I just wish the conservatives in this country, and so many of the “God fearing” folks, would stop calling liberals anti-American.
Is it necessary–is it really necessary–to impugn the patriotism of people simply because their political views may be more liberal than yours? This is something that I notice only arch conservatives do. Do you notice that? Somehow they’ve got it figured that if you don’t agree with them, you’re anti-American. Wow. Amazing.
Do people really think like that?
News reports from CNN said today that “a North Carolina congressman locked in a tight re-election race admitted Tuesday to recently telling a crowd of John McCain supporters that ‘liberals hate real Americans’,” The news network called it the latest in a string of comments from Republicans that appear to question Democrats’ patriotism.
Rep. Robin Hayes, a five-term Republican who has been heavily targeted by Democrats this election cycle, first denied making the remarks, CNN said, but conceded Monday afternoon that he was accurately quoted after all.
As first reported by the New York Observer, Hayes said, “Liberals hate real Americans that work and achieve and believe in God.”
Liberals, you see, don’t work, don’t achieve, and don’t believe in God. (Ahem.)
This is the kind of hate mongering that has characterized much too much of conservative politics in the past ten years–and it is only getting worse in these, the final days of the 2008 presidential campaign.
Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann said late last week she’s concerned Barack Obama “may have anti-American views,” and suggested other liberal members of Congress also may be anti-American, the same CNN report said.
CNN also said that Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin “also drew fire from Democrats earlier this week when she suggested at a recent GOP fundraiser that she only likes to travel to ‘Pro-America parts of this great nation. We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard working very patriotic, um, very, um, pro-America areas of this great nation’,” the CNN report quoted her as saying. (She later apologized for the remarks, as did Congressman Hayes and Rep. Bachmann.)
And finally, the CNN report noted that “McCain spokeswoman Nancy Pfotenhauer also turned heads when she said over the weekend that Northern Virginia did not represent ‘real Virginia’ because of the influx of Democrats to the region in recent years.” (You will recall that John McCain’s brother, in a campaign visit to the state, recently called Northern Virginia “communist country.” He, too, later apologized, saying he was only joking.)
So there you have it, folks, the GOP strategy for the last days of this campaign: Slash and Burn. Shoot first and apologize later. Label anyone who disagrees with conservative politics “anti-American” and not part of the “real” America. Then, quietly in the inside pages of the newspaper, apologize for those remarks.
Well, only a few more days now. This will all be over soon.
Tomorrow: John McCain calls Barack Obama “socialist” for wanting to rescind the huge tax breaks given to the wealthiest Americans and give tax breaks to 95% of U.S. citizens–everyone earning under $250,000 a year.