UPDATE: I think I’m on to a winning formula here — fisk Josh Marshall anytime he mentions Korea, get Instapundited. Anyway, welcome to all those coming in from Glenn Reynold’s site, and while you’re here, I encourage you to check out as many of the blogs on my Korea Blogs list as you can — we’re living in interesting times over here on the Korean Peninsula. In particular, Weblog@Oranckay, Flying Yangban, Budaechigae and Kamelian X-Rays have been doing some fine work with Thursday’s general election, so you might wish to pay them visits.
And before I forget, thanks go to Plunge of Chief Wiggles and, of course, Glenn.
P.S. Just so there’s no confusion, while I live in and blog about Korea, I’m not a Korean; I’m an American working as a translator for a certain Korean daily paper. Just thought I’d clear that up.
I guess this is the problem when you rely on the foreign and English language press for your Korea news: Josh Marshall is attempting to spin yesterday’s general election results into a statement against Bush:
Setting aside these uncanny parallels, there’s a more immediate significance to this result. It is the continuance of a global trend in which elections in countries allied to the United States are being won by parties advocating loosening ties with America. Running against America — or really against George W. Bush makes for great politics almost everywhere in the world.
We saw it in South Korea two years ago. Then later that year in Germany. Recently in Spain. And now again in Korea — with many other examples along the way.
Each election had its own internal dynamics. But in each case opposition to the policies of the Bush administration became a salient, even defining issue.
Anyone who actually followed this election campaign knows that “opposition to the policies of the Bush administration” was NOT a salient issue. In fact, the most disturbing thing about this election was that “issues,” per say, were rather absent; discussions of foreign policy, economic troubles and political reform were pushed aside in favor of slush fund scandals, the impeachment, “old people” comments and — most dramatically — good old-fashioned Korean regionalism. How many politicians did you hear bringing up the United States during the election campaign? The most notable one was MDP election committee head Choo Mi-ae, and not only was her party crushed, she herself was defeated at the polls by an Uri Party candidate.
Look at the terms that most colored this election — cha-ddegi (the GNP’s acceptance of illegal campaign funds by the truck-load), tanpung (the backlash against the impeachment), nopung (the backlash against Uri Party head Chung Dong-young’s dissing of elderly voters), Park Keun-hye hyogwa (the “Park Keun-hye Effect,” especially powerful in the new GNP head’s home region of North Gyeongsang Province), geoyeo gyeonje (checking the dominant ruling party) and geoya gyeonje (checking the dominant opposition party). These were the “issues” that decided the election, not Bush or anything else remotely American. Heck, Josh, the MDP actually tried to make the deployment of Korean troops to Iraq an election issue, and the party went from the second largest party in the country with 61 seats to the distant fourth with nine. The anti-American DLP did relatively well for itself, becoming the country’s third largest party with 10 seats, but look where it did the strongest — the industrial cities (and soon to be rust-belt) of South Gyeongsang Province, which would seem to suggest the party’s support was not based as much on anti-Bush sentiment as it was on the fears of unionized workers who are watching large factories relocate to China one after the other.
Look, I’m not going to say that Uri’s victory or the inclusion of the DLP in the National Assembly won’t influence U.S.-R.O.K. ties, because they probably will — I know the new National Assembly will review the Iraq deployment, for example. I’m going to wait, however, before I start shouting that the sky is falling. Uri did, after all, vote to send troops to Iraq, and while its North Korea policies differ from those of the Bush administration, it would hardly be the first ruling party in Korea to disagree with the White House over how best to handle Pyongyang.
The point is, however, that to spin this election into some sort of statement against Bush might be useful as far as domestic partisan politics in the U.S. are concerned, but that spin is far removed from what actually transpired in Korea.
Sometimes, things simply aren’t about America.
(Hat Tip to Peking Duck)
UPDATE: Brainysmurf talks about this, too. And I really like this, which I found in his comments section:
To be fair to this guy Josh Marshall, he does discuss the more important issues in a bit more depth earlier in the article. Not much depth, like going ankly-deep instead of only dipping a toe in.
But my reading of this, and this is not intended as criticism, simply an observation, is that it’s another example of America’s ‘middle kingdom’ mentality. It’s not unknown for Americans to naturally assume that an event somewhere around the world must have some connection with America. America is, after all, the centre and driving force of the world.
So I’m not surprised that he trys to play up America’s influence on the Korean election.
And yes, specialisation has its limits. It has been said that an expert is someone who knows more and more about less and less.
??????? ???????? (????????)? Interesting.
16 Comments
I believe that the statement “All politics are local” holds. That statement seems pretty universal.
Josh is looking to sell his point and damn any facts that get in the way.
Korea votes regionally. Why people can’t understand that is beyond me.
Brilliant analysis!!
Josh Marshall had a regular gig on the Hugh Hewitt show to advance and defend his Liberal positions. He quit after ducking too many issues where he would lose face if he showed up.
Josh Marshall is just a hack whiner I no longer bother with.
Thing is, I can understand where Josh is getting his ideas from. I was listening to the Korean news on the radio today, and they always make it a point to relate the “foreign press reactions” to major Korean events. I was struck by just how many major papers made it seem like this election was somehow connected to American policy. Now, perhaps this was just the way they [the Korean press] were spinning it [foreign press reaction] — I don’t read foreign press reports on Korea that much as I generally don’t need the NYT to tell me what going on a five minute’s walk from my office in Gwanghwamun — but if what was reported is accurate, I could see how someone living off what he reads in the NYT and the WaPo might see Uri’s victory as being about North Korea and Iraq. Domestic Korean political issues generally don’t get a lot of play in the American press (and, visa versa, domestic American politics are not deeply discussed by the Korean press), but in a parliamentary election such as this (in which voters are, after all, voting for district representatives), domestic and local issues become very, very important. Like I said in the post above, there was very little discussion of Iraq, North Korea or other foreign policy issues in this election; in fact, there was little substantive policy debate at all.
I just hope that Josh’s back is okay from all the twisting and turning he did to try and make it out as a “Vote against Bush” election.
Josh Marshall’s entire worldview can be summed up in two words–”Bush bad!” Therefore, he tries to make every single event that transpires somehow a repudiation of Bad Bush and his evil henchmen. He is a partisan sock puppet of the radical left, nothing more.
Correction: Marshall is a partisan sock puppet of the establishment left. He was a Clark man. If he was a sock puppet of the radical left, he would have been a Dean or Kucinich booster.
Holy crap, dude. That’s a hell of an analysis and remarkably easy to read for dummies/low attention spanners (like me). Great writing!
I’m glad that America wasn’t a big issue in this election. I hope that it continues that way and becomes that way in other countries so we can get on with our life here. I’m tired of running around the world trying to be everyone’s parent. Let the Koreans take care of themselves.
I do not see a problem with Josh’s analysis of Korea’s National Assembly elections. I disagree with his reasons for making the analysis, but I agree with the analysis.
Yes, the surface issues during the Korean elections were slush funds and the impeachment, but the real issues were Korea’s relationships with the United States and North Korea.
The “opposition to the policies of the Bush administration” did not have to be mentioned in this election because they were already mentioned in the last. Almost every Korean knows which party supports and which party opposes US policies, especially US policy on North Korea.
The Uri party supports President Roh, and Roh was elected president of Korea because of of his promises to stand up to the United States and reconcile with North Korea, not because of his promises to clean up Korean politics. The DLP is not the only anti-US party in Korea.
About half of all Koreans are anti-US, and a majority of Koreans are anti-Bush. Most of those anti-US, anti-Bush Koreans are in the Uri Party. Because Koreans are so anti-Bush, it would have been political suicide for the GNP to make US policy an issue in this election. Likewise, the Uri party did not want to make US policy an issue because of its support for sending Korean troops to Iraq, which seems to conflict with the party’s anti-US mindset, but which has already been explained to the Korean public as being a “necessary evil.”
Yes, Koreans are tired of slush funds, especially those held by the party they are against, but the dominating factors in Korean politics are left and right. Even regionalism can be broken down into left and right. The right supports the US and the left opposes her.
I disagree with the expression of sentiment here that Josh is just a liberal whiner. He’s an icon of the liberal establishment, and for good reason. Glenn Reynolds voted him as “Best Blog” not so long ago.
Anyway, it really is staggering how wrong Josh could have been on this issue. I chalk it up to what happens when you specialize. He’s a beltway insider, and I read him like a junkie for it, and no doubt the NYT or whoever else was talking about the Korean elections always do so with a “beltway context.” It’s just not always true.
The Chinese for “Middle Kingdom mentality” (in simplified characters) would be ?쨍짯???챈??????
Thanks for the link and pointing out the great comment.
Adam — Thanks for the correction. And thanks for the link, too. Nice to know at least one person in China can read a Typepad site.
Gerry — I’m sorry, but I gotta disaggree with you here. The “real issues” were not North Korea and the U.S.-R.O.K. relationship. There were no “real issues” in this election, with the exception of the impeachment. If U.S. policy was the central issue, why was the MDP — which is even more opposed to U.S. policy initiatives than Uri — crushed, even in the Jeolla provinces (Christ, Uri swept Gwangju)? I’m not characterizing the Uri Party as pro-Bush (or even pro-American). because clearly it is not. But given the events of the last couple of months, in which we’ve seen support levels for the Uri Party skyrocket since the impeachment (and support for the MDP — which spearheaded the impeachment — utterly collapse, despite its anti-American posture), I don’t see how it’s possible to see this election as a referrendum on the U.S.-R.O.K. relationship. I don’t even think it was a referrendum on Roh, even though I’m sure Cheong Wa Dae would like to think it was. If anything, this was a referrendum on parliamentary misbehavior, and that’s it.
Marmot,
Yes, its role in the impeachment is probably the main reason MDP went from 59 seats in the old Assembly to only 9 in the new, but the MDP supporters who switched to the Uri Party were able to do so without sacrificing their basic beliefs, which are appeasement with North Korea and more independence from the United States. As you know, the Uri and the MDP started out as one party supporting Roh.
If impeachment were really the fundamental issue, then why was the GNP not also decimated? The GNP got 121 seats in the new Assembly, a lost of only 16 seats.
The Uri party supports Roh, who wants appeasement with North Korea and more independence from the US. If the Uri party is less opposed to US initiatives than the MDP, it is mainly because Roh has had to adjust his stance on those initiatives after coming face-to-face with the realities of being president of a country with a high degree of dependence on the United States.
The Uri party supports sending troops to Iraq, but they consider it a “necessary evil.” Some of the major players in the party are even openly opposed to it.
This election was mainly about supporters of one left-leaning party switching to another left-leaning party. There was most likely some in the center who switched to Uri because of the impeachment, but I think the results show that politics in Korea is still all about right and left.
I agree with most of what Josh has to say, on most of the issues that matter, and to his credit he has gotten things bang-on right about Korea in the past, but I have to agree with Marmot that he’s off-base (little Budae-joke there) in the post in question. I was actually going to write up a post saying so a few days back, but got distracted by a shiny thing, and now someone else has done it for me. Nice how that works.
I would add that even if attitudes towards America (or more specifically, The Idiot Prince) weren’t part of the text of the thing (as Marmot notes, this election was, in fine Korean style, more about emotion than issues), it certainly was part of the subtext, along with rising distrust and disgust for the Powers That Have Been. But that kind of nuanced argument takes too damn much effort when there’s beer in the fridge.
(Also, since I’m here, I’ve just got to offer my usual ‘Glenn Reynolds Can Bite Me’ slogan. A wonderchicken comment here just wouldn’t be the same without it, I know.)
PING:
TITLE: Korea Blogger’s Buffet (linkfest)
BLOG NAME: Budaechigae ?쨋??흸??째흸?째흹
It took quite a while last night to go through the ever expanding blogroll, so I thought I’d do a buffet spread of the posts that highlighted the end of last week. As expected, The Marmot, the Yangban and the
PING:
TITLE: Korea Blogger’s Buffet (linkfest)
BLOG NAME: Budaechigae ?쨋??흸??째흸?째흹
It took quite a while last night to go through the ever expanding blogroll, so I thought I’d do a buffet spread of the posts that highlighted the end of last week. As expected, The Marmot, the Yangban and the
PING:
TITLE: Korea Blogger’s Buffet (linkfest)
BLOG NAME: Budaechigae ?쨋??흸??째흸?째흹
It took quite a while last night to go through the ever expanding blogroll, so I thought I’d do a buffet spread of the posts that highlighted the end of last week. As expected, The Marmot, the Yangban and the
PING:
TITLE: Korea Blogger’s Buffet (linkfest)
BLOG NAME: Budaechigae ?쨋??흸??째흸?째흹
It took quite a while last night to go through the ever expanding blogroll, so I thought I’d do a buffet spread of the posts that highlighted the end of last week. As expected, The Marmot, the Yangban and the
PING:
TITLE: Korea Blogger’s Buffet (linkfest)
BLOG NAME: Budaechigae ?쨋??흸??째흸?째흹
It took quite a while last night to go through the ever expanding blogroll, so I thought I’d do a buffet spread of the posts that highlighted the end of last week. As expected, The Marmot, the Yangban and the
PING:
TITLE: Korea Blogger’s Buffet (linkfest)
BLOG NAME: Budaechigae ?쨋??흸??째흸?째흹
UP
PING:
TITLE: Korea Blogger’s Buffet (linkfest)
BLOG NAME: Budaechigae ?쨋??흸??째흸?째흹
UP
PING:
TITLE: Eyes on Korea: 2004-05-11
BLOG NAME: Winds of Change.NET
Today’s Headings Include: The DPRK (North Korea); The ROK (South Korea, incl. elections coverage); US-ROK Issues (incl. Iraq); and random Korea stuff, from photos to sports to religion
PING:
TITLE: Eyes on Korea: 2004-05-11
BLOG NAME: Winds of Change.NET
Today’s Headings Include: The DPRK (North Korea); The ROK (South Korea, incl. elections coverage); US-ROK Issues (incl. Iraq); and random Korea stuff, from photos to sports to religion
PING:
TITLE: Eyes on Korea: 2004-05-11
BLOG NAME: Winds of Change.NET
Today’s Headings Include: The DPRK (North Korea); The ROK (South Korea, incl. elections coverage); US-ROK Issues (incl. Iraq); and random Korea stuff, from photos to sports to religion
PING:
TITLE: Eyes on Korea: 2004-05-11
BLOG NAME: Winds of Change.NET
Today’s Headings Include: The DPRK (North Korea); The ROK (South Korea, incl. elections coverage); US-ROK Issues (incl. Iraq); and random Korea stuff, from photos to sports to religion