Breathtaking hypocrisy.
President Donald Trump speaks to the media in the lobby of Trump Tower, Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2017 in New York. (AP Photo – Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Listen To You Tell Me Texas Friday 8/18/17
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The hypocrisy of the Left – in all of its manifestations including the elite media – is simply stunning. The latest example is the breathlessly self-righteous reaction to President Trump’s statements on last weekend’s mayhem in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Let’s take the first of the president’s statements to which the Left strenuously objects.
Said the president,
We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides. On many sides. It’s been going on for a long time in our country. Not Donald Trump. Not Barack Obama. It’s been going on for a long time.”
The “on many sides” phrase – used twice – and the president’s failure to single out the white nationalists whose odious, yet properly-permitted rally stands at the root of the incident, has sent the Left into a tizzy. CNN’s Chris Cillizza’s reaction is typical.
It’s hard to imagine a less presidential statement in a time in which the country looks to its elected leader to stand up against intolerance and hatred.”
Then, on Tuesday, the president appeared at an impromptu news conference at which reporters refused to ask questions on any topic other than Charlottesville. A visibly irritated Trump said, among other things, the following:
I think there is blame on both sides. You had a group on one side that was bad. You had a group on the other side that was also very violent. Nobody wants to say that. I’ll say it right now.”
If the Left was in a tizzy on Monday, they’re positively apoplectic now.
That they are so upset tells us that the president has scored a direct hit. For the first time, a president – a Republican president – is saying out loud from the bulliest of bully pulpits what no one has had the courage to say before. It can be summed up in three paragraphs.
There are white people living in America who harbor the most vile and repugnant beliefs imaginable regarding black people. These white extremists are willing to commit violence in pursuit of those beliefs.
There are black people living in America who harbor the most vile and repugnant beliefs imaginable regarding white people. These black extremists are willing to commit violence in pursuit of those beliefs.
Taken together, these two extremes are doing enormous harm to the country.
Those three paragraphs are demonstrably true and are obvious to any intellectually honest observer, the irresponsible reporting of the New York-Washington media notwithstanding.
(Irresponsible is not a sufficiently strong condemnation. I’m trying to think of one that is. Shockingly irresponsible? Cosmically irresponsible? I’m open to suggestion.)
Wednesday on CBS This Morning, anchors Charlie Rose and Gayle King were hyperventilating to the point of actually contradicting (without realizing it) the rather good and substantially accurate reporting on Trump’s Tuesday news conference by their own correspondent in the field.
But back to the hypocrisy.
How is President Trump’s perceived failure to condemn white nationalists by name different from President Obama’s blatant and clearly intentional refusal to condemn Black Lives Matter matter by name – other than it being a perceived failure on the part of Trump and obviously purposeful on the part of Obama?
How are fringe white nationalist protesters “Trump’s people,” according to the Washington Post’s Colbert King, if Black Lives Matter protesters weren’t “Obama’s people?”
Speaking of Black Lives Matter, it was at their rallies following the infamous police shooting in Ferguson, Missouri that the chant, “Pigs in a blanket, fry ‘em like bacon,” got coined. Where was the condemnation from Barack Obama then that the hyenas of the Left demand now from Donald Trump?
(Though Obama never condemned Black Lives Matter, he did invite them to the White House.)
Space does not permit additional illustration, though good examples abound.
We are at a bad place.
The hope that the election of an African-American president would usher in a post-racial era in America lies shattered.
A monolithically ideological fourth estate now unapologetically goes out of its way to avoid the dissemination of objective fact that does not comport with their ideology.
And by all appearances, people of nominal intelligence and goodwill are unable or unwilling to recognize that there are, indeed, two sides (at the very minimum) to the problem of racism in America.
The unacceptability of speaking truthfully about that problem stands as a clear and present danger to the viability of the republic.
“Direct hit?” You got the “bully” part right; but many Americans — many of whom wear, or wore, our country’s uniform — hear Trump’s words less-comfortably than we Caucasian gentiles.
Paul, how about “dishonest” as a description of the elite media and their reporting? Since the president made some inroads into the Black electorate in the 2016 election, the dishonest liberal media will try anything to recapture their lock on this block of voters. The Democrats, along with their campaign surrogates, the elite media, need to bring these voters back onto their “plantation”, and not dare let them escape! We have only seen the beginning of this crusade to divide our nation by identity politics. Whether or not this strategy harms the unity of our country is of no concern to these ideologues; their power is the only thing that matters. If they can foment hatred among the different constituents, this helps the cause, and the destruction of our historical monuments is just another tool. One huge problem……when the patriotic, which is still the large majority of Americans, get enough of this behavior, there is going to be a backlash that they will not soon forget. I fear that the patience of the silent majority is wearing thin, and when it has been exhausted, it will not be a pretty picture.
Hear about “losers” — and those who gather with them — from a proud Republican who speaks with Hitler’s accent:
http://www.businessinsider.com/arnold-schwarzenegger-trump-the-united-states-no-place-for-nazi-flags-2017-8?utm_content=bufferb5bf9&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Bravo! Mr. Gleiser for your excellent essay.
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The leftists ARE hypocrites and the truth is NOT in them. They say they want the statues they object to taken down, but their singular objective is to ATTACK our nation’s Founders, thus AMERICA’S FOUNDING, by attempting to delegitimize our founding documents–The Constitution and The Declaration of Independence, our most cherished of writings, other than the Bible. They do NOT like our nation as Founded because the bedrock of all we hold dear are four words which they cannot stomach…. IN GOD* WE TRUST.
The leftists despise HIS* name as they have tried to completely blot it out from the public square, by seeking to remove it from the texts books of our schools and universities, our monuments, our buildings, and our money.
But the Good News is this, that millions of Godly American men & women of goodwill across the U.S.A. are rising up to turn back this evil which has come upon our land. As the Rev. Franklin Graham said, he believes that because millions PRAYED for our nation, God answered, and Donald Trump was elected by The American People to lead our nation at this crucial time. As a Christian, I believe that also.
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”–Edmund Burke 1729-1797.
No matter where-you-come-down-on-this, Bannon’s exit is a plus.
The truth is a stick in the eye to the left. They see it and feel it lodged in their eye but don’t have a clue how to get it out…so it stays there as an EXCUSE for their inability to discern truth from lies. The lefts FEAR of President Trump is overwhelming. What they do not realize is that by their behavior they are showing the world how blind, irrational and stupid they really are. It truly boggles the mind that grown people can act the way they are. I have seen more maturity in a kindergarten class! President Trump issued a fitting statement in that there are good and bad among ALL groups. But while we are on the subject obama made comments many, many times that were biased and in poor taste, yet where was the media the expose those? Their silence was deafening! I would compare them to Harpies…and if you don’t know what those are, I suggest you look them up!
Instead of demonizing the former president, then wondering why the current president is not being heard in the context that you all prefer, perhaps you all could examine why the President’s advisors are leaving in large numbers, our allies are questioning our collective sanity, and Trumps approval ratings are down in his own party.
Maybe we made a mistake electing this man. Maybe he’s not the right fit for this job. Maybe we could just admit that, and do better next time. Perhaps it would be the grown up to do.
Thing to do, rather. Apologies for the typo.
There’s a crude but accurate Irish saying that fits this situation, Both the white supremacists and the antifa are just “different cheeks on the same arse.”
It angers me that the extremes are allowed a national platform by the media to spew their hatred.
Both use nothing but cliches, stereotypes and straw man arguments instead of seeing the opposite side as individuals. Makes it easier to hate them when they are dehumanized.
What angers me more is that the media continually gives the antifa the benefit of the doubt and are less and less subtle in their support. It seems now the antifa are allowed to decide who and who cannot practice their First Amendment right to demonstrate.