“I know you are but what am I” is back
by digby
And it’s as lame as ever. In my Salon piece this morning I wrote about the good news of Republicans calling for the flag to come down on the grounds of the South Carolina state house. And then:
The bad news is that they are now back in full “I know you are but what am I” mode, vacuously mirroring liberal arguments in ways that make no sense, and then high-fiving each other as if they’ve just won the national debate championship.
First, there was the “n-word” flap. Yes, all day yesterday, they ostentatiously clutched their pearls over the fact that President Obama used the actual word in an interview. No, he didn’t call anyone the n-word and he didn’t refer to anyone as an n-word. Obviously. He used the word to explain that just because you don’t use it, it doesn’t mean you aren’t a racist. This was very upsetting to people who are convinced they can’t possibly be racist since they don’t use the word.
Fox News’ commentator Elizabeth Hassleback said that she feared he’d gone completely NWA on us and was going to start throwing the word around at the next State of the Union speech. All of these fine conservative folks who decry political correctness every single day, who weep for our lost First Amendment right to free speech, were suddenly shocked, I tell you, shocked by this horrific use of a terrible word. Perhaps they would have pulled it off, had it not been for the smug, self-satisfied expressions on their faces as they pretended to be offended.
These folks really hate being deprived of their own victimhood, so the second farcical call for the smelling salts came when the AP published a photo of Sen. Ted Cruz at a gun-appreciation event over the weekend that appeared to show a huge handgun pointed at Cruz’s head.
It was a strange optical illusion to be sure, and weirdly unnerving. But it was taken as an article of faith on the right that it was done on purpose as some sort of threat against the senator. At the very least, these hardcore gun rights supporters were outraged at the inappropriateness of such an image. Now this might be a reasonable reaction if it didn’t come from people who were outraged that anyone would criticize Sarah Palin’s use of crosshairs on a map in the wake of the Gabby Giffords mass shooting. Howard Kurtz even brought it up in yesterday’s unctuous screed about (mostly liberal) politicians and pundits allegedly “politicizing” the Charleston massacre.
He even went back to Bill Clinton’s famous speech after Oklahoma City, using it as a terrible example of a politician politicizing political terrorism. Indeed, he could undoubtedly have listed dozens of examples liberals decrying gun violence and right-wing extremism after mass murders and acts of domestic terrorism. Those liberals are just terrible. Terrible!
If there one person who certainly wasn’t going to put up with any of it, it was Ted Cruz, who had given reporters a piece of his mind on Friday:
“It’s sad to see the Democrats take a horrific crime and try to use it as an excuse, not to go after people with serious mental illness or people who are repeat felons or criminals, but instead try to use it as an excuse to take away Second Amendment rights of law abiding citizens. I’ll tell you, it’s reminiscent of Rahm Emanuel who said you can never let a good crisis go to waste.”
If there’s one thing he cannot abide it’s inappropriate commentary in the wake of a tragedy.