-By Warner Todd Huston
Usually I don’t go for the hard-edged treatment of politicians as my headline here does. I don’t often call individuals “liars” and the like, though I’ve been known to do so on occasion. Generally, I prefer to assume that those that oppose my views are truthfully advocating for deep held beliefs and not using lies and obfuscation to get there — some exceptions to that, of course. I am not really the biggest fan of the wild-eyed, Olbermannesque sort of bombast and name-calling.
But, after what Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said of his desire to push the ill-conceived “Fairness Doctrine” down our throats, I just can’t see any other explanation of his motives. Every single word he said on this issue was convoluted, unAmerican, illogical and meant solely as a cynical means to his ends of quashing free political speech so that his party could consolidate it’s domination of American politics.
Schumer made these remarks last November, so they aren’t new. But his remarks are of a piece with the Democrat’s push to launch an unAmerican crusade to eliminate free speech in this country, a campaign that has been gathering steam these last few days. And, since the quest to impose the “Fairness Doctrine” on American’s rights to free political speech is again a topic of the Democrat’s agenda, it behooves us to see the false logic and lies underlying the effort. Chuck Schumer’s words are the perfect guide for us to illustrate the left’s goals.
Schumer started off his screed against free speech by claiming he wanted “balance.” Schumer said on Fox News, “I think we should all be fair and balanced, don’t you?”
Asked if he is a supporter of telling radio stations what content they should have, Schumer used the fair and balanced line, claiming that critics of the Fairness Doctrine are being inconsistent.
Yet, the only thing that Schumer and his cohorts on the left want to “balance” is AM talk radio. Why is that, exactly? If true “fairness” is the left’s honest goal, why is talk radio the only medium being targeted? Why else but that talk radio is the only one in which conservative principles predominate. On cable TV news the left owns 75% of them. On network TV the left owns 100%. In print, the liberal view is predominant and has been since the late 1960s. So on “balance” the left is predominant throughout the media. Yet, AM talk radio is all the Chuck Schumers of the world are interested in fostering that vaunted “balance.”
Now just look at the logical gymnastics and anti-American sentiment that Schumer indulges in to justify his destruction of one of America’s most cherished principles: free political speech.
“The very same people who don’t want the Fairness Doctrine want the FCC [Federal Communications Commission] to limit pornography on the air. I am for that… But you can’t say government hands off in one area to a commercial enterprise but you are allowed to intervene in another. That’s not consistent.”
There is so much wrong in this ignorant statement that it boggles the mind.
First of all, and this is seminal, the concept that government is not “consistent” unless it overtakes everything is so unAmerican in its basic concept that it truly shows Schumer to be an outright liar. After all, he stood foursquare against the Patriot Act, didn’t he? Schumer didn’t see any problems with inconsistency as he tried to stop a larger take over of surveillance by the federal government, of course. Yet, all of a sudden he is worried about being “consistent” now?
Clearly, he is lying. This “consistency” argument is merely a means to an end as opposed to a logically thought out policy based on American tradition.
In fact, there is only one theory of government in which government controlling all it surveys is central to its system and that is a tyrannical monarchy. Republics and Democracies, on the other hand, are entirely based on the idea that government has some power in some areas and less or none in others. Democracies are built on the process of governors and the governed carefully deciding upon which areas government will exercise power and to what degree. Schumer’s claim that it’s an all or nothing proposition is not only unAmerican, its both undemocratic and a strike against liberty and freedom everywhere.
With this concept of “consistency” that Schumer espoused, it seems that he is no better than Saddam Hussein or the Taliban with his concept that government should control every aspect of our lives.
But, again, we come back to the clear fact that he is less a despot than an outright liar. Schumer isn’t interested in total control of government as a basic concept. He is only interested in the power of his party. He would not be for this sort of power in the hands of Republicans or Libertarians. He is only a shill for extremist liberals and their power grab.
And this, in the end, proves he is not smart enough to even understand the concepts he claims to be operating under. His “consistency” argument would only be consistent if the same power was absolute whether Republicans or Democrats were in command, yet he “consistently” fights Republican power. In truth Schumer seeks to deny this “consistent” tyranny to the Republicans while working to assure it for Democrats. He is not smart enough to understand that if his party gets this all out power, that tyrannical power will — it must — eventually devolve onto the opposite party at some point in the future.
This is the whole reason that the founders, men of vastly superior mental capacity than Chuck Schumer, created a system that made government less powerful than would befit Schumer’s “consistency” concept.
This so-called “Fairness Doctrine” is a rejection of liberty, a slander against fairness, and the destruction of one of the most basic freedoms in western theories of government.
Of course, there are levels of freedom of speech and freedom of the press, neither right being absolutely “free.” But, this isn’t the argument that Schumer is making with his idiotic “consistency” argument. If he stuck with the long history of defining and re-defining freedom of speech and the free press he’d at least have some legitimate grounds upon which to argue. But he did not do so.
In the final analysis the only conclusion that one can make is that Chuck Schumer is a liar and a very stupid man.
Unfortunately, the entire Democratic Party is following the inane argument of this stupid man right toward an entirely anti-American policy.
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, Human Events Magazine, townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-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
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