Deranged Bush-Addicted Syndrome

This is the headline in the New York Times: "Anti-Bush Sign Has Bridge World in an Uproar."

That's "bridge" as in "card game." And the "anti-Bush sign" that has caused this "uproar" was held up by a group of American women after winning something called the Venice Cup in the World Bridge Championships in Shanghai. The words on the sign were: "We Did Not Vote for Bush."

That is it. And now they are being accused of "treason" and "sedition" by deranged bridge fans, and being threatened with sanctions -- including a ban on playing bridge competitively for a year:

“This isn’t a free-speech issue,” said Jan Martel, president of the United States Bridge Federation, the nonprofit group that selects teams for international tournaments. “There isn’t any question that private organizations can control the speech of people who represent them.”

Not so, said Danny Kleinman, a professional bridge player, teacher and columnist. “If the U.S.B.F. wants to impose conditions of membership that involve curtailment of free speech, then it cannot claim to represent our country in international competition,” he said by e-mail.

Ms. Martel said the action by the team, which had won the Venice Cup, the women’s title, at the Shanghai event, could cost the federation corporate sponsors.

The players have been stunned by the reaction to what they saw as a spontaneous gesture, “a moment of levity,” said Gail Greenberg, the team’s nonplaying captain and winner of 11 world championships.

“What we were trying to say, not to Americans but to our friends from other countries, was that we understand that they are questioning and critical of what our country is doing these days, and we want you to know that we, too, are critical,” Ms. Greenberg said, stressing that she was speaking for herself and not her six teammates.

The controversy has gone global, with the French team offering support for its American counterparts.
[...]
The proposed sanctions would hurt the team’s playing members financially. “I earn my living from bridge, and a substantial part of that from being hired to compete in high-level competitions,” Debbie Rosenberg, a team member, said. “So being barred would directly affect much of my ability to earn a living.”

A hearing is scheduled this month in San Francisco, where thousands of players will be gathered for the Fall North American Bridge Championships. It will determine whether displaying the sign constitutes conduct unbecoming a federation member.

Three players— Hansa Narasimhan, JoAnna Stansby and Jill Meyers — have expressed regret that the action offended some people. The federation has proposed a settlement to Ms. Greenberg and the three other players, Jill Levin, Irina Levitina and Ms. Rosenberg, who have not made any mollifying statements.

It calls for a one-year suspension from federation events, including the World Bridge Olympiad next year in Beijing; a one-year probation after that suspension; 200 hours of community service “that furthers the interests of organized bridge”; and an apology drafted by the federation’s lawyer.

It would also require them to write a statement telling “who broached the idea of displaying the sign, when the idea was adopted, etc.”

Alan Falk, a lawyer for the federation, wrote the four team members on Nov. 6, “I am instructed to press for greater sanction against anyone who rejects this compromise offer. [my bolds]”

This is so over the top, so beyond what even a marginally levelheaded person would consider rational or reasonable, that I expected all but the most wild-eyed wingnuts to call it, at the very least, an overreaction. To be fair, some do. But mostly it's the usual raving about moonbats and Bush-haters.

There are all sorts of handles you can use to grab on to this story. One of them is the suggestion made in several quarters that the bridge women are being held responsible for the way they chose to handle anti-American feeling abroad. Here's Maha:

Judging by Memeorandum, this is the hottest news item on the blogosphere right now. The wingnuts are spewing about Bush Derangement Syndrome. “Shut up and play cards” is a common suggestion.

The players have been stunned by the reaction to what they saw as a spontaneous gesture, “a moment of levity,” said Gail Greenberg, the team’s nonplaying captain and winner of 11 world championships.

“What we were trying to say, not to Americans but to our friends from other countries, was that we understand that they are questioning and critical of what our country is doing these days, and we want you to know that we, too, are critical,” Ms. Greenberg said, stressing that she was speaking for herself and not her six teammates.

The controversy has gone global, with the French team offering support for its American counterparts.

“By trying to address these issues in a nonviolent, nonthreatening and lighthearted manner,” the French team wrote in by e-mail to the federation’s board and others, “you were doing only what women of the world have always tried to do when opposing the folly of men who have lost their perspective of reality.”

Jimmie at the Sundries Shack disagrees.

What these ladies should have done is reminded the Bush-haters that they were at a bridge tournament and not a political convention and that good manners prohibit the discussion of politics at a table where it is not welcome. I’m fairly sure that reminding your fellow bridge players of their manners would have solved the problem.

Then you beat the stuffing out of them and taunt them relentlessly from the winners’ podium. Maybe you even stack the losers up in a pyramid and have one of your team point at them and laugh while you take pictures.

I assume that last bit was another attempt at levity. But what this tells me is that wingnuts don’t get out much. These days, for Americans, to go abroad is to be treated with, at the very least, caution. We may look normal on the surface, but at the least provocation we may grow tusks and root up the shrubberies.

But these ladies appear to have run into some outright hostility, and they were trying to diffuse the situation. Any emotionally mature person might have done the same thing, which is why wingnuts don’t understand it.

John Aravosis has had "the conversation many times:

I can understand why the American team made the point that they didn't vote for Bush. Anyone who travels regularly abroad knows that wearing your anti-Bushism on your sleeve is the next best thing to Kevlar in terms of self-preservation. The world hates George Bush, they hate our government because of George Bush and the Republicans (and the war and Gitmo and more), and they're not very happy with the fact that Americans voted twice for the idiot. (Once, they can understand - mistakes happen - but twice? Second time you own him.) I routinely let people know that I didn't vote for Bush when I'm abroad. Why? Because the conversation routinely goes like this:

Them: You speak great [insert language here].

Me: Thank you.

Them: But you're American?

Me: Yes.

Them: So where are you from in America?

Me: Washington, DC.

Them: [stone silence accompanied by cocked head and odd stare.]

Me: I didn't vote for Bush.

Them: [Cold face melts to smile.] Ah... good! [Animated conversation continues, followed by new lifelong friendship.]

John also points to this extremely interesting language in the USBF's official statement about the VCW (Venice Cup Winners) [my emphasis]:

3) Certain members of VCW have complained that the USBF apology to the WBF and the Chinese Contract Bridge Association for the VCW’s conduct was unwarranted. This reflects a complete disregard for the fact that the Chinese government, which does not exactly have a history of sympathetic views toward political dissent, provided the bulk of financial support for both the 2007 World Championship and the 2008 World Bridge Olympiad. Certainly, other sponsors such as Generali Group and Microsoft will not view as a positive development the hijacking of events which they supported financially as forums for political expression. Again, the VCW seem to view the interests of all other parties as entirely subordinate to their own, if they take them into account at all.

So that's why it was so especially terrible of the VCW to do the political dissent thing in China: They were offending a corporate sponsor that frowns on political dissent!

Jon Swift thinks this incident is a golden opportunity for the USBF:

The United States Bridge Federation has an excellent opportunity to show the world what America stands for by punishing these women.Some people have the wrong idea about what the Bill of Rights really means. In America you have freedom of expression as long as a private organization doesn't own your expression. Peaceful protests are fine as long as they don't embarrass organizations that depend on corporate sponsorship and take place on American soil behind police barricades where they can be videotaped for future use in any trials that might arise.

In Pakistan we can already see the tragic results that can occur when some people misunderstand what America stands for. Americans don't think that just anyone deserves the right to free speech and democracy. These are rights that have to be earned after years of being under the thumbs of U.S.-supported dictators. Once the people of these countries have demonstrated that they are not going to vote for Communists or Jihadists, then we allow them to have democracy on a trial basis, with the understanding that the CIA might have to start a coup and put another dictator in place if things get out of hand.

You can also find Jon's Swiftian jewels sparkling in the comments sections of various right-wing blogs: here, here, here, here, and here.