(cont.)
Could anything be more unspeakable than accusing someone falsely of being akin to a Nazi racist? Yet liberals say such things - and other liberals don't object.
By contrast, when Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson ascribed the Sept. 11 attacks to God's wrath over abortion, gay rights, feminism, and the ACLU, fellow conservatives were appalled.
Rush Limbaugh blasted them as ''indefensible'' and said he was ''profoundly embarrassed and disappointed by their comments.'' William F. Buckley disdained their ''ignorant misapplication of Christian thought.'' John Podhoretz wrote of his ''revulsion,'' labeling the remarks ''shameful ... ignorant.'' Rod Dreher, in a powerful column for NationalReview.com, called Falwell and Robertson ''heartless bastards'' whose words had been ''unspeakably profane.''
When a conservative oversteps the bounds of decency in condemning a liberal, he typically gets scorched by criticism, much of it from the right. But there was no scorching of:
Chris Matthews, who likened Republicans quoting John F. Kennedy on taxes to ''the Nazi Party quoting Kennedy saying, `Ich bin ein Berliner'?''
Al Sharpton, who said during the postelection ballot fight in Florida that conservatives want to ''do the same thing to us'' that ''Hitler in his wickedness and evil'' did to the Jews.
Michelangelo Signorile, the well-known gay writer, who wrote that while Afghanistan ''has been protecting Osama bin Laden, Italy has been harboring another omnipotent religious zealot, one who equally condemns us Western sinners and incites violence.... Meet John Paul II, Christian fundamentalist extraordinaire and a man who inspires thugs across the globe...''
And then there was California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, who said last summer, in reference to the chairman of Enron Corp., ''I would love to personally escort [Kenneth] Lay to an 8-by-10 cell that he could share with a tattooed dude who says, `Hi, my name is Spike, honey.'''
This is what liberal hate speech descended to this year: A Democratic politician openly yearning for an unpopular businessman to be raped behind bars. How low will they go in 2002?
Jeff Jacoby's e-mail address is [email]
[email protected][/email].
This story ran on page D7 of the Boston Globe on 12/30/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.