Friends, I hope you had a good Labor Day Weekend, and aren’t too shaken up by the loss of Van Jones to the administration, and to America. And aren’t you excited to hear President Obama address Congress, and the schoolchildren? He has been absent from the scene for a while, and I miss the sound of his voice! Not to mention all the post-partisan, post-racial, well-nigh post-human wisdom.
Have you received your new National Review? I hope so. It should be in mailboxes (and homes), and it is definitely available in digital version: here. The issue is chockfull of goodness, I must say, and I point you in particular to Rob Long’s parody — about CIA interrogations in this new age — and Mark Steyn’s essay, which is about social welfare (an aspect of). It is an exquisite piece of writing, and thinking.
My own contribution has to do with protesters, and perceptions of them. You know how people are saying that the anti-ObamaCare protesters are scary, un-American, dangerous, and so on? You know how these same people said that the anti-Bush, anti-war protesters were noble, patriotic, brave, and so on? That’s what I’m talking about.
I have written a hypocrisy piece, which is a very easy thing to do — political life is rife with hypocrisy, like life in general. But some of the current hypocrisy reeks to highest heaven — even the hypocrites themselves should smell it.
For years — eight years, to be specific — we heard that “Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.” As Michael Mukasey pointed out to me in a recent interview, the Left thought they were quoting Thomas Jefferson. Actually, the words come from Howard Zinn, or so it seems. (Zinn is the contemporary hard-Left historian.)
And what stupid words those are. Dissent can be a form of patriotism, yes, but the highest? Really? As I say in my
NR piece, where does that leave what Sergeant York or Audie Murphy did?
One thing was sure during the 2008 presidential campaign: If Obama won, dissent would no longer be the highest form of patriotism. One wag suggested — this was a reader of mine — “No, dissent will be the highest form of
racism.” And it is becoming true, as charges of racism fill the air. (See Congresswoman Diane Watson and others.)
As Obama and the Democrats started to spend massively, some citizens got restive. They held what they called “tea parties,” in honor of the original tea party, in Boston. Anderson Cooper, the greatly respected CNN anchorman, said that these protesters were “tea-bagging.” He was alluding to an exotic sexual practice. And I’m afraid the expression caught on. Janeane Garofalo said of the tea-party protests, “This is racism straight up, nothing but a bunch of tea-bagging rednecks, and there is no way around that.”
If you say so, Janeane. But I know, personally, many of the tea-partiers, and there’s not a tea-bagging redneck or racist in the bunch. Maybe Janeane should get out more?
Just the other day, a Democratic congresswoman, Carol Shea-Porter, referred to anti-ObamaCare protesters as “teabaggers.” What a disgusting development. The word has gone mainstream, and I see it even in the columns of conservative commentators. Great.
We’re reading a lot lately about “right-wing rage.” As I say in my
NR piece, funny how you never hear about “left-wing rage.” Could be that “left-wing rage” is not alliterative, as “right-wing rage” is. Or it could be that dominant commentators think of left-wing rage as mere righteous indignation.
Orwell observed that you could never be a “rabid anti-Nazi” or a “rabid anti-fascist.” You could only be a “rabid anti-Communist.” The word “rabid” was reserved exclusively for anti-Communism. These days, “rage” seems reserved exclusively for conservatives.
We are also hearing about “the angry white male” — “the return of the angry white males.” Funny how people get all race- and gender-minded on you. There are many non-whites and non-males among the conservative protesters. And what about that terrible word “males”? Have the anti-conservatives ever heard of “men”?
I think back to one of my favorite
New Yorker cartoons, ever. It showed a smiling, slightly dopey middle-aged man. And it said (something like), “Carl was an angry white male until he figured out that his pants were two sizes too small.”
They say that “hate” is rearing its head, and that President Obama and the Democrats are the victims of it. Let me make a couple of predictions: I predict that the chairman of the Republican National Committee will never say, “I hate the Democrats and everything they stand for. This [politics, basically] is a struggle of good and evil. And we’re the good.”
Howard Dean said that about the GOP: “I hate the Republicans and everything they stand for. . . .”
I predict that an editor of a conservative magazine will never write a piece called “The Case for Obama Hatred,” beginning, “I hate President Barack Obama.”
A
New Republic editor did this, about Bush.
And there is increasing worry about assassination: that someone will take a shot, not just at the president, but at the first black president, which would be extra-catastrophic for the country. A few protesters have carried signs urging violence against Obama, or smacking of violence. Let me make some more predictions:
I predict that a network talk-show host will not show a video of President Obama giving a speech and put the following words on the screen: “SNIPERS WANTED.”
Craig Kilborn of CBS did that to George W. Bush.
I predict that U.S. senators will not joke about killing Obama.
In 2006, Bill Maher had a conversation with John Kerry. He asked Kerry what he’d gotten his wife for her birthday. Kerry said he had treated her to a vacation in Vermont. Maher said, “You could have went to New Hampshire and killed two birds with one stone.” Kerry replied, “Or I could have gone to 1600 Pennsylvania and killed the real bird with one stone.”
This is the same Kerry who, in 1988, said, “Somebody told me the other day that the Secret Service has orders that if George Bush is shot, they’re to shoot Quayle.” Then he said, “There isn’t any press here, is there?”
I predict that a New York official will not tell a graduating class about assassinating President Obama.
Also in 2006, comptroller Alan Hevesi said to students at Queens College that Sen. Charles Schumer, his fellow Democrat, would “put a bullet between the president’s eyes if he could get away with it.”
I predict that no columnist for a leading European newspaper, and leading world newspaper, will write, “John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, John Hinckley Jr. — where are you now that we need you?”
Charlie Brooker of the
Guardian did that to George W. Bush.
I predict that no major writer will write a novel debating the morality of killing President Obama.
Nicholson Baker did that to Bush, with
Checkpoint.
I predict that no filmmaker will make a “fictional documentary” that fantasizes — and I’m afraid that is the word — about murdering President Obama.
Some Brits did that to President Bush with
Death of a President.
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