It is funny how during Bush’s time in office that dissent was called “the highest form of patriotism”, now it is called subverting the nation and trying to weaken the president. They feel that The One should be beyond reproach and that like good little citizens of oh say North Korea – we need to be singing the praises of The Great Leader. I think we need to out Alinsky them and ratchet up the legitimate criticism of Obama’s failed and failing policies.
by James Dietrich
When Sarah Palin made Rahm Emanuel’s expletive-enhanced use of the word “retarded” an embarrassment for him and the president, she forced the left to live up to its own P.C. standards. Saul Alinsky would be proud.
Normally, according to the media elites’ rulebook, when liberals rant, it’s called free speech; when conservatives rant, it is hate speech.
Members of the media elite appear to sincerely believe that liberals are less vitriolic than conservatives, and through repetition they have convinced a large part of the public that this is true. The reason liberals can “rant” without fear of being labeled terrorists is that their “rants” are justified in the eyes of the media elite. Liberals believe that their beliefs are based on the rational analysis of scientific data. Their opponents’ beliefs are based on superstition and prejudice.
This perspective was exemplified by comedian Bill Maher, who explained that “half this country wants to guide our ship of state by a compass. A compass, something that works by science and rationality, and empirical wisdom. And half this country wants to kill a chicken and read the entrails like they used to do in the old Roman Empire.” Opponents of the liberal agenda are frequently described as “racist,” “unpatriotic,” and “ignorant.” Conservative “rants” are not only incorrect; they are evil. It is therefore not “hateful” to describe opponents for what they are: “ignorant, unpatriotic racists.”
Criticism of liberal administrations is seen as destroying public faith in our institutions, and in some cases, it is called dangerous. In the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing, Washington Post columnist David Broder opined, “The bombing shows how dangerous it really is to inflame twisted minds with statements that suggest political opponents are enemies.” During the Clinton administration, columnist Anthony Lewis criticized Rush Limbaugh, saying Limbaugh’s “game” was “to throw dirt on government and anyone who believes that society needs government. In his hateful talk about President and Mrs. Clinton and others in office, he is really trying to destroy public faith in our institutions.”
Recent criticisms of President Obama and his policies have been characterized as un-American. Suggestions that his policies should fail are equated with a suggestion that America should fail. This concern for American institutions may be something new, because it apparently was not a factor in the past. In 1986, Washington Post columnist William Raspberry commented on his view of the Reagan administration: “Ronald Reagan is in trouble, and [we might as well own up that] some of us are tempted to take a certain fiendish pleasure in the fact.” Later, Michael Kinsley of the New Republic wrote in the Washington Post, “The fall of Reagan is a laughable matter. The only irritating aspect of the otherwise delightful collapse of the Reagan administration is the widespread insistence that we must all be poker-faced about it.”
Read the rest: Liberal Hate Speech
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