Controlling and neutralizing the opposition’s speech is the name of the left’s game. The liberal speech police have had us walking on eggshells with politically correct speech lists for so long now that by the time we learn a newly sanctioned liberal term for persons, places, or things, it is outdated and we are suddenly branded hate-filled radicals for using it.
But what makes political speech hateful? And who should be the arbiter of when political rhetoric crosses the line?
The American Thinker’s John Dietrich put it well: “when liberals rant, it’s called free speech; when conservatives rant, it is hate speech.”
The reaction of many liberals to the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords has helped expose liberals’ hate-speech double standard. Well-known liberal pundits and a partisan county sheriff waited just hours before blaming (without a shred of evidence) the actions of a lone psychotic gunman on conservative radio personalities and political voices, ignoring the hateful things that come out of liberals’ mouths.
The following quotes illustrate my point. Try to identify the people being quoted (answers are below):
A. “Instead of running for governor of Florida, they ought to put him against a wall and shoot him.”
B. “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun.” & “We’re going to punish our enemies and we’re gonna reward our friends…”
C. “A message to progressives: By all means, hang Senator Joe Lieberman in effigy.”
D. “Michele, slit your wrist. Go ahead… or, do us all a better thing [sic]… start at the collarbone.”
E. Barack Obama is a “light-skinned” African-American “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.”
F. “All Hymie wants to talk about is Israel; every time you go to Hymietown, that’s all they want to talk about.”
G. “You think the Republican National Committee could get this many people of color in a single room? Only if they had the hotel staff in here.”
H. “How much time do we have left to talk about how stupid Sarah Palin is?”
I. Bill Maher: “You could have went to New Hampshire and killed two birds with one stone.” (Senator): “Or, I could have gone to 1600 Pennsylvania and killed the real bird with one stone.”
Answers: (A) Former Democratic Rep. Paul Kanjorski; (B) Barack Obama in 2008 and 2010; (C) New York Times columnist Paul Krugman; (D) Talk show host Montel Williams, directed at Rep. Michele Bachmann; (E) Senator Harry Reid, 2008; (F) Reverend Jesse Jackson, 1984; (G) DNC Chairman Howard Dean; (H) The Washington Post’s Richard Cohen on CNN; (I) Senator John Kerry on HBO’s “Real Time.”
Let freedom of speech ring loud and clear. I for one do not want the liberal-progressive voice or slander quieted. The hypocrisy, hubris, and emotion-filled rhetoric of the left illuminate the sanity of conservative policies and traditional American values.
Conservatives should take heart in the even-tempered tone of those representing their ideals in the public forum. At the rate the left self-destructs, it’s only a matter of time before more American liberals grow up and realize their attacks upon the rights they wish to corral and bridle are attacks upon themselves.
James Michael Pratt is a New York Times bestselling novelist and non-fiction author, CEO of PowerThink Publishing, public speaker, Op Ed writer for The Daily Caller, and Founder of Reagan Revolution 2. His creative work may be reviewed at www.jmpratt.com. Email: james@powerthink.com