The press has chosen to exercise their First Amendment freedom via cowardice and Drive-by hits against conservatives to protect their liberal, Democratic Party ideological allies. Big Business, including the NFL, and too many Republicans have also chosen the easy, cowardly path for too long as well, lest they become the focus of the PC-police.
The result of the above is a morally obtuse culture mostly devoid of men with chests, in which those that dare challenge the racial/social orthodoxy have their characters assassinated at the first sign of chest puffing.
Rush Limbaugh has a chest and Courage is the most important virtue
The latest victim of the leftist racists and the cowards is Rush Limbaugh, who dared to dream of being a minority owner of the St. Louis Rams. False quotes were disseminated by the Drive-bys with CNN and others to justify their character assassination but, make no mistake, the real animus against Rush were accurate, non-racist quotes that didn’t comport with the Left’s transmogrified definition of “racist” that dare to treat blacks as the equals of whites, i.e. fair game for fair criticism, parody and satire.
The cowards in this case were NFL owners, their league’s commissioner, and, especially, Dave Checketts, the majority partner in the group seeking an NFL franchise, who had sought out Rush’s participation in the first place knowing that a controversy was likely to arise but who had assured Limbaugh that he would stick with the effort despite same.
Checketts is a man without a chest and it appears that had he shown even the slightest staying power, given the defenses of Rush from many prominent black men, including liberals like Juan Williams (man with a chest), it is very likely that the controversy would have faded.
“One man with courage makes a majority” – Andrew Jackson
It doesn’t take much to win over a majority of We the People, as Rush’s history and that of precursor’s to past conservative Republican victories (but I repeat myself as there are hardly any non-conservative GOP victories).
The Silent Majority carried Nixon to victory, and re-election in a landslide, when he dared to challenge liberal orthodoxy and take courageous actions to push back the communists in Vietnam.
Ford, Bush41, the late-90s GOP and the mid-2000s GOP lost when they moved to the center.
Reagan had the courage to identify evil empires, tax collectors for the welfare state and welfare queens on the way to landslides; Gingrich attacked corrupt Democrats to take over the Peoples’ House for the GOP the first time in forty years; and Bush43 overcame the Bushlied Era to re-election while killing terrorists by the thousands after tax rate cuts.
Rush, attacked as a racist, sexist, bigot, homophobe since going national in 1988 played a major role in the Gingrich Revolution and Bush43’s re-election, all the while increasing his record-breaking radio audience every year despite health setbacks and ubiquitous attacks.
Conservatives win when then show courage against the Left in the media and against the Democratic Party. They lose (see McCain) when they surrender to their dishonorable friends on the left. A large percentage of Democrats will vote for Republicans with chests puffed against liberal democrats.
Has the Democratic Party no shame?
The two parties are not interchangeable, even on issues that the GOP has failed on. ObamaDems first budget deficit of $1.8 TRILLION is three times as large as Bush43’s worst of $400 Billion. (Moreover, Bush43’s worst deficits were passed by Democratic majority congresses – including then Senator Obama – after they re-took control in 2006).
The shamelessness of the Democratic Party has no equal, whether it pertains to their embrace of murderous Mao supporters and/or 911-truthers in the Obama administration; race-baiting poverty-pimps that pretend 21st Century America is barely removed from the Jim Crow South; pretending to be hawks on Afghanistan just to win an election and discredit the Iraw War most all of them voted for; re-defining coup d’etats so they can back despots in Honduras, Cuba and Venezuela; or lionizing Bill Clinton as some sort of moral giant, never once asking him any tough questions about his moral failures.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin and “courage”
One of the main themes of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s classic, which echoes Burke and MLK, is that the “good” plantation owners enabled the longevity of the evil institution of slavery as the best example of how evil triumphs not primarily due to the acts of evil men, but rather due to the inaction of good, yet cowardly men.
Otherwise, how could the concept of courage that required courage in 1860 to speak out against slavery some how, in 2009, require that one have courage to speak out against false race-baiters or to make obvious criticisms of wicked, criminal behavior?
The NFL says that Rush’s statements are too “divisive”, including ones that merely cited obvious media bias that a black quarterback do well and that thuggish behavior hurts the image of the league. Yet, wouldn’t it have been good for the league has Falcon’s owner Arthur Blank made some “divisive” statements to Michael Vick years ago objecting to his posse of lowlifes accompanying him to his late arrivals at training camp and on game days?
Blank was afraid to criticize a black man for behavior that would have gotten a white man suspended.
We saw in the Limbaugh affair an exercise of arbitrary power akin to what we fear from a too powerful government. Our culture is sick, and the only way in an be cured is through courage.
Courage is the indispensable virtue required to stop America from Slouching inexorable towards Gomorrah. Absent courage, the majority of We the People will continue to settle for filing mere Minority Reports.
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More DeVine examinations on race.
Mike DeVine’s Charlotte Observer and Minority Report columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson
October 20th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
Props to ABC’s Jake Tapper…
From this morning’s White House gaggle:
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/10/todays-qs-for-os-wh-10202009.html
October 20th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
“Past history” is a redundancy. Just sayin’.
October 20th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Gibbs is a punk. Just like his boss.
October 20th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
#2 fixed and thx
October 20th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
No prob. I hope it didn’t come across as flippant; we all have our Achilles heels, rhetorically speaking. Good column.
Can you imagine the s**tstorm that would have ensued had Dana Perino announced that MSNBC wasn’t a “news organization”? Oh, the shrieks of fascism would have abounded…
October 20th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
The deceptiveness and nastiness of this administration and their media is repulsive, we must wrest the reins of power from their clenched, sweaty fists.
October 20th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
Glad Jake Tapper is at ABC-he seems like a straight forward fellow and not one of Obama’s lapdogs.
October 20th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
Yeah Obama and his ilk corrupt as usual. Surprise!
October 20th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
Checketts is NOT the bad guy in this. Dave worked hard for a long time to put his bid for the team together, and, when it became clear that Rush’s inclusion was a deal breaker, he did what was necessary to hold things together. What he did was necessary to keep faith with the other members of the group.
The bad guys are those NFL owners who went to the mattresses to keep a conservative out of the club. This outrage deserves the condemnation of one and all, and the instigators need to be named. But until we know who is actually guilty, it doesn’t make any sense to accuse unnamed persons of cowardice.
October 20th, 2009 at 4:40 pm
“Can you imagine the s**tstorm that would have ensued had Dana Perino announced that MSNBC wasn’t a “news organization”? Oh, the shrieks of fascism would have abounded…”
Actually, that happened. At the end of Dubya’s administration they even recently admitted they froze out MSNBC. So we already know what happened….nothing.
October 20th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
In fact, Faux reporter Mike Emanuel got Perino on May 20th 2008, to admit their attacks on NBC, and in which she cited the letter Ed Gillespie sent accusing the network of “blurring” the lines “between the ‘news’ as reported on NBC and the ‘opinion’ as reported on MSNBC.
Republicans have such short memories.
October 20th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
Actually NBC and MSNBC do blur the lines between news and opinion. During last year’s campaign, the network stupidly allowed Metthews and Olberman to anchor election coverage before some of the old guard had a fit. Remember that?
Saying a network “blurs the lines between news and opinion” is not the same as saying that a news outlet (and the most popular one at that) is not a legit news organization.
Obama remains a thin skinned little pussy that cannot tolerate dissent because he is too used to wild-eyed liberals like you constantly kissing his ass.
October 20th, 2009 at 5:22 pm
BREAKING: GOV. PALIN TO APPEAR LIVE ON OPRAH NEXT MONTH (NOV. 16)!!!
October 20th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
I, along with thousands of other conservatives, have boycotted the NFL this season due to their unfair treatment of Rush.
October 20th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
Adam – the point was Win S was saying ‘can you imagine the opposite’, which I was pointing out already happened. I wasn’t taking a viewpoint one way or another on either cases’ merits.
Were I too, though, I’d point out MSNBC has Morning Joe. There is no comparable Progressive show on Faux.
October 20th, 2009 at 8:13 pm
Checketts came to Rush and Rush cross examined him on his staying power when the inevitable happened. Checketts didn’t last 48 hours! Yes, he is one of the bad guys and THE MAIN ONE, because if he had waited 24-48 more hours he would have had the backlash turning the tide.
Besides, he didn’t keep his word. He lied. He was a coward.
October 20th, 2009 at 8:25 pm
JA Pruce,
The last time the Broncos started a season 6 wins, ZERO losses, they won the Super Bowl. Boycotting the NFL is totally out of the question this year.
October 20th, 2009 at 8:31 pm
Gamecock,
Why buy one of the worst teams in the history of football?? Checketts, as one of the great humanitarians in all of sports, would do that as an eleemosynary act of quintessential philanthropy, but Rush would have suffered mightily week after humiliating week. It was an act of mercy and magnanimity that he has been spared that fate. BTW, Dave is NOT a liar or a coward.
October 20th, 2009 at 9:17 pm
For so many years he has spent his time on the radio mis-labeling or mis-characterizing others. He finally had his judgment day.
http://www.chasingevil.org/2009/10/rush-limbaugh-in-his-own-words.html
October 21st, 2009 at 8:30 am
Dave
Checketts came to Rush and they discussed the prospect of controversy well before it arose and Checketts said he would not abandon Rush. He didn’t keep his word and I think if he had, subsequent events show that the pushback would have come and they may well have been successful. But even if they had not been, Checketts should have kept his word. Rush has been under attack for 21 years. Checketss didn’t spare Rush anything. W/i 24 hoursof Checkkets surrender, the retractions began and Rush began to be defended by many black friends and liberals in and out of football.
Look, we all admire courage because it is rare. Rush has it. Checketts did not exercise it in this instance and he didn’t keep his word in this instance. He can be forgiven, but not admired for this episode. He owes Rush an apology.
October 21st, 2009 at 12:28 pm
14. Since I don’t make it a habit of watching daytime TV, in particular Oprah, I don’t think I’ll be tuning in for that episode of as the stomach churns – with special guest star, Palin pushing her “book”.
October 21st, 2009 at 12:29 pm
So boycott REAL Salt lake. Checketts owns that too, I think.
October 21st, 2009 at 7:51 pm
Rush is obviously mentally-impaired by some sort of organic brain disease since he cannot even keep common news facts straight nor maintain a civil facade.
Therefore someone needs to start a PUBLIC CLASS_ACTION lawsuit to have Rush COMMITTED to MENTAL INSTITUTION for at least 30 DAY OBSERVATION. That my friend is DUE PROCESS and DEMOCRATIC.
In fact if 51% of the people in the area were he resides say he should be permanently committed then the medical opinions of his PURCHASED doctors should be disregarded. A key facet of democracy is that if you make yourself unpopular to enough people then the mob has a right to burn you or whatever they decide — because your treatment by the mob is your fault. Thank God under Democracy — The mob rules!!!! Down with the rich tyrants!!!
And yes Obama’s 5 Race Cards beats a drunken Flushed Royal Bastard like Limbaugh.
October 21st, 2009 at 8:00 pm
P.S. Anyone like Rush who spouts off BS about patriotism and then holds dual citizenship to hide assets in a foreign country should lose his US citizenship. Yeah do a little asset tracking before backing Rush Limbaugh, Master Hypocrite.