Beware of sudden and apparently reasonable “calls for civility.” That pathetic mantra is usually voiced by a liberal administration and its supporters when criticism mounts that they are taking the country too far to the Left — like the Clinton implosion in 1993 or Obama today. I fear “civility” does not mean one should not write novels or produce movies contemplating murdering George Bush — that’s sort of an understandable agitprop art. “Civility” does not mean the New York Times should not give discounts to run ads in wartime like “General Betray Us.” That’s needed dissidence. Civility does not suggest that a Sen. Durbin, or Sen. Kerry, or Sen. Kennedy not use inflammatory language that compares our own troops or personnel to terrorists, Nazis, Pol Pot, Stalinists, or Saddam Hussein’s torturers; that most certainly is not uncivil. And it was certainly not impolite for Rep. Stark to call President Bush a “liar.”
“Civility” does not mean that we should not spew hate at anti-war protests; that’s grassroots popular protest. It doesn’t mean that we should not employ Nazi and fascistic labels to tar the President of the United States like John Glenn or Al Gore or Robert Byrd did. “Civility” does not mean that a shrill Hillary Clinton should not scream that the Bush administration is trying to silence critics, or suggest that the commanding general of an entire theater was lying to Congress in ways that require a “suspension of disbelief.” That’s needed pushback.
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Sunday, April 25, 2010
Saturday, April 3, 2010
War Presidents
This is Victor Davis Hanson on the double standard of Dem and Rep war presidents.
......it’s why Woodrow Wilson could do what he did in World War I, FDR could do what he did and Truman did what he did, LBJ and JFK could do what they do because the idea is that a Democrat is a man of peace. He’s a utopian. He doesn’t like war. He goes to it reluctantly. A Republican is a blood thirsty warrior type person who likes war and so anytime we have a democratic president, the left-wing is really to forgive him in a much greater degree than he is a Republican. You’re right. Obama’s been a great gift not only to the Republicans but to George Bush because singlehandedly he showed the world, he said to the world, your anti- Americanism, your George Bush hatred, your writ that Bush shredded the Constitution, it had nothing to do with reality. It was just piggybacking on the American left’s critique of a sitting Republican president for partisan purposes. Look, we’re doing everything that Bush did in Iraq, everything in Afghanistan, tribunals, renditions, intercepts, Patriot Act, etc., Predators, and where are the marches in Europe right now about Predators? They don’t exist. Where is some Hollywood celebrity giving a speech at the Oscars about rendition? Where’s the movie Rendition? Where’s the movie Redacted, Valley of Elah? Where’s all these Hollywood anti-Iraq movies? They don’t exist.
......it’s why Woodrow Wilson could do what he did in World War I, FDR could do what he did and Truman did what he did, LBJ and JFK could do what they do because the idea is that a Democrat is a man of peace. He’s a utopian. He doesn’t like war. He goes to it reluctantly. A Republican is a blood thirsty warrior type person who likes war and so anytime we have a democratic president, the left-wing is really to forgive him in a much greater degree than he is a Republican. You’re right. Obama’s been a great gift not only to the Republicans but to George Bush because singlehandedly he showed the world, he said to the world, your anti- Americanism, your George Bush hatred, your writ that Bush shredded the Constitution, it had nothing to do with reality. It was just piggybacking on the American left’s critique of a sitting Republican president for partisan purposes. Look, we’re doing everything that Bush did in Iraq, everything in Afghanistan, tribunals, renditions, intercepts, Patriot Act, etc., Predators, and where are the marches in Europe right now about Predators? They don’t exist. Where is some Hollywood celebrity giving a speech at the Oscars about rendition? Where’s the movie Rendition? Where’s the movie Redacted, Valley of Elah? Where’s all these Hollywood anti-Iraq movies? They don’t exist.
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