Strangers to Dissent, Liberals Try to Stifle It

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/political_commentary/commentary_by_michael_barone/strangers_to_dissent_liberals_try_to_stifle_it

It is an interesting phenomenon that the response of the left half of
our political spectrum to criticism and argument is often to try to
shut it down. Thus President Obama in his Sept. 9 speech to a joint
session of Congress told us to stop "bickering," as if principled
objections to major changes in public policy were just childish
obstinacy, and chastised his critics for telling "lies," employing
"scare tactics" and playing "games." Unlike his predecessor, he sought
to use the prestige of his office to shut criticism down.

Now, no one likes criticism very much, and most politicians would
prefer to have their colleagues and constituents meekly and gratefully
agree with them on pretty much everything. And yes, Rep. Joe Wilson
did seem to have broken the rules and standards of decorum of the
House (though not of the British House of Commons) when he shouted,
"You lie!" in the middle of Obama's speech.

But none of this justifies the charges, passed off as cool-headed
analysis, that Obama's critics are motivated by racism. There are
plenty of non-racist reasons to oppose (or to support) the Democrats'
health care proposals.

I would submit that the president's call for an end to "bickering" and
the charges of racism by some of his supporters are the natural reflex
of people who are not used to hearing people disagree with them and
who are determined to shut them up.

This comes naturally to liberals educated in our great colleges and
universities, so many of which have speech codes whose primary aim is
to prevent the expression of certain conservative ideas and which are
commonly deployed for that purpose. (For examples, see the Website of
the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, which defends
students of all political stripes.) Once the haven of free inquiry and
expression, academia has become a swamp of stifling political
correctness.

Similarly, the "mainstream media" -- the old-line broadcast networks,
The New York Times, etc. -- present a politically correct picture of
the world. The result is that liberals can live in a cocoon, an
America in which seldom is heard a discouraging word. Conservatives,
in contrast, find themselves constantly pummeled with liberal
criticism, on campus, in news media, and in Hollywood TV and movies.
They don't like it, but they've gotten used to it. Liberals aren't
used to it and increasingly try to stamp it out.

"Mainstream media" try to help. In the past few weeks, we have seen
textbook examples of how MSM have ignored news stories that reflected
badly on the administration for which it has such warm feelings. It
ignored the videos in which the White House "green jobs czar"
proclaimed himself a "communist" and the "truther" petition he signed
charging that George W. Bush may have allowed the Sept. 11 attacks.

It ignored the videos released on Andrew Breitbart's biggovernment.com
showing ACORN employees offering to help a supposed pimp and
prostitute evade taxes and employ 13- to 15-year-old prostitutes. It
downplayed last spring's Tea Parties -- locally organized
demonstrations against big government that attracted about a million
people nationwide -- and downplayed the Tea Party throng at the
Capitol and on the Mall Sept. 12.

Actually, "mainstream media" are doing their friends in the Obama
administration and the Democratic Party no favors, at least in the
long run. Obama comes from one-party Chicago, and the House Democrats'
nine top leadership members and committee chairmen come from districts
that voted on average 73 percent for Obama last fall. They need help
in understanding the larger country they are seeking to govern, where
nearly half voted the other way. Instead, they get the impression they
can dismiss critics as racist or "Nazis" or as indulging in (as Sen.
Harry Reid said) "evil-mongering."

Speaker Nancy Pelosi has warned us that there's a danger that intense
rhetoric can provoke violence, and no decent person wants to see harm
come to our president or other leaders. But it's interesting that the
two most violent incidents at this summer's town hall meetings came
when a union thug beat up a 65-year-old black conservative in Missouri
and when a liberal protester bit off part of a man's finger in
California.

These incidents don't justify a conclusion that all liberals are
violent. But they are more evidence that American liberals, unused to
hearing dissent, have an impulse to shut it down.

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