If there is anyone who knows what’s un-American, it’s probably British-born-and-raised Piers Morgan.
Undeterred by American history and poll numbers, CNN host Morgan has courageously spoken up and declared various political stances and actions as “un-American” over the last year.
Morgan began his “un-American” jihad in April 2012, in the midst of the Republican presidential primary. During an episode of his “Piers Morgan Tonight,” he asked the woman who was in the infamous anti-Goldwater “Daisy Girl” ad as a child whether negative ads were somehow “fundamentally un-American.”
“Do you feel the whole nature of attack commercials in politics is wrong? It’s fundamentally un-American?” he asked, but really stated.
Two months later, in June 2012, Morgan echoed the same theme while talking to Gucci-addict and writer Buzz Bissinger.
“And also it seems to me it’s a very un-American battleground that developing in the elections where it’s almost like ‘you were terrible, I haven’t been quite as terrible,'” Morgan said.
“You know, whereas America was founded on this great positive can-do mentality. And Obama played up to that with the whole ‘yes, we can’ campaign. This is not a ‘yes, we can’ message of positivity is. It wasn’t quite as bad as the last lot. Which is surprisingly negative for an American presidential race, I think.”
If negative campaigning is fundamentally “un-American,” the country has seen very few American campaigns. As early as the presidential election of 1800 between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, nastiness became a staple of presidential politics.
According to Morgan, lying is not just unbecoming, but un-American as well.
In October 2012, Morgan interviewed Florida congresswoman and chair of the Democratic National Committee, Debbie Wasserman Schultz. During the interview, Morgan was lambasting the Obama administration for misleading the public on the Benghazi attack when he suggested telling tall tales was un-American.
“The really important horse that should be flogged is the behavior and the statements of those who are in positions of responsibility and we would assume knowledge,” he said. “And it’s pretty un-American, pretty un-American to be putting up completely false statements before you know the facts, isn’t it?”
Most Americans may not see much virtue in lying, but plenty of Americans — and everyone else — certainly engage in it, George Washington and the mythical cherry tree notwithstanding.
In December 2012, Morgan determined that federalism was un-American too.
“But can America really stand for freedom and genuine equality if half the states continue to view the rights of a homosexual couple to get married in a completely different way to the way they view the rights of a heterosexual couple?” Morgan asked Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and John McCain of Arizona, as well as then-independent Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut.
Each of the three senators attempted to explain the concept of federalism to Morgan.
“Can people in a republic, can people in South Carolina and New York differ? I hope so,” Graham said.
“I think that marriage ought to be decided by the states. So that would mean that some states would have the right to prohibit same-sex marriage,” Lieberman said.
“That’s the principle of the conservative federalist belief,” McCain chimed in.
Morgan then made his decision.
“But it seems so un-American to me,” he stated.
Less than two weeks ago Morgan declared that defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman — a definition that has existed for millennia in the Western world, was subscribed to by all of America’s Founding Fathers and was held by liberal icons such as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama until recently — was un-American.
“The idea that you want to stop people like Elton [John] and David [Furnish] or Suze [Orman] and KT from getting married, from getting married in America in the modern era, I just find a bit offensive these days,” he lectured traditional marriage advocate Ryan Anderson on his show.
“It’s not fair, it’s not tolerant, it’s not American.”
According to a recent CBS poll, at least 39 percent of Americans also hold this un-American view.
Though Morgan, who moved to the U.S. only recently, freely suggests certain political beliefs and behavior of natural-born Americans are un-American, no one should dare question whether any of his views are un-American.
“I love America. America has been very good to me. One of the things I find most ridiculous about my gun control position is, for example, is the idea that somehow I’m un-American,” he lamented to Charlie Rose on Rose’s PBS show earlier this year.
“But my response would be I like Americans so much I want more of you to stay alive,” he quipped.
In other words, Americans should feel lucky that they now have Piers Morgan here to protect them from their un-American views and un-American rifles. How did the nation ever survive over 200 years without him?
