Everyone remembers Barack Obama railing against the “bitter” who “cling to guns or religion.” But the “antipathy toward people who aren’t like them” was also part of that gem, and in my view it’s shaping up to be a presidency-defining quote. Charles Krauthammer wrote a great column on that forgotten part of it yesterday.
His thrust is that whenever this administration loses an issue in the court of public opinion—you know, like just about anything it ever supports?—it inevitably shrieks bigotry.
You see, the Tea Party movement can’t possibly be genuinely concerned about the administration’s economic policies. No, they don’t like that Obama is black. Supporters of the Arizona immigration law are not concerned about national security; they’re xenophobic. Prop 8 supporters? Raging homophobes, every one. The Ground Zero mosque cannot be opposed on a basis of anything other than religious persecution.
Following?
If you’re throwing from left to right, you might as well toss a charge of bigotry at your opponent. There’s rarely any significant penalty for it, and if the perception sticks, then you don’t have to argue substance anymore. Well, hell, he’s a racist. Who you gonna believe, me or a racist?
I’m really angry. I thought I’d been politically angry before, but it’s shaken out kind of like the first time I thought I had my heart broken. I described that as a sad time, and then I really got my heart broken a few years later. Put the faux “first time” in perspective. Turned out I’d just had my feelings hurt a little bit.
As with that, so with this. Oh, my goodness, what I wouldn’t give to merely be “angry” at Bill Clinton’s boorishness again!
But no, turns out I really get angry when it becomes conventional wisdom (or all too close to it) that the articulation of a political position I hold, whether I or someone else does it, is really just code for the bigotry polluting my foul soul. Doesn’t matter how often I say that Barack Obama could be white, red, or purple, and I’d feel exactly the same way about him. See, now that’s exactly what a racist would say, isn’t it?
The Democrats are going to get beaten badly in November. Not just because the economy is ailing. And not just because Obama overread his mandate in governing too far left. But because a comeuppance is due the arrogant elites whose undisguised contempt for the great unwashed prevents them from conceding a modicum of serious thought to those who dare oppose them. – Charles Krauthammer
Amen.
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Well said!
Don’t know if you saw this bit on “Oikophobia.” Worth a skim. (http://www.civitas.org.uk/pdf/cs49-8.pdf)
Jenny, indeed. I’m pessimistic we can back his destruction all the way up, but we have to try. If the Republicans take the House, reckon what the DJIA will look like the next morning? Reckon what the White House spin will be?
azn8tive, Charles Krauthammer, Victor Davis Hanson, and Mark Steyn almost never miss. I love their ideas, but they also consistently build beautiful sentences.
kemtee, I started skimming that, but ended up giving it a close read. I think it’s chilling in its accuracy. Thanks for the link.
Not just the House, Bo. The Senate is in reach too, no matter what CNN and NBC are telling us. Gotta dream big.
Jenny, perhaps numerically the Senate is in reach, but only just—as in a lot of fruit has to line up. Even then, neither Maine senator is up for reelection, and between them I think you can count on them reliably sabotaging any effort to send serious rollback to our esteemed president’s desk for veto.
On the other hand, a razor-thin Republican Senate might persuade any liberal Supreme Court justice to postpone retirement.
The most important thing is that substantive reform comes out of a newly Republican House. Obama must be made to publicly argue against it.