The End of Civility?
Things don’t always work out as one expects. Just ask Paul Krugman . . . On second thought, don't bother.
Back in January, for example, right after Gabrielle Giffords was shot and nearly killed, Krugman published an op-ed column in The New York Times entitled “Climate of Hate” in which he attempted to blame the attempted assassination on Michele Bachmann, Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly, and the Republicans who failed to denounce them for engaging in what Krugman termed “eliminationist rhetoric.” Soon thereafter, however, it became evident that the chief object of the perpetrator’s hatred was none other than George W. Bush. It says much about the man who calls his blog “The Conscience of a Liberal” that, when confronted with these circumstances, he never even broke his stride. I guess that being a New York Times columnist and a man of liberal conscience means that you never have to say you’re sorry.
On Saturday, Krugman stepped in it again, dramatically reversing course and asserting that “civility is the last refuge of scoundrels.” “What,” he asked in the course of defending President Obama’s rude treatment of Paul Ryan and the other Republicans he had personally invited to attend his address at George Washington University, “are we supposed to have a civil discussion about?”
What goes around comes around, as they say – for today, at a fundraiser in San Francisco, Barack Obama got exactly what Krugman asked for. Those in attendance had paid $35,000 each for the privilege of being there -- $30,000 to go to the Democratic Party, and $5,000 for the President’s re-election campaign – and some in their number evidently thought that they were entitled.
In the middle of the President’s address, a woman in a white dress suddenly stood up and interrupted his speech, announcing, “Mr. President, we wrote you a song.” Then, to the President’s evident dismay, she and nine others at her table launched into a ditty which should perhaps be entitled “The Ballad of Bradley Manning” (See VIDEO here):
Dear Mr. President we honor you today sir
Each of us brought you $5,000
It takes a lot of Benjamins to run a campaign
I paid my dues, where's our change?
We'll vote for you in 2012, yes that's true
Look at the Republicans - what else can we do
Even though we don't know if we'll retain our liberties
In what you seem content to call a free society
Yes it's true that Terry Jones is legally free
To burn a people's holy book in shameful effigy
But at another location in this country
Alone in a 6x12 cell sits Bradley
23 hours day is night
The 5th and 8th Amendments say this kind of thing ain't right
We paid our dues, where's our change?
“That was a nice song,” an obviously displeased Obama reportedly responded. "Now where was I?" As was indicated by that song, he began, "Over the last 2 and a half years, change turned out to be tougher than we expected.”
Methinks Professor Krugman should be a bit more careful about what he wishes for. As people in Wisconsin have recently been reminded, the real source of incivility and genuine political hatred in American political life is the utopian left.
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Comments :
Dec '10
Re: The End of Civility?
The Conscience of a Liberal - a thing whose species has gone extinct and that exists today only in the fossil record.
Jun '10
Re: The End of Civility?
The funniest part (or maybe the most pathetic part) of the song is that they equate the burning of a "holy book" to stealing hundreds of thousands of documents from the military and handing them over to the enemy...
Why didn't they include all the poor murders and rapists that were robbed of their freedoms too by all those freedom-haters out there? I'll eagerly await the remix.
Why did these concerned and intelligent citizens pay 350 grand to perform their song... haven't they heard of you tube......?
Dec '10
Re: The End of Civility?
I will never ever understand the love that liberals have for criminals. At the very least they should realize that this makes them look bad.
Dec '10
Re: The End of Civility?
I think I can explain it. They only despise the power of the state when the state is imposing the rule of law on America hating leftists.
Aug '10
Re: The End of Civility?
Krugman is being quite consistent, albeit in a way he would perhaps not care to emphasize: conservatives are the opposite of liberals, so conservatives need to be civil while liberals ought to be angry and aggressive.
May '10
Re: The End of Civility?
Methinks Mr. Obama is going to be getting a fair amount of sour grapes from the "civil" ideology this campaign.
Aug '10
Re: The End of Civility?
If one followed the money would MoveOn.Org feature, I wonder? (President Betrayus?) And if Jones had stuffed the Koran page by page down his trousers, Berger-style, would that be not such a big deal?
Apr '11
Re: The End of Civility?
The infantile behavior of the self-righteous left, so often encouraged by the likes of media pooh-bahs, serves to drive sensible people to conservatism. As Michael Ledeen likes to say, faster please.
Sep '10
Re: The End of Civility?
Keep it up, Krugman should be ridiculed early and often.
I am not going to cry in my bear over media bias, but the media has largely ignored the Manning story. Can anyone really think that if W was still president that Manning's picture would run on the front page of the NY times for 60 straight days. It is a bad story either way, the facts would be roughly the same. But the context of the stories would be sooo different.