Did you hear about the latest episode involving talk radio host
and NYT bestselling author Mark Levin?
The guy went out and said the President and his friends were
engaged in a “ruthless war” of “unmitigated plunder of the public
trust.” Winding up in a serious rant he assailed “the purchase of
votes, the corruption of elections officials, the bribing of
legislatures…and the flagrant disregard of laws” that “threatened
the very foundations of democracy.” He even got religion, saying
it was time to “drive the money changers out of the temples of
democracy.” Later he went the inevitable Hitler route as well,
using the dictator’s infamous book Mein Kampf to compare
to liberals he said were using “deception and disinformation
against enemies, real or imagined.”
Wow. Strong stuff. Ruthless war, unlimited plunder, corruption,
bribes, Mein Kampf.
What was remarkable about all of this was the way David Frum of
the New Majority so quickly got on Levin’s case. Calling Levin
part of the “Reckless Right,” he said Levin’s remarks were
“outrageous” and would inspire people to show up with guns at
Obama rallies.
Then he said…
Oh. Sorry. My mistake.
Those quotes above? They were actually made not by Mark Levin in
2009 but by PBS TV host Bill Moyers back in 2007 when he was
addressing the General Synod of the United Church of Christ —
the same day a speech from a then-Senator named Barack Obama was
delivered to the same audience on “The Politics of Conscience.”
Moyers was talking about George Bush, and Obama seemed not mind.
The riff about Hitler and Mein Kampf was elsewhere and
compared them, of course, not to liberals but to — yes — the
Pentagon.
Interestingly, David Frum had nothing to say about this kind of
rhetoric from Moyers when he appeared Friday night on the, well,
Bill Moyers program “Bill Moyers Journal.” Nope. The cat
apparently had Frum’s tongue.
Moyers remarks were made after it had become public that the
Secret Service had begun an investigation
of a man they say brought a gun to a rally featuring
then-President George W. Bush. This is the same Moyers who
engineered the famous “Daisy” TV commercial in 1964 that said, in
the words of its target, “Barry Goldwater would blow up the world
if he became President of the United States.” Hey, no reckless
stuff there, Right?
The point here is not Moyers, who seems not to have changed his
ways whether he was inciting rage in 1964 or 2007. The point
isn’t even “what if somebody had shot Barry Goldwater or George
Bush” because of Moyers.
The point here is that second, people who act violently are
responsible for their own acts.
But if we’re headed for a discussion about violence directed
against presidents, since Messrs. Frum and Moyers opened the
discussion, it’s worth noting that three of the four men who
assassinated presidents were — yes indeed — men of the left.
Charles Guiteau, who shot James Garfield, is known to history as
the “disappointed office seeker” — which is to say a guy who
didn’t get a job he felt owed. The others — John Wilkes Booth
(Lincoln) was furious at the “tyrant” Lincoln for his military
victory over the Democratic Party’s backbone, the slaveholding
aristocracy. Leon Czolgosz, McKinley’s assailant, was a fervent
socialist and anarchist. JFK’s Lee Harvey Oswald was famously a
would-be defector to the Soviet Union and an ardent fan of
Castro. Other would-be shooters include Giuseppe Zangara, who
managed to kill the Mayor of Chicago when he was riding in a car
with FDR. Said the furious assassin at his trial:” “I have the
gun in my hand. I kill kings and presidents first and next all
capitalists.” Likewise was the attempt to kill Truman done by
left-leaning Puerto Rican nationalists, two attempts against Ford
by radicalized women, and the attempt on Reagan done to impress
the left-leaning actress Jodie Foster.
In other words, violence like this has historically been driven
by leftists. That said, it is little short of crazy to be blaming
this kind of thing on anyone other than those who do the
violence.
But first and foremost, it is not just insultingly despicable —
disgraceful — for Frum to disparage Levin, Limbaugh, and others
for inviting violence. To put up a link
to Levin on the Hannity show where Levin makes it crystal clear
he is talking about a political war — then pretend he said
something else is little short of nutty. But if that’s Frum’s
text, to remain silent while sitting across a TV set from Moyers
— who has done exactly what Frum professes to be so disturbed
about — shows a considerable measure of bootlicking gutlessness.
Yes, Bill. No, Bill. Thanks for having me on the show, Bill. Did
I miss anything, Bill?
Respectfully, David, you did. You left your integrity on the set.
