White House chief of staff John Kelly is a “disgrace to the uniform he used to wear” because he didn’t stop President Trump from ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
That’s according to Democratic Illinois Rep. Luis Gutierrez, Congress’ most outspoken advocate for illegal immigrants. It’s pretty shocking for a congressman to accuse a highly-decorated Marine general, whose son gave his life for this country, as a disgrace to the service over a political issue. (RELATED: Dem Rep Says John Kelly ‘Is A Disgrace To The Uniform He Used To Wear)
A Republican saying something similar about would have been promptly immolated — possibly even literally.
Compare the nuclear levels of outrage over then-candidate Trump’s tactless, yet comparatively far more mild, comments about Khizr Khan, a Muslim Gold Star father. Even fellow Republicans called those statements calling Khan’s involvement in the 2016 campaign into question as “inhuman” and “barbaric.” It became the biggest issue of the campaign for an entire week and was used to savage Trump by the media and Democrats. (RELATED: The Disingenuous Outrage Over Trump’s Response To The Khan Family)
Outside of conservative media, there is virtually no concern that Gutierrez said this of Gold Star dad Kelly: “He has no honor and should be drummed out of the White House along with the white supremacists and those enabling the President’s actions by ‘just following orders.'”
So far, Gutierrez has made no apologies and no journalist demanded one of him in his numerous media appearances after making those shameful comments. There’s a good chance that there will never be any contrition from the Illinois congressman, and the story will die with only right-wing media even noticing.
There’s a couple reasons for this. Right now, Dreamers are the protected class par excellence. Nothing tops their moral status at the moment, not even decorated veterans.
A few weeks ago, liberals appeared to care a lot about the troops when it came transgender service members. Now, not so much. It’s a good rule of thumb that whenever liberals start sounding jingoistic about the military, it’s only because a protected class’s interests are involved. Muslims, transgenders, illegal immigrants, etc.
Gutierrez getting away with a vicious, disgraceful attack on a Marine general and Gold Star dad once again shows how much cultural power the Left has. It doesn’t serve the interests of the Left to get bent out of shape about the comments, and it’s likely most liberals agree with what the Illinois rep said.
As a matter of doctrine, you can only be a good person if you fully subscribe to progressive dogma. Failure to do so means you’re inherently bad. Thus, Kelly’s many years of service go down the drain when it comes to his grievous sin of not protecting DACA.
In stark contrast to Republicans who hurriedly apologize, beg and capitulate to their enemies whenever someone on their side says something offensive, Democrats and liberals are learning it pays to not give their opponents the satisfaction of admitting guilt.
There’s many recent cases of this kind of behavior.
Last week, Kathy Griffin emerged out of her exile to let America know she was not really sorry for carrying a severed head of the president like a ISIS jihadi. The insanely idiotic stunt deservedly ruined Griffin’s career, but she’s smart enough to realize that her only comeback strategy is to make herself out to be a victim of the president and other evil men.
She did exactly that in her profile with The Cut, which was basically a re-do of her widely-mocked press conference where she cried that Trump broke her. Her new strategy was somewhat of a success, as it earned the shunned comedian TV hits and sympathetic coverage from numerous journalists.
Similarly, left-wing darling Linda Sarsour has deployed this tactic several times to fight back against outrage over her many ridiculous actions. Whether it is exploiting Hurricane Harvey to raise money for a left-wing PAC or expressing support for cop killers, Sarsour makes sure to portray herself as a victim of “alt-right” smear campaigns. So far, it has worked and she is still seen as a hero of the Left. (RELATED: Linda Sarsour Is Molding The Left In Her Own Image)
In July, Harry Potter author and outspoken liberal J.K. Rowling spread on Twitter an outrageous lie that Trump refused to greet a disabled child. Rowling’s tweet went viral and was retweeted thousands of times. However, video showed that the president did in fact greet the child.
But the famed fantasy author refused to apologize or take down her tweet for many days, in spite of prominent media outlets calling her out on it. Rowling eventually offered an apology — to the child, not Trump whom she defamed.
The wrongly-directed apology still killed the story and Rowling suffered no lasting damage from the controversy.
In April, Democratic Louisiana Rep. Cedric Richmond riffed on a famous picture of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway sitting on her knees and said she looked very familiar with the position. The obvious sexual joke about a prominent woman in politics netted very little attention outside of conservative media. After several days of silence, Richmond offered the most tepid of apologies to anyone who “found my comments to be offensive.” (RELATED: Cedric Richmond Sort Of Apologizes For Sexist Attack On Kellyanne Conway)
Making such crude sexist jokes would ruin the reputations of other politicians, but not for the Louisiana Democrat. In June, Richmond was lionized for calling Iowa Rep. Steve King a racist and threatening the Republican with violence for bringing up politically incorrect data. (RELATED: Democratic Rep: Citing Uncomfortable Data Is White Privilege)
Hillary Clinton has even used this strategy to explain away her humiliating loss to Trump without accepting any blame for it. It has only worked with some success, however, which is mostly due to her part in blaming Bernie Sanders and others on the Left who showed insufficient enthusiasm for her candidacy.
It appears the no admission of guilt tactic only works when it is directed against the Right.
As Republicans scurry to show they love illegal immigrants in a fruitless bid to earn respect from the press, it’s worth remembering that the same rules don’t apply for both sides of the aisle.
Conservatives and Republicans will be made to apologize for the most minor of infractions, and will be made to carry the burden of guilt for as long as liberals have access to Wikipedia. Meanwhile, a Democrat can insult an honorable man with impeccable service to the country and never have to answer for it.
Republicans can whine about it for eons, or they can take a lesson from it and realize it never pays in politics to always be on your knees, begging for forgiveness from your enemies.
Follow Scott on Twitter and buy his new book, “No Campus for White Men.”
