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The Spectacle Blog
I have watched with deepening dismay as the American left has increasingly embraced a political strategy which aims to keep people on their side by creating fear over the consequences of NOT being with them.
Example: Robert Bork was a highly respected legal mind who vigorously questioned the various liberal orthodoxies about constitutional law. He was successfully painted as a racist theocrat.
Example: Rush Limbaugh makes a career of lampooning the left. On a nationally televised program, he made a questionable assertion (in my mind, an incorrect one) that the black quarterback Donovan McNabb benefitted from a form of media-driven affirmative action. A remark that deserved either mild debate or dismissal as wrong-headed turned into bile so bitter the man ultimately loses the chance to engage in ordinary commerce as an investor in the NFL.
Example: Fox News runs a straight news operation with a sideline of hosts who offer conservative analysis and comment. Some hosts, like Greta van Susteren do not offer ideological comment. President Obama’s top adviser David Axelrod tells George Stephanopoulos that the other networks should not treat Fox like a news organization and that the administration does not treat them as a news organization. (This is a particularly odd assertion since then-candidate Obama did a lengthy interview with Bill O’Reilly which ran over the course of several nights.)
What is happening in these examples is not an attempt to engage in intellectual debate over a policy, but rather to make one point of view appear to be so out of bounds as to not belong to polite society. And so, Keith Olbermann, whose big trademark item is labeling various conservatives as “the worst person in the world” and who has spent years tossing out platitudes at least as far left as anything Limbaugh has offered to the right, is a suitable host for NBC’s Football Night in America, while Limbaugh is portrayed as nothing more than some kind of rich, red meat political pornographer with apparently obvious racist beliefs. So obvious, in fact, that a series of outrageous statements can be attributed to him without even being CHECKED by the media.
This is a form of pre-totalitarian politics. When we single someone out, particularly a relatively mainstream figure like Rush Limbaugh or Robert Bork or an organization like Fox News, and then act as though they are beyond the pale the message is clear. Don’t listen to such people. Don’t associate with them. Don’t ever say anything they would say. The price is lost opportunity, lost friendship, and a bad reputation. And you don’t want THAT, do you?
View all comments (24) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Hunter Baker
http://spectator.org/blog/2009/10/20/pre-totalitarian-thuggery-of-t
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bs| 10.20.09 @ 1:01PM
"Pre"? I think we're pretty darned close to it not being "pre" any more...
Oldefarte| 10.20.09 @ 1:34PM
Your comment [Example: Rush Limbaugh makes a career of lampooning the left. On a nationally televised program, he made a questionable assertion (in my mind, an incorrect one) that the black quarterback Donovan McNabb benefitted from a form of media-driven affirmative action. A remark that deserved either mild debate or dismissal as wrong-headed turned into vile so bitter the man ultimately loses the chance to engage in ordinary commerce as an investor in the NFL] is false due to the fact that Limbaugh was/is entirely correct in his statement. The sports/MSM typically, as does the news/MSM sugarcoats truth by means of POLITICAL CORRECTNESS 101; and its treatment of McNabb is the greatest example of same. McNabb, Peyton & Eli Manning and Troy Aikman were all #1 draft choices by NFL teams [and MCNabb's Eagles team was the most talent laden of the four]. McNabb is the ONLY one of these four QB's to NOT lead his team to a Super Bowl victory; and his professional football career has been a series of highs and lows of success. The sports/MSM however have traditionally fabricated/promoted his greatness beyond its actuality, all due to his his being an African-American [or as you say, due to affirmative action policies]. Limbaugh's statement was critical of the sports media for putting McNabb upon a pedistal falsely, not critical of McNabb for being African-American. Of course, the MSM and the racial thugsters [ie Jackson, Sharpton,etc] naturally used Limbaugh's statement to their advantage to charge RACISM [discrimination, disenfranchisement, gentrification, or whatever is most convenient to their cause]. You're correct in the point of your overall comments, but incorrect in trying to argue Limbaugh's statement about McNabb being racial in nature!!!!
Paul McGrath| 10.20.09 @ 1:56PM
"This is a form of pre-totalitarian politics."
Indeed. Marginalize your enemy, discredit him, then turn the public against them. The Bolsheviks did it to the Kulaks, Hitler did it to the Jews, and Mao and Pol Pot did it to the intellectuals. What the churls in the media don't seem to understand is that once the conservatives are silenced, everyone else is next.
Yes, I know this sounds like some odd paranoid fantasy; it can't happen here can it? But look around. It's happening.
Pingback| 10.20.09 @ 2:15PM
Twitter Trackbacks for The American Spectator : AmSpecBlog : Pre-totalitarian Thugge links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Daisy| 10.20.09 @ 2:29PM
Duh!!
astorian| 10.20.09 @ 3:41PM
I happen to agree that Donovan McNabb was once a SLIGHTLY overrated quarterback, but this had little or nothing to do with his skin color. There certainly WAS a time when black quarterbacks and black head coaches were a rarity, and many sportswriters openly rooted for those few black men to succeed. But today? Black quarterbacks and coaches are common, so common that even the most liberal reporter feels no need to make excuses for the likes of JaMarcus Russell, Akili Smith, Raheem Morris or Art Shell.
In his youth, Donovan McNabb was a bit overrated for the same reason Michael Vick was: he was EXCITING! He could improvise, he could scramble, he could make great throws on the run... two or three times a game, he'd make a stellar play that would make all the highlight reels, and that would awe both fans and reporters. Of course, he often followed those spectacular plays with bad reads or woefully underthrown passes, leading to disastrous interceptions.
As it is, McNabb is a proven veteran QB, and he's no longer overrated. He's now rated right where he should be: as a solid, second-tier NFL starting quarterback. Not a superstar like Tom Brady, Drew Brees or Peyton Manning, but a highly capable field general, on a par with Carson Palmer, Kurt Warner, Eli Manning or Ben Roethlisberger.
Rush was wrong about McNabb, and he was wrong for a silly reason.
martin j smith| 10.20.09 @ 3:52PM
I recall Liberal critique of MacCarthy's hearings and the blacklists etc etc. Now the current administration is going about this type of political abuse on steroids. I voted against Obama in this past election and I have to say I was right about his being a demogogue and running a dictatorial type of regime . I am not dismayed, I am just angry. While there is a base in the Democratic Party that loves their little dictator, there are others who voted for Obama who I sure are in fact dismayed. So all I can say support Fee Speech. Support Fox,Rush and all the others that are attacked. Plus there is a dividend in this matter. That is the more OBama attacks, the more he and his fellow czars are seen for what they are--except for those in the Base of his party. Obama is indeed looking every day like little Mao,Che,Fidel etc.
Eric Cartman | 10.20.09 @ 4:11PM
This is an outrage! I'll alert the media! Oh . . . wait . . . never mind.
hmm_contrib| 10.20.09 @ 5:14PM
I love the part where the right pretends the only objection to Rush is the McNabb comment. Every quote below has been sourced and proven to have come from Rush. Can we call him racist and a race-baiter now?
Multiple players in the league and other team owners indicated they wouldn't be comfortable with a race-baiter with a history of anti-black comments owning a team, so the *private* investment group made a free choice to drop him from their bid. What's un-American about that? Do you suggest there should be an affirmative action program for conservatives in case no one in a certain business community likes their ideas?
On the Nobel Peace Prize: “I think Obama’s the second Kenyan to win.”
“We are being told that we have to hope [Obama] succeeds, that we have to bend over, grab the ankles … because his father was black.”
“I do believe” Obama is an “angry black guy.”
“[I]n Obama’s America, the white kids now get beat up with the black kids cheering.”
“Obama’s entire economic program is reparations.”
Obama is “more African in his roots than he is American” and is “behaving like an African colonial despot.”
Obama is “Halfrican-American.”
“Obama has disowned his white half … he’s decided he’s got to go all in on the black side.”
Sotomayor “a reverse racist” appointed by Obama, “the greatest living example of a reverse racist.”
Obama “wants us to have the same health care and plan that he had in Kenya” and “wants to be the black FDR.”
Latching onto LA Times op-ed, Limbaugh sings “Barack, The Magic Negro.”
“God does not have a birth certificate. Neither does Obama”; Obama “has yet to prove he’s a citizen.”
Limbaugh on Gates controversy: “Here you have a black president trying to destroy a white policeman.”
Limbaugh suggests Obama would not have acted on Somali pirates if he’d known they were “actually young, black Muslim teenagers.”
Limbaugh suggests Democrats, media believe “you can’t criticize the little black man-child.”
“The government’s been taking care of [young blacks] their whole lives.”
“The days of [minorities] not having any power are over, and they are angry.”
“[M]inorities never do anything for which they have to apologize.”
Limbaugh: “The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well.”
Limbaugh says “NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips.”
Limbaugh declares basketball “the favorite sport of gangs.”
Limbaugh invented “racial component” to Hackett’s decision to withdraw from Ohio primary race.
Limbaugh on Survivor series: “African-American tribe” worst swimmers, Hispanics “will do things other people won’t do.”
Limbaugh suggested Colin Powell only supported Obama because of race.
Limbaugh: Gates is an “angry racist.”
Limbaugh called illegal immigrants an “invasive species.”
Limbaugh repeatedly calls Native Americans “Injuns.”
Limbaugh says Democrats’ interest in Darfur is securing black “voting bloc.”
Limbaugh says that if “feminazis” had remembered to oppose “affirmative action for black guys … they wouldn’t face the situation they face today.”
Johnno| 10.20.09 @ 6:32PM
Sounds like the truth to me: But you liberals wouldn't know the truth if it bit you on your ass.
Moron.
Eric Cartman | 10.20.09 @ 6:35PM
What's your point? I don't see anything wrong with any of it. Where's the lie? The NFL does look like gangs - do you even watch? Also, I remember in Detroit a lot of gangs playing round ball. So, there's that. Um, and the government hasn't been taking care of all the black illegitimate kids? Who has, the NBA? Only an idiot Liberal can sit there with a straight face and tell me these are lies. If, say, Bill Cosby says basically the same thing, is he a racist? What an Ahole! Go peddle it somewhere else, pin dick.
JOhnl| 10.21.09 @ 7:17AM
You write as if you have been smoking the littlest messiah weed. Just because someone holds an opinion that was not given to them by the left, does not mean they are wrong. That is simply the current derangement affecting leftists all over America.
The sooner you try and think clearly, outside of those opinions approved and provided ahead of time, by people that wish to subjugate you, the sooner you can take your place as an actual producing adult, instead of living off the producers while complaining bitterly aboyut their production.
JimE| 10.20.09 @ 7:02PM
hmm_contrib,
Everything you posted is correct now run along and worship your kenyan muslim hero, show him how great your white guilt is. May he reward your groveling with his jenkem.
alyeska| 10.21.09 @ 2:13AM
whoa! no racism here!
Johnno| 10.21.09 @ 8:12PM
Kinda like Obama's "Typical white person" remark, right?
Get over yourself, liberal moron.
Yosemeti Sam| 10.21.09 @ 12:41AM
" ... pre-totalitarian politics ...."
Them's fighten words!
Don't you think the NRA is vigilant?
LOL.
Old Bull| 10.21.09 @ 6:04AM
hmm_contrib, you can call him those things IF you will also call Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton those same things. By your post, you seem to believe (*feel*) that every one of those comments is racist, and therefore beyond the pale. As it happens, many people feel they are simply statements of fact. I'm afraid you'll have to do some serious work to explain why every one of those remarks is somehow wrong. Nice try, though...
JamesJ| 10.21.09 @ 7:32AM
From the liberal frothing over these comments it is obvious that the term "racist" has lost all meaning and is now a synonym for poopyhead.
Ed Duval| 10.22.09 @ 4:10PM
You might remember the car dealer who made International new for his promotion giving away AK47s with the purchase of a Truck.
He’s back in the news again and this time it doesn’t involve guns, but there’s definitely a political statement being made.
This same car guy is now protesting against the NFL because of the whole Rush Limbaugh/St. Louis Rams ordeal.
Saw this on CNSNews. You can find more information on the story there.
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/55746
Just wanted to pass it on, I thought it was interesting.
Thanks,
-ed