Liberal Boogeymen

by digby

In an otherwise uncharacteristically astute column, George Will writes:

But who, he wonders, will control the likes of Moqtada al-Sadr? Imagine, Ricks says, another cleric, the Rev. Al Sharpton, controlling the Bronx with a militia he can call into the streets at any time.

Writers at the Washington Post believe that the closest thing we Americans have to a violent radical cleric is a black liberal from godless NY city. (He didn’t even have to the good graces to pick Farrakhan, for god’s sake.) And here I thought liberals’ biggest problem was that we didn’t have enough of that old time religion.

I have news for both Ricks and Will. There are plenty of radical American clerics who I can imagine controlling large portions of the country with a well-armed militia, and none of them are black or liberal.

And why do you suppose an image of armed blacks came to mind when they wanted to evoke the boogeyman?

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