Needed: New Narrative

This seems to be a good day for Conservatives to give advice to Liberals. Because if there is one group that has Liberalism's best interests at heart, it's Conservatives. John Leo's latest article suggests that we move away from the bizarre caricature he and his fellow Conservatives have constructed for us.

You know what I'm talking about. I'm talking about "today's blame-America, soft-on-totalitarianism left." Apparently Leo and Peter Beinhart think we should try to turn this perception around. But of course Leo is far more interested in pretending that Liberals and the Democratic Party have lived up to this phony caricature rather than studying the actual Democratic platform or the views of prominent liberals. Why let facts get in the way of a good caricature?

An optimistic reading of Conservatives rush to give Liberals advice might suggest they want to talk us into being friendly weaklings before we take back power. Not sure how that is going to work for them.

The Illegal Immigration Debate and Racism

It is entertaining to watch Republicans complain about injecting accusations of racism in the immigration debate. I do think it's possible to be concerned about illegal immigration and not be motivated by racism or xenophobia; but when John Leo writes paragraphs like this, it's clear that there is an undercurrent of racism in some Republican arguments against illegal immigration.

High and continuous immigration is occurring under conditions of bilingualism and multiculturalism, rather than assimilation. In the name of diversity, the academic elites have encouraged immigrants to maintain their birth-country cultures and to adopt a stance of separatism and pugnacious victimization. Political scientist Samuel Huntington argues that this amounts to a deconstruction of American identity that has been "gradually created over three centuries." In his book "Mexifornia," Victor Davis Hanson says California is not quite Mexico, but not quite the United States either.

That last line comes pretty close to suggesting there's something un-American about being Hispanic.

I do want to be clear. I'm not in favor of raising the bloody shirt of Racism in all debates, but neither am I in favor of ignoring Racism when it shows it's ugly head.

John Leo Discovers Liberals Upset with the Media

This is a shocker. According to John Leo's latest article, Liberals don't recognize that the media is 100% on their side. In fairness Leo does better with this subject than most of this colleagues would (I shudder to think what Brent Bozell would do). John Leo, unlike most of his colleagues on the Conservative side, recognizes that Liberals do have a few legitimate gripes.

Liberal columnist Joe Conason thinks it’s unfair that photos of Bill Clinton’s coffee meetings were forced into the open, whereas photos of Bush with Abramoff are unreleased so far, while the media yawn. Some complain that the press took arguments for Clinton’s impeachment seriously but not arguments for Bush’s impeachment today.

So, fair enough.

I think the problem isn't liberal media commentary or conservative media commentary, but rather dumb media commentary. Dumb media commentary insists on a uniformity among thousands of reporters and editors and journalists that doesn't seem to exist. All reporters are working for the other side. There is no difference between the RNC and a reporter for CNN (unless of course the reporter says something that supports a liberal point of view (in this example)).

The purpose of dumb media mommentary isn't to improve the media. It's to give the dumb media critic (and his audience) an out when presented with information that contradicts his or her world view. Rather than considering the accuracy of this new information, and seeing how it fits within your current beliefs, the dumb media critic simply says "Damn Conservative Media Bias" and ignores this new information. It does make life easier I suppose.

I do want to point out that there is plenty of smart media criticism, particularly from the left (in contrast, premiere conservative media critic Brent Bozell and his organization are clearly in the dumb media critic camp).

Happy Sparkle Season!!!

I was just reading my Bloglines, when I came across an interesting article at archy on my favorite subject, the war on Christmas. About half way though the article (which mostly consisted of transcripts (transcripts well worth reading, by the way) of news broadcasts there was this little parable, repeated by FOX host Eric Burns.

You know, a few years ago in Pittsburgh, there was an edict in one of the school districts that if you were an employee in that school district, you couldn't say "Merry Christmas" to a kid. A memo came down -- you had to say, "Happy Sparkle Season."

Hmmmm. Did that really happen? Well I diligently googled the story up, and found most of the references led me back to an 1996 op. ed. piece by John Leo.

Can an event marked by about 90 percent of Americans become unmentionable? Sure. School bus drivers in Fayette County, Ky., were warned not to say Merry Christmas to any of the children. Presumably, they would say, "Happy holidays," "Merry solstice," "Hail to winter" or something of the sort. In Pittsburgh, they could have said, "Happy Sparkle Season," the city's weird euphemism for Christmastime.

What an interestingly phrased statement. In Fayette County Kentucky they were forbidden to say "Merry Christmas" (another story that makes me suspicious, but there are only so many hours in a day), and Pittsburgh crafted a weird euphemism for Christmas (Sparkle Season). Or course, that doesn't mean that they required their teachers to say Sparkle Season, does it?

Still by placing those ideas so closely together, I do understand how reading this article quickly might lead one to believe that Pittsburgh was also forbidding Merry Christmas. Tracking Sparkle Season a bit further back (with the help of a Diligent member of Democratic Underground, in an article from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review decrying the commercialization of Christmas, we see who is responsible for "Sparkle Season."

Duquesne University marketing professor Audrey Guskey recalled when Downtown's annual celebration took on the "Sparkle Season" name in 1995. Since then, Light Up Night hasn't emphasized Christmas, and references to specific holidays have been fading.

Hmmm. No mention of the school board here. And you have to assume that a Pittsburgh paper would know the score right?

So let's trace it forward.

Pittsburgh community leaders come up with a stupid theme for their tree lighting ceremony.

John Leo puts it in an article close to a riff about Fayette County, KY, which may have forbade it's bus drivers to say Merry Christmas.

People reading the story combine the two, in standard myth-making tradition, and create the legend of the town who made it's teachers wish their students "Happy Sparkle Season."

Of course it's possible that there are clues that I have missed. But right now it looks like Eric Burns is either a liar or an idiot.

Free Speech Comments by John Leo

Great article today by John Leo about Free Speech. He comments on how "Free Speech" zones on colleges and in other areas are limiting free speech. "At least 20 campuses have set up "free speech zones," thus effectively converting 99 percent of each campus into a giant censorship zone. The authorities usually explain that noisy protests can interfere with classes, though disallowing bullhorns during certain hours would take care of this alleged problem." His initial argument refers to a sign held at an appearance by President Bush. Because the sign was not in the designated protest area, the holder is facing federal charges (the state charges have been dropped.

Mr. Leo ends his article with this comment. "Protecting the right to protest doesn't have to be one of those dread right vs. left "Crossfire" issues. If we want to improve the level of political debate, each side has to guard the other's right to speak." Inspiring words, and I hope all Americans share those sentiments.