President Obama with Senior Advisor Dan Pfeiffer |
Having an
Obama senior spokesman call Republican
opponents "suicide bombers" is beyond the pale of civil political
discourse coming from the White House. These verbal bomb throwing through the auspices of the Oval Office
neither builds Congressional coalitions vital for governing (as opposed to
campaigning) and this infelicitous and
incindiary analogy shows a shocking lack of civility. In the same day,
Obama White House Press Secretary Jay Carney dredged up birther barbs to mock
Republicans for wanting to defund Obamacare.
After the
near assassination of former Representative Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ 8th) in
January, 2011, President Obama made a grandiose speech at the Together We
Thrive rally in Tucson which
memorialized the fallen in the atrocity
where
President Obama proclaimed:
But at a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized -– at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who happen to think differently than we do -– it’s important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we’re talking with each other in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds.
President
Obama then rightfully noted that a "more civil
and honest public discourse can help us face up to our challenges as a
nation." So how do Dan Pfeiffer's
inflamatory remarks against ideological opponents fit into this call for
civility?
Perhaps
President Obama gave himself a waiver on civility. After all, President Obama's 2012 re-election
campaign persisted on an unsubstantiated
insuniation that Republican Presidential Nominee Governor Mitt Romney (R-MA)
was a felon for alleged misrepresentations when he was at Bain
Capital. Political campaigns ain't
beanbag, so rough and tumble rhetoric is not out of the ordinary, particularly
for a politician who can not win without smearing his opponent. But governing is different than campaigning.
While
Pfeiffer's smear of his opponents as suicide bombers is outrageous and unwise,
it is not the only example of inflamatory accusations that have the imprimatur
of Obama's Oval Office. Democrat Congressional leaders such as House Minority
Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA 8th) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)
have been wont to refer to uncooperative Conservative Republican legislators as
"Arsonists". Senior Obama
White House Advisor
Dan Pfeiffer echoed this arsonist accusation and kidnappers comparison
against Republicans. Or progressive
radio host Thom
Hartman who compared Senator Ted Cruz's
(R-TX) filibuster to "Taliban-styled suicide
bombings". Kind of sounds like the
Obama White House talking points were passed out.
These
slanderous characterizations from the Obama White House give Democrats
surrogates in the Lamestream Media license to copy scurrilous phrases. This was quickly spread by MSNBC's Chris Matthews did when the
former Democrat staffer turned broadcaster asked Representative Scott Perry (R-PA 4th) why
the Republicans want to hold the country "hostage".
The Obama
Administration seems intent to demonize and try to delegitimize their
opponents, ala Saul
Alinsky's Rules for Radicals. But Pfeiffer, Pelosi and Reid are not alone
in voicing vitrolic language against idelogical opponents. Senator John McCain referred to Senator Cruz
and Senator Rand Paul as "wacko birds", while Congressman Peter
King critiqued Senator Cruze as a crazy,
fraudster and suicidal. While these
invectives abrogate Reagan's Eleventh Amendment, they are not as vial as a
voice of the President of the United States in a time of real Islamist jihadi
terrorism comparing Republicans to suicide bombers.
It sounds like the White House communication staff need to take a crash course at the National Institute for Civil Discourse. After all, the NICD launched a website "YourWordsCount.org" which reminds readers of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's word of wisdom: "Civility costs nothing and buys everything." But that would also mean that they would be reminded of dear leader Obama's quote:
It sounds like the White House communication staff need to take a crash course at the National Institute for Civil Discourse. After all, the NICD launched a website "YourWordsCount.org" which reminds readers of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's word of wisdom: "Civility costs nothing and buys everything." But that would also mean that they would be reminded of dear leader Obama's quote:
You and I, as citizens, have the obligation to shape the debates of our time – not only with the votes we cast, but with the voices we lift in defense of our most ancient values and enduring ideals. Let each of us now embrace, with solemn duty and awesome joy, what is our lasting birthright. With common effort and common purpose, with passion and dedication, let us answer the call of history, and carry into an uncertain future that precious light of freedom.
So much for
shaping the future in an uplifting way.
In the
aftermath of the Tucson shooting, the elite Liberal media were quick to lambast
Tea Party Conservatives, particularly former
Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, for
dangerous symbolism on pamplets
which "targeted" politcally vulnerable Democrat districts like Giffords' with
crosshairs. Ironically, the Democrat
Congressional Camapign Committee used
bullseyes for their targeted districts. But as Chris Plante would put it: "If it
wasn't for double standards, liberals would have no standards at all."
From a
partisan political perspective, the Obama Administration's beyond the pale
references to Republicans clearly demonstrates that the Obama White House does
not want to deal and is pushing to peg Republicans with any blame for a
government shutdown. They may be
calculating their strategy premised on the 1995-1996 government
shutdowns which allegedly hurt Republicans (even though that was not
demonstrated at the ballot box). But
according to the latest
Pew Poll, both Democrats and Republicans would be blamed for a government
shutdown.
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