Posted on 07/29/2004 3:42:44 PM PDT by Maria S
Allow me to poke fun awhile.
I began to notice it just a few months after 9/11. It really began to gain steam after the passage of the USA Patriot Act and has since become a basic tenant of liberals in their war against President Bush.
The "it" I refer to is a farcical display of martyrdom.
I recall stifling laughter one fall day after discovering an e-mail printed on the back of a posting on one of Amarillo College's bulletin boards. It was an e-mail a history professor had sent out to others in academia decrying the oppression that the Bush administration and its neo-con supporters were visiting upon those opposed to them.
If there had been no date attached or specific time-related references, I would have been certain that this man was one of those righteous academics who had bravely shouted against the Nazis in Germany in the late 1930s.
Such a man would have had good reason to complain and would have been a hero. Academics were prime targets of the Nazi regime and were often imprisoned and killed by the Gestapo.
Of course, however, President Bush and conservatives have not and are not threatening, imprisoning or killing academics who are critical of them. Neither has there been the slightest hint of aggression.
Hollywood and the entertainment industry have taken up the banner of feigned martyrdom and added to it their professional expertise in drama. Sean Penn, Martin Sheen, Susan Sarandon, the Dixie Chicks, Bruce Springsteen, Linda Ronstadt and many others have taken up the martyrdom cry. They all have used their podiums (which have been granted for entertainment) to denounce the president and/or claim their rights of freedom of speech and expression have been violated.
Though Attorney General John Ashcroft is supposed to be a fascist who has been given unlimited policing power, he has not sent a single agent to harass them, nor have any had the slightest government action taken against them.
Ashcroft has neither the desire nor the power to do anything to these delusional jesters. Besides, he's busy tracking down terrorists and other dangerous criminals.
While these entertainers have not felt Bush's wrath, they have felt the wrath of many of their fans who were offended by their over-the-top attacks on the president and who refused to buy their albums or see their movies or go to their concerts.
These fans are exercising their rights as well. President Bush had nothing to with it.
Not only have the fringes of the liberal establishment gone nutty with pretended fear but also leading liberal politicians. Both former Vice President Al Gore and Sen. Hillary Clinton, to name just two, have made speeches, screaming like banshees, voicing their brave opposition to the oppressive Bush administration.
They've assumed the brave face during times of lurking danger. They have insinuated or flatly stated that the president has fostered an environment of political fear and persecution.
The Bush administration has done nothing reminiscent of FDR's use of the Federal Communication Commission to intimidate conservatively inclined radio stations to stop their criticism of New Deal policies. Nor has President Bush mimicked President Kennedy's invoking of the Fairness Doctrine to bully conservative talk radio off the air. In fact, President John Adams, President Lincoln and President Wilson all were given by Congress considerable security powers far more aggressive than the Patriot Act to secure the country during wartime.
But let's not confuse these modern-day martyrs with reality. While suppression of liberals supposedly runs wild, Michael Moore's documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11," which is a rabidly anti-Bush, is smashing box office records. Not to mention that the first liberal talk radio network has been launched. The president really needs to get better at this whole suppression thing.
But let the libs enjoy their fantasies of victimhood. One can imagine them pulling up in their little hydroelectric cars, sneaking in through the back and removing their sunglasses before attending secret meetings where they sip on wine and smoke cigarettes (a revived habit because of the extreme stress caused by their persecution). In public they might give secret looks and sly smiles when they pass others with whom they are in league, all the while being careful not to let others know they are acquainted with each other.
You never know when Ashcroft's boys could be watching. You know, if I had had this outlook during the Clinton years, it would have been a lot more fun.
If Kerry wins, maybe I'll build some secret passages and hold clandestine meetings with my conservative friends.
James Robinson can be contacted in care of the Amarillo Globe-News, P.O. Box 2091, Amarillo TX 79166, or letters@amarillo.com. Amarillo Voices appears Thursday.
Do you have a clone?
So true, so true. If something isn't going their way, it must be because they are being wronged and oppressed. It can't possibly be because too many people don't agree with them or have exercised their own rights in response. If Whoopi gets fired by a private company, it must be Bush's fault. If private citizens don't want Linda Rondstat to sing at the casino show they are paying to see, it must be Bush's fault.
"How dare you do all the things we criticize you for not having done before 9/11!"
Great post!
Great post!
This Robinson clearly has absolutely no concept of history or the facts. The academics who shouted against the Nazis were not brave, they weren't following the instructions of the communist party in Moscow. These academics would have dyed their hair purple if that's what the cell told them to do. They worked against the Nazis only as a defense for the commies (see the non-agression treaty where the academics quickly endorsed the Nazis) a short term issue, while maintaining the long term objective of destroying the US.
The neocommunists may not speak Russian, but there are as many academics today who still wish to destroy the US. Most of them are vocal democrats.
Today's libs, like the nuts at DU, can be accurately described as paranoid to the nth degree. They have convinced themselves that the government is rounding up average citizens, like Mrs. Smith next door, and throwing them into huge concentration camps which were hastily erected the day after the Patriot Act was passed. The fact is they can't name one non-terrorist who has been arrested. In reality libs are most likely to be the ones who arrest people for thought crimes or other politically incorrect acts. If they get their chance.
The funny thing is quite a few of them are going to move to Canada if Kerry loses. :-)
"This Robinson clearly has absolutely no concept of history or the facts"
And he is not the only one.
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