the Times reported. "There was a lot of anti-Bush feeling, questioning of our Iraq policy and about torture," she said. “[T]here wasn’t the same warmth you usually feel at these events."

That's not surprising given the collapse of international support for the war in Iraq.

"Freedom to express dissent against our leaders has traditionally been a core American value," Rosenberg wrote in an email message reported in the Times. "Unfortunately, the Bush brand of patriotism, where criticizing Bush means you are a traitor, seems to have penetrated a significant minority of U.S. bridge players."

Others, like leading bridge player Robert Wolff, disagree. Although he understood the women may have a legal right to express themselves, he said the protest still offended people. "While I believe in the right to free speech, to me that doesn’t give anyone the right to criticize one’s leader at a foreign venue in a totally nonpolitical event," he wrote in an email.

Okay, so maybe the protest was a little tacky, but it was hardly out of line. If the team members had help up a sign condemning another country or a group of people, that would have been clearly inappropriate conduct. But to criticize a polarizingly controversial political leader with a silent gesture of opposition is no crime and warrants no punishment. That is especially true when the leader who is criticized represents a country that is supposed to be a beacon of free expression and free speech.

Just look at the picture at the top. These women are not a threat to America or to the American bridge federation. The real threat to America is a cowboy style of presidential leadership that bullies opponents and penalizes dissent. Disagreeing with the president is as American as the Constitution itself. It is a right enjoyed by Republicans, Democrats and anyone else in America. Punishing people for disagreeing with the president, on the other hand, is un-American.

Whether they sing in a band, play cards for a living, or serve in the military, Americans have the right to question their political leaders. When that right is taken away, the promise of America is reduced to meaningless symbolism.

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