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Jewish World Review
February 4, 2010
/ 20 Shevat 5770
A Liberal Double Standard
By
Bob Tyrrell
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Irving Kristol, the recently deceased godfather of
neoconservatism, once said to me, "Fairness is not a liberal value." I
thought about his asseveration while observing the liberals' colossal
indignation over conservative activist James O'Keefe's entry under false
pretenses into the district offices of Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La. O'Keefe
is the merry prankster who entered the offices of the left-wing
community action group ACORN under the false pretense of being a pimp.
Repeatedly and in ACORN offices across the country, the ACORNiacs
counseled this faux pimp on how to be a successful sex entrepreneur. He
taped them! The tapes exposed ACORN for the criminal enterprise it has
become. O'Keefe became a hero to some conservatives but a scoundrel to
all liberals.
Now O'Keefe is under threat of indictment for bringing a couple of
fellow pranksters into Sen. Landrieu's office, though he has toned down
his act. This time, his associates claimed only to be employees of the
telephone company, which I guess is understandable. One would not expect
a United States senator's staff to counsel young men on success in the
sex trade. For that matter, I doubt that the senator's staff would even
counsel them on phone sex. Rather, it appears that O'Keefe wanted
surreptitiously to film Landrieu staffers working the telephones. His
intent had something to do with a controversy about telephone callers'
not getting through to Landrieu's office. At any rate, all hell has
broken loose because O'Keefe and his faux telephone repairmen were up to
something tricky on federal property.
Now, if they claimed to be members of a protest movement and were
disorderly in a senator's office, liberals would remain tranquil. In
fact, liberals did remain tranquil when this happened at Sen. Joe
Lieberman's office last November. Or if they claimed to be
environmentalists, they could disrupt a member of Congress' office with
no liberal outrage. This happened in 1997 in Rep. Frank Riggs' office.
Or for that matter, they might claim to be associates of filmmaker
Michael Moore and disrupt various congressional offices with cameras and
microphones and general unpleasantness.
Liberals have a double standard when it comes to political protest or
even political parody. We have seen this unfairness for more than a
generation. During the youth rebellion of the late 1960s (and it was the
youth rebellion of left-wing youths; most 1960s youths were
conservative, and in 1972, the youth vote went to Richard Nixon), the
yippies' coarse and often criminal mischief was applauded by liberals as
idealistic, heroic and amusing. At the time, it became fashionable among
left-wing youths on college campuses to ambush "establishment" speakers
at public lectures with a pie in the face, no matter how old or decrepit
or unaware the poor lecturer might be. I cannot recall one pie heaver
ever being denounced as a violent assailant though all of them were.
Suspecting that a double standard was at work, I and some fellow
conservative students at Indiana University in 1971 (they were my
colleagues at the nascent American Spectator) held a debate, invited a
faux Columbia University sociologist professor Rudolph Montague
(actually a grizzled Vietnam vet who had returned as an undergraduate)
to participate and, in the middle of his absurdist left-wing
discourse, had a co-conspirator run onstage, call him "a goddamn
communist" and assail him with a pie. Rather brilliantly, Montague
shouted his apologies to the fleeing student very liberal of you,
Prof! Our intention was to demonstrate the double standard: Peaceful
conservative forums get no media attention; disorderly forums (usually
left-wing) do.
What we got was an even more brilliant demonstration of unfairness. When
Indiana University officials called Columbia University to apologize and
discovered there was no professor Montague, we were accused of a violent
assault. As far as I can recall, we were the first pie heavers ever
accused of violent assault. But can a thrown pie be a violent assault
when engaged in by "consenting adults"? Somehow that does not seem
right.
Likewise, it does not seem quite right to accuse the conservative
O'Keefe of federal crimes when left-wingers disrupt federal offices as
frequently as they do. Some years ago, I was in Rep. Bob Barr's office,
when the drop-dead beautiful Hollywood figure Michael Moore came in
claiming to high journalistic endeavors and being disruptive. He was
asked to leave and became more disruptive. Then he followed us down the
hall when Barr left for a meeting and continued his obnoxious mission of
enlightenment. His efforts have been crowned with artistic awards. What
will O'Keefe's award be?
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Bob Tyrrell is editor in chief of The American Spectator. Comment by clicking here.
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