-By Warner Todd Huston
Goodness gracious, Michael Kinsley, vaunted leftist, upright “journalist,” salt of the earth, is supporting a group that would rather call names and stir hatred for our troops than support a general that the entire U.S. Senate voted unanimously for only a few months ago. The founding editor of Slate online magazine, Microsoft’s “serious” news and commentary magazine, thinks brash, slander is a great way to carry out the public debate on serious issues that affect the lives of millions of people. It’s disgraceful. It’s just beyond the pale … It’s … oh, my heavens … say, is it a bit stuffy in here? … I think I’m going to … Could I have a glass of … oh, dear [thud].
Welcome to the wonderful world of hypocrisy in the American punditry class.
Childishly, Kinsley is turning the controversy over the vitriol and hatred displayed by Moveon.org’s disgusting “Betray us” ad that calls general Petraeus a liar and traitor, into the fault of talk radio and Conservative pundits.
Welcome to the wonderful world of umbrage, the new language of American politics. You would not have thought that the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly would be so sensitive. Sticks and stones and so on. Yet they all seem to have taken one look at that ad and fainted dead away. And when they came round, they demanded — as if with one voice (or at least as if with one list of talking points) — that every Democratic presidential candidate must “condemn” this shocking, shocking document.
This insipid view of the hate indulged in by the American left is as free of morality as can ever be imagined. Kinsley’s blaming of this incident on the reaction of the right, though, is a typical example of the immorality of the left. It is a perfect example of the sort of attitudes that leftists are mired in. Its similar to the sort of assumption that an attacked person is somehow wrong for replying to the attack, as if defending yourself is just as “bad” as the bully attacker’s actions.
After all, isn’t the left upset at Bush for replying to terrorism with force? As if we are wrong for replying to having nearly 3,000 of our innocent citizens incinerated on 9/11?
But, it’s not surprising that the left has no sense of morality, is it? After all, that is the principle reason that the far left is not American in their ideology, principles (or lack thereof), and ideals. their lack of the slightest sense of morality is the chief reason that, since the 1930s, the American left has been engaged in the tearing down of this nation.
And, if it weren’t for people like Limbaugh and O’Reilly, we’d still have a 219 seat majority of Democrats in the House like we did in the days when no conservative voice was heard in public.
And, let’s be honest, shall we? Kinsely isn’t all mad at conservatives for their reaction to this outrageous MoveOn.org ad. He’s mad that conservatives have effective spokesmen for their ideology.
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Warner Todd Huston’s thoughtful commentary, sometimes irreverent often historically based, is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, townhall.com, men’snewsdaily.com and americandaily.com among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a guest on several radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston
Please drop me an email, I need to ask you a question and for some reason I don’t have your addy…
I appreciate you engage in distortion and rhetoric to try and make some stupid point – he certainly isn’t blaming them, he’s pointing out they’re heavily invested in taking offense to anything, deriding the reaction as he well should.
But if you’re going to write something, try not to out and out lie.
“After all, isn’t the left upset at Bush for replying to terrorism with force? ”
Bush had widespread bipartisan support to respond militarily, with the possible exception of extreme left nowar loons. Those people are an extremely small percentage of the over 60% of citizens who feel Iraq has been mismanaged.
“As if we are wrong for replying to having nearly 3,000 of our innocent citizens incinerated on 9/11?””
What a stupid thing to say.
“What a stupid thing to say.”
Sorry but you cornered the market with your own post.
“This insipid view of the hate indulged in by the American left is as free of morality as can ever be imagined.”
This inane, bubbleheaded fantasy of Huston’s is as free of reality as can ever be imagined. Kinsley clearly isn’t blaming the right for the ad (an assertion that is among the more stupid things Huston has written lately). He is, in fact, laughing at the right:
“But whatever your interpretation of the ad, all the gasping for air and waving of scented handkerchiefs among the war’s most enthusiastic supporters is pretty comical.”
And he points out exactly what the right’s reaction actually is: carefully coordinated faux outrage, with a strong stench of hypocrisy, and the clear purpose of distracting the country from the actual state of the war:
“The fuss over this MoveOn.org ad is something else: it is the result of a desperate scavenging for umbrage material. When so many people are clamoring for a chance to swoon that they each have to take a number and when the landscape is so littered with folks lying prostrate and pretending to be dead that it starts to look like the end of a Civil War battle re-enactment, this isn’t spontaneous mass outrage. This is choreography… All this drawing of uncrossable lines and issuing of fatuous fatwas is supposed to be a bad habit of the left. When right-wingers are attacking this habit rather than practicing it, they call it political correctness. The problem with political correctness is that it turns discussions of substance into arguments over etiquette. The last thing that supporters of the war want to talk about at this point is the war. They’d far rather talk about this insult to General Petraeus.”
Huston’s claim that Kinsley blames the right for the ad is a complete fabrication.
“After all, isn’t the left upset at Bush for replying to terrorism with force? As if we are wrong for replying to having nearly 3,000 of our innocent citizens incinerated on 9/11?”
Well, let’s get specific, Huston. You claim that “the left [is] upset at Bush for replying to terrorism with force”. What, exactly, are you referring to here? The invasion of Iraq?
Step up and be a man, Huston. Stop talking elliptically and say exactly what you mean.
“And, if it weren’t for people like Limbaugh and O’Reilly, we’d still have a 219 seat majority of Democrats in the House like we did in the days when no conservative voice was heard in public.”
Oh, and when was that again, Huston? Tell us exactly when there was a time that “no conservative voice was heard in public”.