Being a Democrat means never having to say you’re sorry. But everybody else does.
Here’s a Townhall Blog post by Greg Hengler, with a video clip of Harry Reid explaining, among other things, that it would be awful of the Republicans to do the same things Democrats have been doing to them for many years, and plan to do again next time they’re out of power.
It’s perfect Leftist logic—If you act like me, you’re an awful person.
(By the way, this is an argument every victim of abuse is extremely familiar with, which is probably one reason why I react so strongly to it.)
The logic (as I’ve mentioned before) seems to be, “We can do it, because we don’t believe in moral absolutes. But since you do believe in moral absolutes, if you act like us you’re hypocrites. And thus evil. It’s only evil when a hypocrite does it, you see. So we can do anything we want, but you have to obey a higher standard.”
By this logic, of course, the highest moral ground in the universe would be held by an open sociopath. He could commit any crime he wanted without guilt or shame, because he doesn’t have any espoused morality to violate.
Take the case of Carrie Prejean, the Miss USA finalist who probably lost the contest because she stated (in a pretty namby-pamby fashion, to be honest) her conviction that marriage should be limited to male-female couples. (Interestingly, pageant officials criticized her for not suppressing her true convictions, in order not to give offense. In other words, she should have been a hypocrite in this case. It’s pretty hard to please the Left.)
Today the news is that somebody came up with some nude or semi-nude photos Miss Prejean posed for a few years back (I haven’t seen them; can’t comment on their tastefulness or sleaze).
There is a message here, and very clear one. Oppose us, and we will deploy vast resources to destroy your reputation. “You’ve got a nice life here. It would be a shame if anything were to happen to it.”
We’ve seen it before, and it shows no sign of letting up. Our opponents honestly believe that, because we are all bigoted, ignorant hypocrites, it is not only not wrong, but positively virtuous to destroy us without mercy.
What I haven’t worked out is how to respond to this.
Do we fight fire with fire? Are we even able to do that, in light of our massive inferiority in terms of media support?
Do we take a “turn the other cheek” approach, trusting that the American people, in the long run, are decent, and will repudiate such tactics? (Harry Reid seems to be counting on that, and it really irks me to play into the hands of such as he.) And I don’t believe “do as you would be done by” applies to government matters in general. (If they did, the government couldn’t levy taxes or punish criminals.) But government and politics are different things, so I’m not sure how far to stretch it.
I just don’t know.
I do know I’m getting angry.
I don’t believe fighting fire with fire is the moral choice here. Ann Coulter tries to do it, but I don’t think it’s right. Even if we could, we should not work to destroy a political opponent the way they try to destroy us. The stupid flak George Allen received over his “macaca” comment was so ridiculous the paper should have lost advertisers and subscribers in droves.
And where Ms. Prejean is concerned, I’m a little shocked at the vicious attacks she’s received from people who argue they are victims of hate speech. Liberals who think they have the high road on this are morally myopic–but that probably goes without saying.
I think the way to fight democrats is with smart business and marketing principles. It’s liberty. It’s life. It’s justice with mercy for all. I must focus on how we can improve or help our constituents over what we will cut from the government. We will enforce our laws in fairness, because we don’t believe certain ethnic groups are default criminals. We will restrict the reach of government in order to give greater opportunity to everyone pursuing the American dream. We are not the victims of our past. We are the pioneers of our future.
We need more conservative media. Lars, I don’t know if you realize it, but you’re doing God’s work. So are a lot of bloggers who do the job of news reporters.