One leftist's 'borking' remorse

Waterbury Republican-American ^ | November 8, 2011 | Editorial

[Graybeard58]

Late last month, as America was ignoring the 24th anniversary of the Senate's rejection of conservative jurist Robert Bork to the U.S. Supreme Court, something extraordinary happened: New York Times columnist Joe Nocera admitted the borking of Judge Bork spawned today's toxic political culture.

"(R)arely has a failed nominee had the pedigree — and intellectual firepower — of Bork," Mr. Nocera wrote. Judge Bork held conservative opinions, but none could be "fairly characterized as extreme." That didn't deter then-Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., who denounced "'Robert Bork's America' as a place 'in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters,' and so on. It continued until the day the nomination was voted down ... ."

As a left-wing columnist, Mr. Nocera has been known to dabble in demagoguery. On Aug. 1, he called Tea Party members "terrorists" and accused them of waging "jihad on the American people." Still, as you might expect, the left has denounced him as a traitor to the socialist cause for casting Judge Bork in the faintest positive light.

Fact is, "Robert Bork's America" was a caricature of Judge Bork's world view, a vast field of straw men just waiting to be set ablaze by fiery rhetoric. But Sen. Kennedy's balderdash sparked the left's systematic demonization of Judge Bork by sound bite. Through repetition, the left's smears soon became conventional wisdom. When they became "the truth," his nomination was toast, and the left had a template for spuriously denouncing GOP initiatives: Social Security reform equals throwing grandma into the gutter and forcing seniors to choose between food and life-saving prescription drugs; welfare reform equals racism; school-lunch reform equals malnutrition; Medicare reform equals pushing people in wheelchairs off a cliff.

Interestingly, the day before Mr. Nocera's piece ran, Times columnist Paul Krugman ranted about the "Party of Pollution." His thrust: The GOP jobs plan threatens public health and the planet. In reality, Republicans, whose forebears established the Environmental Protection Agency, want to relax a few of the plethora of costly, job-killing, ineffective environmental regulations. Facts be damned, Mr. Krugman wrote: "We need more politicians like the courageous governor who supported environmental controls on a coal-fired power plant, despite warnings that the plant might be closed, because 'I will not create jobs or hold jobs that kill people.'" More straw men up consumed by the flames of liberal hysteria.

Days later, Robert Reich, former U.S. secretary of unions, gave Republicans the Kennedy treatment for proposing to throttle back on federal spending and regulations. He accused them of seeking to return America "to the 1920s, before Social Security, unemployment insurance, labor laws, the minimum wage, Medicare and Medicaid, worker safety laws, the Environmental Protection Act, the Glass-Steagall Act, the Securities Exchange Act and the Voting Rights Act. ... Don't help the poor or unemployed or anyone who's fallen on bad times, they say, because this only encourages laziness. America will be strong only if we reward the rich and punish the needy." Anybody got a match?

Such inflammatory discourse is at the root of Washington's paralysis and America's poisonous political divide. "Mostly, though," Mr. Nocera wrote, "the point remains this: The next time a liberal asks why Republicans are so intransigent, you might suggest that the answer lies in the mirror." Well said.

[Graybeard58]

Ping to a Republican-American Editorial.

If you want on or off this ping list, let me know.

[Terabitten]

I personally despise demagoguery, regardless of who does it. Left wing, right wing, same bird.

[GeronL]

leftists are toxic, period

[eddie willers]

The Bork confirmation hearings made me question why I was a Democrat.

The Thomas hearings incensed me so much that I vowed never again to vote for a Democrat.

I have kept that promise.

[nathanbedford]

Always a committed conservative, the shameful borking of a supremely qualified individual radicalized me to the degree that I now describe myself as a "foaming at the mouth flopping on the floor conservative."

When it comes to the Democratic Party, this episode moved me from being merely skeptical to the verge of absolute cynicism.

Everything the Democratic Party has done since then confirms this assessment. The Democratic Party has become a front group for a radical, elitist, fifth column which is literally trying to destroy the American into which I was born and which my parents and my ancestors had intended to bequeath me as a legacy.

The Bork episode taught me that there is no comity to be had with these people; the struggle is to the political death and there will be no quarter coming from them. If we fail to accept this reality we do so at our gravest peril.

[Magic Fingers]

“The Bork episode taught me that there is no comity to be had with these people; the struggle is to the political death and there will be no quarter coming from them. If we fail to accept this reality we do so at our gravest peril.”

That bears repeating, repeatedly.

[SirLurkedalot]

BTTT

[victim soul]

Ditto

[Nat Turner]

The Bork episode taught me that there is no comity to be had with these people; the struggle is to the political death and there will be no quarter coming from them. If we fail to accept this reality we do so at our gravest peril.

Sounds like Nathan is right on point....Bi-partisan is the same as bisexual to me...

[free-in-nyc]

BTT

[a fool in paradise]

It was a witchhunt under the name of Kennedyism. Borking was named for the victim, not the evil culprit.

[a fool in paradise]

Ted Kennedy also worked with liberal activists to stall Bush’s judicial nominees.

[Ronin]

Through repetition, the left's smears soon became conventional wisdom. When they became "the truth," his nomination was toast, and the left had a template for spuriously denouncing GOP initiatives: Social Security reform equals throwing grandma into the gutter and forcing seniors to choose between food and life-saving prescription drugs; welfare reform equals racism; school-lunch reform equals malnutrition; Medicare reform equals pushing people in wheelchairs off a cliff.

This quote is something that needs serious discussion, because it is obviously the same technique they are using to try and sink Cain. The validity of the charges be damned, if they get enough women out there saying "it happened to me, too" the narrative will become "geez... so many, must be true."

It's frustrating because we can moan and groan about all we want, but the technique itself is very effective.

[Elsie]

Through repetition...

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" The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success

unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly -

- it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over."

[Elsie]

  Social Security reform equals throwing grandma into the gutter

 

 

 

and forcing seniors to choose between food and life-saving prescription drugs;

 

 

 

 

welfare reform equals racism;

 

 

 

school-lunch reform equals malnutrition;

 

 

Medicare reform equals pushing people in wheelchairs off a cliff.

Bye, Gramma!

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You CANNOT fight these IMAGES with mere words; we MUST get our OWN 'images' into peoples minds!