[8]
What in the hell is going on with the American left?
Over-the-top rhetoric is nothing new in liberal circles; yet lately the tenor has been uglier than usual. Shrill cries from the mainstream press and pundits label traditionalists as “rubes [9],” or “pale, male and stale [10],” while their minions, dutifully guzzling the Kool-Aid, are trolling conservative websites shrieking about class, ethnic and gender warfare.
Doesn’t make sense—their guy won. They’ve told us over and over how patriotism is passé, that a new age of global relativism is replacing racialist Western culture. We’re done, finished: out with the old (and white); in with the new (brown, black, and young).
Progressives should be dancing in the streets. Instead, they are whacking whacking whacking away at articulate, passionate conservative voices. First they seized on Marco Rubio’s “water-gate” incident during his State of the Union response. Rubio played it masterfully: tweeting an image of the offending bottle; posting a photo of him clinking water bottles with Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu. The libs looked like dolts.
[11]
Oh, but it only gets worse. Freshman Senator Ted Cruz of Texas has been cast as the new Joe McCarthy—figuratively and literally. The New Republic’s John Judis warned [12] that “Americans who worry about democracy need to keep an eye on” Cruz, even comparing his physical appearance to McCarthy’s. The wing-nut website “Talking Points Memo” ran side-by-side photos [13] of the two senators.
Cruz’s offense? During Chuck Hagel’s Senate confirmation hearings, he had the audacity to ask questions about the nominee’s association with Chas Freeman—an anti-Israeli former diplomat who bizarrely defended the Chinese government’s actions during the Tianaman Square uprisings.
Then there’s Dr. Ben Carson. After his boffo chastening of Obama at February’s annual Prayer Breakfast, the liberal hit-squad sprinted out of the gate. “Dr. Benajmin Carson is the latest in a long line of black conservatives—from Clarence Thomas to Herman Cain—relentlessly promoted and propped up by right-wing voices in the media,” Media Matters for America wrote [14], also tweeting “I hope he enjoys it, his 15 minutes are ticking.” Surprise, surprise—Fox News “The Five” co-host Bob Beckel used virtually the same phrase. He obviously got the memo.
“If you want to be Ben Carson, Marco Rubio, any brown or black person who is willing to say conservative stuff, this is your moment. You can make a lot of money, get a lot of attention, get a lot of love from the right…” said Joy Reid on MSNBC’s “The Ed Show.”
[15]
Dr. Carson, Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital and world-renowned for pioneering surgery on conjoined twins, doesn’t need to lobby for “15 minutes of fame” or to “make a lot of money.” He’s doing just fine, thank you.
Notice who is being targeted—Rubio, Cruz, Carson—intelligent, self-made African-American and Latino men who veer from the liberal creed. Nothing is more threatening to the progressive power base. Peel back the cover and you will see how the left, as the self-anointed sole protectors of minorities, are not-so-closeted bigots: blacks and hispanics better toe the line or else.
Who would have guessed? Today’s liberal establishment is the 21st Century version of Uncle Tom’s Simon Legree.
The left’s overreaction and overreach speaks legions. Free thought is dangerous indeed for those drunk on retaining power. We should take note. This is an opportunity to shatter the carefully crafted stereotype of conservatives as “pale, male and stale” and start whacking whacking whacking at the leftist myth of pan-cultural compassion. It’s a canard. Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Ben Carson, Allen West, Mia Love, Susana Martinez, Herman Cain, Nikki Haley and scores of others have the scars to prove it.
