August 21, 2005
"like robbers leaving a bank with a hostage"
Noemie Emery has a great article in the Weekly Standard, on how the Dems are using grief as a political weapon...
...Then Wellstone's friend and campaign treasurer took the stage to address by name Wellstone's Republican friends in the House and the Senate and beg them to "honor" the fallen man by helping Mondale win the race: "We can redeem the sacrifice of his life, if you help us win this election," he said.
In translation, this is the unspoken theme of grief-centered politics: We are suffering, so you owe it to us to give us what we ask for. This is the claim of Cindy Sheehan and the Jersey Girls, and it carries with it an implied accusation: If you don't do what we ask you, you don't care that our loved one is dead. But no one had ever heard it stated so baldly or bluntly as at the Wellstone service, and the bluntness repelled...
...Political cut and thrust does not go well with the etiquette of bereavement, which tends to short-circuit all argument, which of course is the point. It inhibits argument, makes response awkward, and sometimes can stop it completely, putting an opponent in the position of Norm Coleman before the Wellstone Memorial fracas, in which Democrats were free to seek votes based on sentiment, while anything Coleman tried to say about Wellstone's replacement was called an insult to the dead. People who put mourners up front on policy issues are like robbers leaving a bank with a hostage between themselves and police fire. To do this on purpose, to drive an agenda, is beneath all contempt...
Leftists can't defend their position with facts and logic, so they try to get into a place where they can say, "If you criticize us, you are a heartless brute." We've really been getting it with Sheehan, with all sorts of conservative bloggers pussyfooting around and writing: "of course we must sympathize with her pain, her grief, her loss, blah blah blah. BUT we must interject a tiny word of criticism..." Pfui. I blow a kiss to Andrea, who isn't buying that load of manure.
Honest people, if they are going to debate in the public arena, don't hide behind emotional blackmail, or wear grief or loss as if they confer some special legitimacy. They want their ideas to stand on their merits. And if the lefties who are wearing Cindy like a badge were honest, they would send sob-sister off to the Oprah show, and debate with logic and facts. Also, honest people, if they find themselves in a position where they can't be criticized (perhaps because they are bereaved) don't criticize others. It's like hitting someone who can't hit back. It's cowardly and despicable.
Doug TenNapel put it more simply: Cindy is like the wife who cries to win an argument...and while that works in the privacy of my home, it doesn't in a national debate for our collective security.
Posted by John Weidner at August 21, 2005 01:34 AM | TrackBackGee, sounds a lot like "Support my right-wing extremism and my war built on a lie, or it proves you're really a terrorist-loving, America-hater!"
Kind of "pot calling the kettle black", ain't it?
Another sign of conservatism on its last legs...
By the way, check conservative Andy McCarthy in the National Review (http://corner.nationalreview.com/05_08_21_corner-archive.asp#073754) where he says "LOSING THE WAR ON TERRORISM:...For what it’s worth, this is where I get off the bus...In the desperation to complete an Iraqi constitution – which can be spun as a major step of progress on the march toward democratic nirvana – the United States of America is pressuring competing factions to accept the supremacy of Islam and the fundamental principle no law may contradict Islamic principles."
Or there's also conservative Stephen Bainbridge, who on his blog (http://www.professorbainbridge.com/2005/08/what_might_have.html) says "WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN
It's time for us conservatives to face facts. George W. Bush has pissed away the conservative moment by pursuing a war of choice via policies that border on the criminally incompetent...Meanwhile, Bush continues to insult our intelligence with tripe like this:...I guess that's all he has left. After all, if Iraq's alleged WMD programs were the casus belli, why aren't we at war with Iran and North Korea? Not to mention Pakistan, which remains the odds-on favorite to supply the Islamofascists with a working nuke. If Saddam's cruelty to his own people was the casus belli, why aren't we taking out Kim Jong Il or any number of other nasty dictators? Indeed, what happened to the W of 2000, who correctly proclaimed nation building a failed cause and an inappropriate use of American military might? And why are we apparently going to allow the Islamists to write a more significant role for Islamic law into the new Iraqi constitution?..."
Drip, drip, drip...feel that control just slipping away, as poll after poll shows Dumbya's popularity down to low 40s (soon to be 30s)...as poll after poll lists Repuglicans as the least popular people in Congress (latest SUSA poll on Senatorial popularity has Dems in 7 of the 10 most-popular positions - and McCain, Snowe and Collins are the only GOPers in the top 10 - while GOPers hold 7 of the 10 most UNpopular positions).
Or how about the SUSA survey on three issues, including abortion. When asked who should decide a right to abortion, the Fed Gov't, State Gov't, or gov't shouldn't have any say at all, the MOST pro-conservative state was Utah, where 22% say Feds, 22% say State, and 52% say neither! And its rises in the "neither" column from there to 80% in Delaware. 50-state avg was 12% State, 15% Fed, and 70% neither.
drip, drip, drip...
Zoomie certainly seems to believe strongly in whatever it is he believes in. If only he could communicate these beliefs to us in English.
Posted by: Andrea Harris at August 21, 2005 04:04 PM...and concisely.
Posted by: lyle at August 21, 2005 04:13 PMThe hell with "Zoombie." He should take his meds.
I've noticed that the current left-right discourse is like an argument between a married couple. If a woman yells, spews invective, and throws things at the man, she is merely asserting herself while at the same time correcting the errors of his ways. If a man were to respond in kind, he is an abusive, unfeeling brute.
The Dems --and the left as a whole -- have taken the position of injured wife, and the Republicans -- but not necessarily all conservatives/libertarians -- have taken the position of hen-pecked husband.
I find today's Democrats to be repellent, in part because there is no place for masculinity in the current version of the party. I find the Republicans to be frustrating because -- despite their numbers -- they are unable to effectively counter the PMSiness of the Democrats and the Left in general.
Posted by: Roderick Reilly at August 23, 2005 01:53 PMMasculinity? This from the party of the chickenhawk???
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Great joke!!!
And John - "Honest people..."...To be blunt, if you are hanging with Republicans, modern Republicans (not the GOP I knew as a child), strikes me the words "honest people" becomes an oxymoron, because these days I'm hard pressed to think of an "honest" Republican!
Posted by: Zoomie at August 24, 2005 05:59 PMShorter Zoomie: "Wah wah wah waaaaah!"
Posted by: Andrea Harris at August 25, 2005 03:43 AM"Wah wah"...thats the best you guys come up with?
Reminds me of the babies playing in the schoolyard! Can't stand the argument, lack the balls to stand up and argue your position, so you fall back on "You...You...meany, you!!!"
Pathetic!
And by the way...if we're so terribly dishonest because we use "emotional blackmail", what does that say about Dumbya and his continual use of "security blackmail"?
I mean, have you heard any of these recent "major policy" speeches he's been giving? The entire speeches can be summed up as "yadda yadda Saddam yadda Osama Osama Saddam Saddam 9/11 9/11 9/11".
Fortunately the American people are finally catching one...as proven by the poll numbers that have the MOST INCOMPETENT PRESIDENT IN US HISTORY down to 40% popularity, 56% unpopular, and even lower numbers on some of his major issues! Heck, even a bunch of GOP CongressCritters are starting to hold him at arms length, afraid to be associated with him next election.
hahahahahaha I LOVE IT!
