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Thursday, August 20, 2009

On Dishing It Out . . .

by Victor Davis Hanson
NRO’s The Corner


What is weird about the liberal hysteria to the obstreperous (and occasionally rude) town meetings is the complete amnesia about what constitutes reckless public discourse.

At one time not so long ago, those on the Left, and mainstream Democrats as well, apparently believed inflammatory language, Hitler parallels, and perverse expressions of real hatred were acceptable means to the noble end of discrediting the Bush presidency.

During the bleak days of Iraq, demonstrators carried swastikas and Hitler portraits of Bush habitually. Nicholson Baker wrote a novel in which characters are contemplating killing Bush. Films were praised imagining the assassination of the president. Michael Moore, courted by the Democratic elite, lamented that bin Laden on 9/11 had hit a blue state — and once compared the killers of Americans in Iraq to Minutemen.

Al Gore customarily used excessive language like "brown shirts." Senators Durbin, Kennedy, and others compared our soldiers to Saddamites, Pol Pot’s killers, and Nazis. Ward Churchill compared the victims in the Twin Tower to “little Eichmanns.” Sen. Robert Byrd likened Pres. George W. Bush’s policies to what transpired in Nazi Germany. Linda Ronstadt, Harold Pinter, Scott Ritter, Ted Rall, and George Soros agreed with Fidel Castro, the Iranians, and North Koreans in comparing Bush to Hitler.

Jonathan Chait wrote in the New Republic on why “I hate George W. Bush.” Garrison Keillor likened Bush’s Republicans to “brown shirts in pinstripes.” Even old hero Sen. John Glenn said of the Bush agenda: “It’s the old Hitler business.” In 1984, the Guardian’s Charles Brooker declared:

On November 2, the entire civilized world will be praying, praying Bush loses. And Sod's law dictates he'll probably win, thereby disproving the existence of God once and for all. The world will endure four more years of idiocy, arrogance and unwarranted bloodshed, with no benevolent deity to watch over and save us. John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, John Hinckley Jr. — where are you now that we need you?

Democrats were furious that Rush Limbaugh wanted Obama’s agenda to fail, but I think it was their National Chairman Howard Dean himself who went way beyond Limbaugh when he said publicly, “I hate the Republicans and everything they stand for,” and, “This is a struggle of good and evil. And we're the good.”

Didn’t NAACP chairman Julian Bond once declare of the Bush administration, “Their idea of equal rights is the American flag and the Confederate swastika flying side by side?”

In comparison to all that, the outrage of a few private citizens — none of them in government, prominent in the arts, or political commentators — seems rather mild. In truth, the 2000s marked the liberal reversion to the hateful speech of the 1950s extreme Right, but with a twist. In the 1950s, there were liberal humanists who rose up to deplore the cheap slurs of Joe McCarthy & Co.; by 2001, there were none to object to the above sort of speech.

Source

25 comments:

  1. Yes, and during that time all you heard from the right was how wrong it was and inappropriate. That they would never do such things and the left in unpatriotic. Now the shoe is on the other foot and look where we are. For a side that doesn't like change, they sure do a quick u-turn!

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  2. I have a new nickname for the liberal left--"Lefty Loonies". What a bunch of hypocrites they are!

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  3. www.zombietime.com for a small collection of Bush/Hitler references...

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  4. 2:51

    Cite an example of where someone on rhe right said they would never
    do this.


    You are right about one thing. The shoe is now on the other foot and our saying is what goes around comes around. Enjoy, you people started this and have another 3 yrs and 5 months to put up with it.

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  5. 2:51 is right. 3:22, are you a child?

    It was wrong then and it's wrong now. If your arguments for or against certain policies are so weak that you have to use extreme symbolism such as Nazi's, then you probably either need to do some more homework to shore up your position, switch positions, or learn better communication skills.

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  6. 3:22,

    I dare you to watch the rerun of The Daily Show from last night tonight on Comedy Central at 7. Watch the clips and the dates in the corners and then come back and talk. You all crack me up, and I am excited for the next 7 years 5 months, because you all cannot beat him. Who are you going to put up, Palin? You might think that just because you are disrupting town hall meetings that people are with you, and the truth is we are not. I am with Barney Frank telling you all off. Talk to all the right wingers you want, get mad and plan for the next election. You might be the loudest and most obnoxious, but as you will find out, you are not the majority. On a positive note, I hear Canada is nice!

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  7. A decade of hateful speech directed at Bush and now these same despicable politicans aim their hate filled rhetoric at ordinary citizens.
    Citizens speaking out at socialists' takeover policies, trillions in debt, and inept government policies suffer insult from elected "leaders" that represent the people.

    The arrogance of the dems...term limits for all.

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  8. Where were all the seniors protesting the drug benefit we could not afford? They are so concerned about running up the debt unless they benefit.

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  9. 3:37

    San Fran Nan was the most recent person to talk about Nazis and she was referring to people protesting the health care bill.

    3:38

    You health care advocetes are the ones that like to talk about Canada as a great example of public health care. I understand it is in very bad shape, but maybe if you and your whiney ass liberal friends move there you can help save it.

    Also as far as watching the daily show Why? It is just about as reliable as PMSNBC

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  10. Joe:

    Unfortunately that pic of the hangman bozo is being used against the home team now. The other side is pointing to the hostility at the town meetings as a weapon against us -- Barney Frank: "what planet do you inhabit most of the time?" and so forth.

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  11. 3:22 your too much of lib to understand whats going in your own little world let alone the REAL world ,we will not need anybody special to beat Obama in 2012 he will beat himself without any help,
    for that we can thank God for saving us from this Chicago gangster

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  12. Very good article.

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  13. There was a reason for the Bush references and comparisons with Adolf Hitler. It is because they both studied and worshipped the same Satanic Occult.

    Skull and Bones is an extension of the Thule Society of which Hitler and Goebbels were members. The symbols and logos are identical. The Bohemian Grove was an extension of the Skull and Bones organization. The CIA was fathered by bonesmen. Prescott Bush and the Harriman Brothers were members of the Society and were admitted Nazis. Union Bank held Thyssen's money which was used to build the war machine. IBM was the company who wrote the computer program for the tatoos on Nazi victims.

    The people who organized and facilitated the Nazi empire have descendents involved with the current American empire.

    Educate yourself. Then you won't be so stupid.

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  14. I just got back from the kids' pediatrician's office, and asked him what he thought of the proposed plan. His points:
    1) It doesn't fix whats broken
    2) What we have is a Mercedes
    3) What's proposed is a Hyundai
    4) And still doesn't serve middle Americans
    5)Australia's nice
    6) Norway & Sweden have good plans, but tax is 80% there. Sounds like there's still work to do, Barack.

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  15. 4:03, for now I'll ignore how you have twisted what has been said about "Nazi" protestors and remind you to focus on my comment: "It was wrong then and it's wrong now"

    As expected, the partisans have their head so far up their @$$, they can't even tell when someone agrees with a portion of their position.

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  16. 4:55,
    Your doctor drives a Mercedes, and you drive a Hyundai. that is why he is upset about the new bill.

    ReplyDelete
  17. two wrongs dont make a right. just because one side did it, doesnt mean the other should. sites like this, and others, tend to bring out these types of articles to put back in faces of the oposition.

    it is time that we all grow up and get together to figure out a solution to the mess we are in, instead of just throwing insults at each other.

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  18. You need to read the book None Dare Call it treason..basically Mc carthty was hitting nail right on the head and the left could not stand the heat..diverted the real problem the inflitration of socialist and communist ideals! These elements were prevelent then and sure are rearing their ugly heads now...

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  19. 4:35 maybe you should "Educate yourself. Then you won't be so stupid."

    Why didn't you mention Kerry and other high profile democrats that belong to the scull and bones?

    4:12
    hopefully he wont make it to 2012

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  20. The proposed plan still leaves 20 million uninsured and doesn't kick until 2013.

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  21. It's wrong to call citizen protesters (misguided as the pictured one is) "nazis." Of course, your darling Rush Limbaugh referred to ANY woman who stood up for equal rights as a "FemiNazi."

    Bush, on the other, had family ties to the Nazis, and instituted the biggest round of Big Brother intrusion into our lives in the name of "national security," and you Repubs were all for it...until now, there's a change of guard that has to oversee the UnPatriot Act. Remember what Ben Franklin said about sacrificing freedom for security and deserving neither.

    Everyone uses the term too loosely, but I'll tell you this. Two of my good friends are Jews and they renewed their passports and made "preparations" during Bush's second term.

    When Palin got picked and her hate speech incited people, including in a town near my friends, "Izzy" was beside himself, especially after checking out her background. Seven family members gone in the Holocaust -- that he knows of.

    Do us all a favor -- think twice before you toss the word Nazi around like it's a jelly bean. You may be standing next to an "Izzy" who can tell you for real who and what you need to be afraid of.

    This country is lost in stupid rhetoric. At some point, somebody needs to be a grown up and stop saying, "Nyah, nyah, you did it first."

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  22. 7:03-
    Openly hoping for assassination? Real honorable. Hope you teach that kind of respect and humanity to your kids, and talk about it in church on Sunday.

    I hated George Bush and every one of his crooked, un-American hooligans ( I did not vote for his Dad either) but I never wished him dead. Know why? I am not retarded.

    You are an ignorant redneck. Stay in your woodshed.

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  23. 7:03 Oh he will make it to 2012 and beyond.

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  24. Some of us are old enough to remember when terms like "Nazi", "facist", and "baby-killer" were bandied about quite freely by the left wing in the late 60's and early 70's at anyone who didn't subsrcibe to their views. And it was not uncommon to see LBJ and Nixon hung in effigy.

    The New Lefties show that they value dissent - as long as they're the ones dissenting. The rest of us are supposed to sit down and shut up and go along with their agenda.

    YES WE CAN
    YES YOU WILL--OR ELSE

    Horse puckey.

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  25. 9:29 don't get your panties all in a bunch...

    you're the prime example of what is wrong with the standard liberal.

    I said "hopefully he wont make it to 2012" and you assume, that means killing the POTUS..

    you do know there are other ways to be taken out of office?

    Sure you do, you all tried for 8 years to come up with something to remove Bush.

    now go back and curl up in the fetal position and cry like a little girl because someone is talking bad about your messiah.

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