The Klever Kultural Kristallnacht from the Left
On a single night in November 1938, German and Austrian Nazis destroyed over 200 synagogues, sacked over 8,000 Jewish businesses, and forced thousands of Jews into concentration camps. The London Times reported at the time: “No foreign propagandist could outdo [the] blackguardly assaults on defenseless and innocent people.” Kristallnacht was the beginning of the Final Solution, when the Nazis put their anti-Semitism on display for all to see – and the civilized world just watched.
Let the German people atone for their sins, because Americans today should be worried that attacks on our humanity and civility are accepted – and even defended – in some quarters. These attacks are illiberal and too often emanate from America’s cultural institutions, particularly universities, news organizations, and the entertainment business. Time and again, these institutions toss humanity and civility aside to attack those who do not share their political views.
In the spirit of full disclosure, conservatives Rush Limbaugh and Roseanne Barr deserve condemnation for their attacks on American civility. Barr’s venomous tweets about Susan Rice (“a big man with swinging ape balls”) and Valerie Jarrett (“Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby”) are textbook racism. While the original Roseanne was an embarrassing (and forgettable) caricature of working-class Americans, her racist tweets were pure white-trash. Her apologies did not atone for her inhumanity and she deserves no safe harbor in the homes and halls of conservatives.
I believe I am honest enough to call balls and strikes on today’s so-called liberals, who would be hardly recognizable to Joan Baez or Hubert Humphrey. Where have all the flowers gone? Sadly, those open-minded and tolerant liberals have been replaced by Samantha Bee, Kathy Griffin, and Maxine Waters.
Consider Samantha Bee, who had an on-air temper tantrum after seeing a Twitter picture of Ivanka Trump holding her young son: “You know, Ivanka, [let me] say, one mother to another, do something about your dad’s immigration practices, you feckless c*nt! Put on something tight and low cut and tell your father to f*cking stop it.” During her network-forced apology on the next episode, Samantha had this to say: “And look, if you are worried about the death of civility, don’t sweat it.” I’ll be the judge of that, you feckless liberal!
Social media is appropriately flooded with cute mother-and-son photos, and Ivanka deserves an apolitical moment with her son – just like the rest of us. Samantha Bee’s rant was anti-humankind: it attacked a loving mother-and-child expression because Samantha has a political beef with the grandfather. What the world needs now is love, sweet love. Furthermore, when feminists are trying to stamp out father-daughter sexual relations because they are psychologically damaging, Ms. Bee was wrong to suggest (even half-jokingly) Ivanka should make a sexual overture to her father?
Not to be outdone, Kathy Griffin attacked Melania Trump after the first lady said of migrant children, “we need to be a country that follows all laws, [but] that governs with heart.” The spirit of those words seemed kind-hearted liberalism to me, but Ms. Griffin took issue with them: “F*ck you, Melanie. You know d*mn well your husband can end this immediately, you feckless complicit piece of sh*t.” Why must we go on hating? Peace Train take this country, come take me home again.
Melania Trump rarely speaks and is uncommonly apolitical compared to recent first ladies. In fact, I cannot think of a single political position she holds other than she voted for her husband. When women like Kathy Griffin unleash a torrent of profanity on women like Melania Trump – just because of a marital association – American values die just a little.
Close your eyes and re-listen to Maxine Waters exhorting her followers last weekend: “If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them and you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere!” Listen carefully and you will be teleported back in time to a beer hall in Munich – except the voice will be that of Adolph Hitler. Be frightened - - very, very frightened.
In closing, I want to call out Stephanie Wilkinson, who threw Sarah Huckabee Sanders out of the Red Hen in Lexington, Virginia. I am a graduate of W&L and have eaten in the Red Hen many times (it is nothing special, folks). Lexington is a typical college town: liberals within a cocoon, oblivious to the real world. Ms. Wilkinson should have remained apolitical at her restaurant, but she did not and is now suffering the consequences.
The Red Hen has not reopened since June 22 because protestors are lined up outside (and some idiot threw chicken sh*t at the Red Hen window). Main Street Lexington, a local economic growth council, forced Wilkinson to step down as executive director on Tuesday. And there you have it: a hospitality-business owner acting inhospitable toward a paying customer because Wilkinson would rather make a point than make a dollar. In my opinion, she isn’t smart enough to be a Republican and vote her pocketbook.