Welcome to the dark side of your constituency, Kathleen
Conservative columnist makes an ugly discovery when she bucks the party line
I am finding it very damned hard to be sympathetic to Kathleen Parker. Let’s let her explain:
WASHINGTON — “Allow me to introduce myself. I am a traitor and an idiot. Also, my mother should have aborted me and left me in a Dumpster, but since she didn’t, I should “off” myself.
Those are just a few nuggets randomly selected from thousands of e-mails written in response to my column suggesting that Sarah Palin is out of her league and should step down.
Who says public discourse hasn’t deteriorated?
The fierce reaction to my column has been both bracing and enlightening. After 20 years of column writing, I’m familiar with angry mail. But the past few days have produced responses of a different order. Not just angry, but vicious and threatening…“
Kathleen Parker: Speak correctly, or build a big bunker.
It’s not just “public discourse” generally. Parker is a well-known conservative newspaper columnist. This is the first time she’s really bucked the conservative line in a big way, and it’s exposed her to something progressives have known about for a long, long time. Which is: the tendency to fantasies of thuggish political violence may not be limited to the right wing, but speaking in epidemiological terms, that is its reservoir in America today. Cross those guys and you won’t just hear about how wrong you are; you will hear a hundred different gruesome ways you should suffer and die.
Mainstream progressives play down the violence talk. There are no progressive counterparts to Glen Beck or Ann Coulter, fantasizing about violence against the other side. That sort of guff is far more prevalent from the “cold dead hand” crowd. When confronted they always say; “It’s just a joke!“
But am I cherry-picking a few examples from the fringe, as one could with PETA or ELF? Not at all; this is Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Ann Coulter, Jonah Goldberg, the Catholic League, people with enormous followings. In our country everyone freaks out if Janet Jackson’s nipple shows for a second, but right-wing infotainers feel (and are) perfectly safe saying violent stuff like the examples below the fold.
No FCC fines for the broadcasters in the group - it’s all in good fun. No consequences for the police union that celebrates brutality. And I could provide any number of examples of right-wing bloggers who want ‘oceans of green radioactive glass’ in the Muslim world, and specifically rejecting any concern for collateral damage, this many years after 9/11.
Parker wants everyone to be civil now, and not suppress unwelcome ideas. I got news for you, Kathleen, none of this stuff is news to us. Welcome to our world.
A FEW EXAMPLES:
- Ain’t it great being above the law? - “We get up early to beat the crowds” (T-shirt showing a leering cop with a nightstick) - Denver police union
- C’mon, people, lighten up! - “We need somebody to put rat poisoning in Justice Stevens’ creme brulee. That’s just a joke, for you in the media.“ Ann Coulter
- Cry havoc! Not a joke. - “the dream end of this is that this keeps up to the convention and that we have a replay of Chicago 1968, with burning cars, protests, fires, literal riots, and all of that. That’s the objective here.“ Rush Limbaugh
- Shux, can’t you people take a joke? - “Commenting on Hillary Clinton’s recent remarks about RFK’s assassination, Liz Trotta referred to “what some are reading as a suggestion that somebody knock off Osama, uh Obama—well, both, if we could.“ She apologized today for her “lame attempt at humor.“”Liz Trotta on Fox News
- Pining for the old days, Johah? - GOLDBERG: It is an incredibly poisonous situation. You know in the middle ages, Harry Reid would have his stomach cut open and a half-starved weasel thrown in, for the kinds of things he’s doing. It’s outrageous!Glenn Beck, Jonah Goldberg
- Overreact much? - “Professor Myers: Your actions are decisive evidence that if your brains were blown out with a shotgun the collective intelligence of the world would increase a million times. Fortunately, you do no damage. Nobody subhuman is of consequence.“James B. Williams (The professor desecrated a communion wafer, along with a copy of the Koran and a copy of The God Delusion. He has received thousands of messages like this one from Catholics, and so far none from Islamists or secularists.)
- Christopher Buckley has had to resign from National Review because of all the hate mail they have received after he endorsed Obama. He and Kathleen Parker have now become friends, trading the hate mail they receive.
Heavy stuff.
Posted by Still Me on 10/03/08 at 09:23 AMThis is certainly more than just a conservative problem, all you have to do is look at Digg.com comments to see that. But I will say, in the larger media groups the conservative commentators seems worse. But in America we seem to treat politics like the binary calculations of a computer. There are only 2 options, wrong or right, dem or repub. And if you are not all for one side you are against that side.
At work my coworkers drilled me and everytime they learn I am not 100% democrat they are surprised.
The sooner we learn this is a false dichotomy the sooner we can move forward and get some work done.
Posted by webs05 on 10/03/08 at 10:41 PMAccording to the rightists, everyone who is not a rightist should be shot against a wall, preferably after painful torture. Think Hitler would have any trouble rising to power with that bunch?
I’m surprised Ann “Final Solution” Coulter can still get any airtime.
Posted by gerry rosser on 10/04/08 at 07:52 AMNOT a false dichotomy, Webs. The tendency toward fantasies of violence is a human problem, on all sides. The open media expression of those fantasies, by mainstream media figures, without any consequence, is almost exclusively the property of the right.
I can remember when NO ONE would have said stuff like that on the air, and would have been fired instantly if they did. It wasn’t that long ago.
Posted by George on 10/04/08 at 08:23 AMNo I was making the point that you are either with us or against us mentality of politics is a false dichotomy. People treat politics like a binary calculation and if you say something against “your” side then you are obviously against them…
I think this is wrong and that is what I was referring to.
Posted by webs05 on 10/04/08 at 09:13 AMWhat a coincidence! A few minutes ago, I deleted some comments from my blog left by an Obama supporter who was incapable of making his points in a civil manner. By civil, I mean without calling someone names or without making threats. Although he was from the Left, I’ve mainly heard such nonsense from the Right. So, I agree with the thesis here that the Right, somewhat more than the Left, is prone to some rather vile verbal abuse these days.
Also, I think Webs has a point. This notion one is either good or evil, all right or all wrong, either for me or against me, is excusable in a 12 year old—but not an adult.
Posted by Paul Sunstone on 10/05/08 at 02:29 PM
Next entry: Truth Not Tolerance frame
Previous entry: This is too serious to be nice about it