By Warner Todd Huston —— Bio and Archives September 9, 2011
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“At a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized–at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who happen to think differently than we do–it’s important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds.”Previous to that, Obama pleaded for “civility” in a press conference in November of 2010 saying,
I do believe there is hope for civility. I do believe there’s hope for progress. And that’s because I believe in the resiliency of a nation that’s bounced back from much worse than what we’re going through right now — a nation that’s overcome war and depression, that has been made more perfect in our struggle for individual rights and individual freedoms.Wonderful sentiment isn’t it? Of course, all this from a guy that said that if the Republicans “bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun.” This from a guy that said that his supporters should get in the faces of those that disagree with him. We might also remember in the 2008 contest when Cincinnati radio talker Bill Cunningham opened a John McCain rally by using all three of Obama’s names, an action the left claimed was somehow “racist.” McCain foolishly ran out and repudiated the talk radio host’s use of “Barack Hussein Obama,” and Obama’s campaign praised McCain’s actions as an “attempt to keep it respectful and focused on issues.” In 2008 Obama was all about being “respectful,” apparently. But in just the last week alone we’ve seen one calumny after another heaped on Obama’s political opponents by his own vice president and other Obama surrogates. Name calling, hateful rants, allusions to “war” and killing Republicans have been common from Obama and his supporters. And the Old Media has been practically silent on the vaunted “new tone.” Additionally, what do we get from the national scold? A wave of the hand and a warning that we should not be so worried about Washington’s “Kabuki Theater.” Obama Press Secretary Jay Carney dismissed the disrespectful, violent rhetoric we’ve seen coming from Obama’s supporters saying that, heck, we can’t hold Obama to what others say… right? But this doesn’t square with Obama’s constant refrain that we need “civility” in our political discourse. For the last four years Obama and his handmaidens in the Old Media have attacked everyone on the right that could be seen in any way as uttering something that might be construed as harsh political rhetoric. While Obama pretends that he’s interested in “respectful” political discourse we’ve seen a parade of Democrats indulging every manner of disrespectful political speech against Tea Partiers and Republicans. Just in the last few weeks we’ve the following:
Warner Todd Huston’s thoughtful commentary, sometimes irreverent often historically based, is featured on many websites such as Breitbart.com, among many, many others. He has also written for several history magazines, has appeared on numerous TV and radio shows.
He is also the owner and operator of Publius’ Forum.