Legitimate Criticism

Quote of the day:

... The most interesting thing about Pelosi and Hoyer’s brand of McCarthyism is how pathetically ineffective it is. To their great surprise, calling the protesters “un-American” isn’t shutting them up. Today’s USA Today op-ed is the latest variation on one of the oldest plays in the Left’s playbook: painting their opposition as fundamentally illegitimate. It’s time for them to replace that page in their playbook, because it will never work again.

Declaring your opponents to be illegitimate is a lazy way to avoid having to debate them. No one expects powerful political leaders to lower themselves to debates with fringe lunatics. Much of the public will automatically ignore the ravings of madmen, without feeling any need to examine their arguments at length. If you discount the illegitimate opinions of all those insurance company shills, Republican party operatives, and racists thronging the town hall meetings, why, ObamaCare enjoys overwhelming support!

You can see this cynical ploy running in reverse, if you watch the dim light flickering behind Janeane Garofaolo’s eyes. Only racist Nazis could possibly oppose the magnificent agenda of Barack Obama, the modern Prometheus who dares to snatch universal health care from the evil gods of the insurance industry… therefore, everyone who opposes Obama must be a racist Nazi. Thus, the Tea Party movement stands revealed as a cleverly disguised Klan rally, with brainwashed race traitors distributing “Don’t Tread On Me” flags. Ken Gladney might have been black on the outside, but he had pools of Red State neo-fascism leaking out of him, by the time the SEIU goons were finished questioning his legitimacy.

The Democrats are accustomed to deploying this strategy without much effort, since they had the enthusiastic support of the media. When you have total control over camera placement, it’s easy to film someone like Cindy Sheehan and her tiny band of crackpots as a huge grassroots movement with absolute moral integrity. It’s equally easy to point the cameras away from gigantic pro-life rallies in Washington, and pretend they didn’t happen. Unfortunately for them, Democrats now live in a world where they don’t have complete control over the cinematography, script, and soundtrack of the American epic any more… and they will never get it back...

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