I never assumed that the stereotypical Republican would like Sweden. Let's face it, the country is European, socialist and largely atheistic, all qualities that American right-wing politicians abhor. Still, I never thought that Republicans would try to tear down an immensely beneficial Swedish institution like the Nobel Prize simply for political gain. By now everyone has to have heard about Obama's Nobel Peace Prize; I tend to agree that the Nobel Committee took a not-so-subtle potshot at former President Bush's foreign policy, but it is incredibly unjust (and quite absurd) for the Republicans to seize this opportunity to crucify the Nobel Committee (run by the Norwegian Parliament) by labeling it "an anti-American committee." It is astonishing and embarrassing that they believe that undermining the legitimacy of an institution that has rewarded intellectual greatness for over a century is worth five points in the next Gallup poll.
The Nobel Peace Prize is inherently controversial. It is definitely the vaguest of all the Nobel Prizes in its subject matter, and rewards actors in current political contests who face opposition on domestic and international levels. It is only natural for these opposition parties or groups to resent the award to some degree; if even the Dalai Lama faced opposition from China when he won his Peace Prize, no one should have been surprised when Al Gore's prize elicited criticism. I think I'd be more surprised than I am now if the Republicans celebrated Obama's prize out in the streets with banners and confetti. Still, for the sake of political civility and the appearance of decor, Republicans should have joined the Democrats in congratulating the president with a forced smile and a polite handshake.
If that had actually happened, we wouldn't have this childish news story to deal with. In his last column, "Nobel Abuse" (Oct. 12), Raza Rasheed '12 put the Republican response in the best terms I could imagine, while relating the kind of foreign policy that the Nobel committee was criticizing: "the shockingly reckless go-it-alone, gun-slinging-cowboy foreign policy." Old habits die hard. While angrily responding to this criticism, Republicans are also validating it. It's almost right out of an old spaghetti western film from the 1960s: the Republican cowboys of the old West have been insulted by the untrustworthy foreigners, and now they've got to ride into town, guns blazing, to find their own justice!
This kind of behavior from one of our two major political parties is embarrassing to America as a whole. Republicans at all levels within the party are demonstrating a particularly unsavory opportunism in their criticisms of the Nobel committee as a way to undermine Obama. The Nobel Committee did expose itself to the violent debate of American politics by giving Obama the prize, but that only provides cause to attack this year's award, not the institution in general. It is childish for figures like Anthony McCarthy of the National Review to refer to it as the "Yasser Arafat Prize" (Arafat won the award in 1994) simply because he finds it good for his readership. The Nobel Committee has been able to recognize and support many important figures over the last century, and we should not sacrifice a century of excellence based on one year's ill-advised award.
This is not to say criticism of the prize is out of order. I was dumbstruck when I heard about the award, yet I am neither anti-Nobel nor anti-Obama. Neither are the other countless Democrats who disagree with the award, and neither are the few apparently rational Republican figures like John McCain and Mike Huckabee, who decided to congratulate Obama rather than berate him. We all may have reservations about the prize, but somehow we still find a way to keep going about our daily lives. There are battles that should be fought and there are those that shouldn't; unless we're actually concerned about Swedish academic imperialism over American public opinion, this is a battle that should have never been fought.
Somehow, this positively ridiculous debate over the validity of a respected international award with a long, prestigious tradition must end. We have to move past these political recriminations and return America's attention to the global issues that really matter (the ones that Obama presumably won the Nobel Prize for). I don't care if one group has to turn the other cheek or cut and run, or even if Obama has to get everyone to the White House for another round of beers we simply can't allow this pointlessly destructive game to continue.
