Which is worse: Really truly believing that President Obama was born, raised and thoroughly indoctrinated by Communists -- and as such is consciously doing everything in his power to destroy the United States of America,
Or:
Knowing full well that the above is a total crock, but nonetheless broadcast it ad nauseum because:
A) You're an entertainer merely posing as a journalist.
B) It's great for ratings, which keeps those advertising dollars flowing.
C) You think your listening/viewing audience is made up of gullible cretins.
Sorry to disappoint, but I really don't know which of the above scenarios is worse.
Anyone who really truly believes that our president is a Communist (is that Marxist, Leninist, Stalinist, Maoist, Trotskyite, Shachtmanite or Lovestoneite?); or that there are already plans on the drawing board to build mass internment camps for any and all who do not purchase health insurance; or that the various "Democrat" proposals for health care are nothing more, nothing less than "an agenda for death" . . . Anyone who really truly believes this kind of moronic prattle is either terminally gullible or a direct descendant of the late Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy. Like "Tailgunner Joe," folks holding these beliefs -- whether they possess microphones or not -- see enemies under every bed and easily ascribe those things they neither understand nor agree with to a pernicious, highly organized and malevolent conspiracy. As we well know, there are any number of folks with access to broadcast microphones and cameras spewing what is essentially neo-McCarthyism seven days a week, three-hundred-and-sixty-five days a year. And just as in the days of McCarthy and McCarthyism, there are millions of people who firmly believe they now see the world clearly -- because they are looking through "lenses of understanding" provided by "physicians" like Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage and Mark Levine.
Remember, what we're discussing here is who or what is worse: those who really truly believe the things they broadcast, versus those who merely create scripts that permit them to reach the top of the entertainment heap.
There are times when it seems nicer and more generous to give guys like Limbaugh the benefit of the doubt and say "Well, he's an entertainer . . . he couldn't possibly believe all the drivel he spews. He's figured out how to make $50 million a year. Who can fault him for that?" Then again, there are other times when it seems nicer and more generous to conclude that guys like Limbaugh really truly do believe what they broadcast; otherwise, they are breaking a prime Biblical injunction: "Do not put a stumbling block in the path of the blind." But, if they are innocent of violating that Biblical command, they are guilty of being spiteful, hateful and filled with fear.
So which is true . . . which is worse . . . and how to decide?
Perhaps Senator McCarthy can provide answers. . . .
Nearly 40 years ago, I wrote my senior thesis on the role that Senator McCarthy and McCarthyism played in the 1952 presidential election. In doing research on the senator, I discovered that prior to "discovering the menace of Communism," he had tried to make a name for himself by becoming identified with two very different issues: Pepsi Cola and the Malmedy Massacre.
Early in his senate career, McCarthy decided that it would be smart -- and profitable -- to lead the fight for continued government regulation of sugar prices. He managed to successfully keep the government ceiling on the price of sugar. His dalliance with Pepsi became so blatantly obvious -- he accepted bribes from the soft drink giant -- that his colleagues derisively nicknamed him "The Pepsi Cola Kid."
Oops! On to another issue . . . the Malmedy Massacre.
On May 17, 1944, members of the 1st Panzer Division (Kampfgruppe Peiper) murdered 90 American prisoners of war -- in clear violation of the Geneva Convention of 1929. A trial, in which the highest-ranking officer charged was SS General Sepp Dietrich, was held at the Dachau concentration camp in May-July 1946. The soldiers were found guilty and sentenced to death; enter Senator McCarthy. Desperately looking for a way to garner publicity, he actually decided that it was in his best self-interest to lobby for the commutation of the death sentences meted out to the Waffen SS soldiers! McCarthy was highly critical of their convictions because of -- unsubstantiated -- allegations of torture during the interrogations that led to their confessions. McCarthy accused the U.S. Army of engaging in "a coverup of judicial misconduct," but never presented any evidence to support his accusation. Shortly after this, a poll of the Senate press corps voted him "the worst U.S. Senator" currently in office.
Oops! That's when he "discovered" the Communist menace.
In other words, he never believed there were Communists infiltrating the Army, Navy or Federal Government. He "broadcast" it because it greatly increased his visibility -- his political "Neilson Ratings." McCarthy continued blithely on for several years, destroying lives and careers by accusing thousands of being part of a mass Communist conspiracy.
Joe McCarthy finally got his comeuppance on June 9, 1954, the 30th day of the so-called "Army-McCarthy Hearings." On that day, McCarthy accused Fred Fisher -- a young Jewish lawyer and assistantant to United States Army counsel Joseph Nye Welch -- of being a Communist. (While a student at Harvard Law School Fisher had been a member of the "National Lawyers Guild," which J. Edgar Hoover had at one time tried to get the Attorney General to add to a list of supposed "subversive organizations.")
As McCarthy was dragging Fisher's name through the mud on nationwide television, Joseph Nye Welch interrupted him and uttered several sentences that would effectively destroy first the senator's "ratings," and then his career:
Until this moment, Senator, I think I have never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness . . . . If it were in my power to forgive you for your reckless cruelty, I would do so. I like to think that I am a gentle man, but your forgiveness will have to come from someone other than me . . . . Senator, may we not drop this? We know he belonged to the Lawyers Guild . . . . Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator. You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?
At that point, the gallery erupted into applause. Senator Joseph McCarthy had been unmasked for the egregious unprincipled bully he truly was.
I say the same thing to Rush Limbaugh: "At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"
Yesterday, November 12, 2009 Limbaugh, like Joseph McCarthy before him, went too damn far. He began his show by accusing the president of being "a destructive ideologue," and proclaiming that Obama "doesn't really want to create jobs," but instead wants to "wipe out the rich." Nothing terribly new here. But then he compared House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Adolf Hitler and Health Care Reform to what transpired at Dachau!
THIS IS GOING TOO DAMN FAR!
If you really truly believe that Speaker Pelosi is no different than Hitler; if you really truly believe that health care reform is "how Dachau got started," than I urge you to take an extended leave of absence, go back and devote a couple of years to studying the real history of the 20th century. For it is obvious that you haven't the slightest idea what you are talking about.
However, if you really truly do not believe that Speaker Pelosi is no different from Hitler; if you really truly do not believe that health care reform is "how Dachau got started," then I say:
"HOW DARE YOU?"
"WHO IN THE HELL DID YOU LOSE IN THE CAMPS?"
"DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT A DISGRACEFUL DISSERVICE YOU DO TO THE DEAD?"
"HOW CAN YOU SO TRIVIALIZE THE MOST BRUTAL EVIL IN ALL RECORDED HISTORY?"
"ARE RATINGS POINTS EVEN MORE IMPORTANT TO YOU THAN BASIC HUMANITY?"
"DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT A TOTAL ASS YOU ARE?"
And, in the immortal words of Joseph Nye Welch:
"HAVE YOU AT LONG LAST NO SENSE OF DECENCY?
You don't have to answer this last question Rush; we all really truly know the answer.
©2009 Kurt F. Stone



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