http://dailyme.com/story/2009092400004504/lebanon-daily-news-pa-dan-sernoffsky.html
by DAN SERNOFFSKY
Sep 24, 2009
Somehow, there's always a couple of facts that are conveniently over
looked by the progressives who so desperately try to castigate the
con servatives who would really rather the United States be governed
by the prin ciples set forth in the U.S. Constitution rather than the
principles set forth by "Das Kapital" or "Mein Kampf" or "Rules for
Radicals," the Saul Alensky tome that seems to be the blueprint for
the Obama administration.
There was, at first, the criticism for the apparent incivility of
those protest ing the left's effort to take control of the entire
health-care industry through na tionalization. There were, in
addition, criticisms of the incivility displayed by those exercising
their Second Amend ment rights by legally carrying guns in public.
There was also the criticism of Rep. Joe Wilson, who really didn't
call the president a liar; he simply noted that one particular
statement in the presi dent's address was a fabrication.
Progressives, it seems, demand they be allowed to establish the rules
for any debate and to fashion any half-truths they wish in attacking
those with whom they disagree. Consider, after all, the stunning lack
of civility on the part of the American left during the presidency of
George W. Bush.
Congressional Democrats saw noth ing wrong with disrupting his State
of the Union message with catcalls and boos. The left saw the
publication of a book dealing with the assassination of Bush, and a
movie dealing with the same subject, as simply exercises in free speech.
The left also thought that bumper stickers reading "Where is Lee
Harvey Oswald when you need him?" as little more than clever
sloganeering. It was, in fact, a noted senator from New York who
shrilly claimed, "I am sick and tired of people who say that if you
debate and you disagree with this administration somehow you're not
patriotic. We should stand up and say we are Americans and we have a
right to debate and disagree with any administration."
The rules, obviously, have changed. After all, no less an authority
than former President Jimmy Carter had pro claimed that any criticism
of the Obama administration is racist because the president happens
to be a man of color. And, as the Speaker of the House noted, the
protesters who have been regularly rallying in opposition to the
socialist pol icies of the administration need to be tone down the
rhetoric. What is happen ing now, Nancy Pelosi said, is far, far too
reminiscent of the violence that hap pened in San Francisco some 30 years ago.
There are, however, facts that are constantly overlooked. The left,
the pro gressives, have for so long denigrated and criticized
conservatives that they have, in Orwellian fashion, managed to
manipulate the past to control the pre sent.
Who, after all, was Lee Harvey Oswald? The man who assassinated
Kennedy was an avowed communist, a man who wanted to give up his
Ameri can citizenship to become a citizen of the Soviet Union, who
married a Russian woman, who fully supported Fidel Castro. In short,
Oswald, other than having assassinated the President of the United
States, shared a philosoph ical kinship with today's progressives.
Who was Sirhan Sirhan? The man who assassinated Robert Kennedy was a
virulent anti-Semitic Palestinian who hated Jews and who decided to
kill Ken nedy for the support Sirhan perceived Kennedy to have for Israel.
Who was Dan White? White was the man Pelosi apparently had in mind
when she was talking about the violence in San Francisco. White was
the man who murdered Harvey Milk, the openly gay member of San
Francisco's Board of Supervisors, and Mayor George Mos cone. Long
forgotten is the fact that White was a former supervisor who pleaded
insanity using the "Twinkie de fense," and who was convicted of man
slaughter. And the fact that he was a Democrat.
Who was Sara Jane Moore? One of the women who tried to assassinate
Gerald Ford was a radical leftist who de cided to carry out her
assassination at tempt because, she would say, "the government
declared war on the left."
Who were Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn? The friends of Obama who,
as members of the radical Weather Under ground, were responsible for
a number of bombings, and a number of deaths, in cluding the deaths
of some of their fellow travelers killed while trying to as semble bombs.
Isn't it odd that throughout the summer at the often raucous
town-hall meetings, while conservatives and other critics of
administration policy were being castigated, there were only two re
ported instances of physical violence. One came at a town-hall
meeting in Mis souri, where a man named Kenneth Gladney, an American
of color, was at tacked and beaten by members of SEIU, a union called
out by the administration to combat town-hall protesters. The other
came in California, where a 65-year-old man protesting the adminis
tration's bid to take over health care had a finger bitten off by an
administration supporter.
Those who have been protesting the administration policies -- whether
health care, the "czars" appointed by the president, immigration, or
any other policy -- have been loud, raucous, at times somewhat
profane and certainly forthright in their criticisms. But they have
been only vocal. The Sept. 12 march on Washington, while ignored by
progressives and their minions, was noteworthy not for the numbers
but more for the surprising willingness of the crowd to pick up after
itself. When the crowds departed, they left behind relatively
litter-free streets.
But those protesters, particularly those of a conservative bent, are
crit icized and accused of promoting vio lence. Unfortunately, it is
the accusers, the progressives, who have actually en gaged, and
continue to engage, in the real violence.
--
Sernoffsky can be reached at danser noffsky@ldnews.com.
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