New left-wing smears of conservatives

Liberals and Democrats are increasingly adopting the popular post-9/11 tactic of comparing their political opponents to terrorists and murderous regimes. The latest examples come from SEIU president Andy Stern, MSNBC Hardball host Chris Matthews, and Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas Zuniga.

First, via CNSNews.com, Stern referred to Democratic senators who aren't supportive of labor's policy priorities as "terrorists":

Stern criticized Senators Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, and Ben Nelson, a Nebraska Democrat, who have stalled legislative action with their objections.

“There are a lot of terrorists in the Senate who think we are supposed to negotiate with them when they have their particular needs that they want met,” Stern said.

Similarly, Matthews joined Josh Marshall and Frank Rich in comparing Republicans to the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia:

What's going on out there in the Republican Party is kind of a frightening, almost Cambodia re-education camp going on in that party, where they're going around to people, sort of switching their minds around saying, if you're not far right, you're not right enough.

Finally, Kos engaged in a similar smear in which he likened Republicans to the Taliban, a comparison that is apparently going to be the subject of an entire book:

As I've mentioned before, I'm putting the finishing touches on my new book, American Taliban, which catalogues the ways in which modern-day conservatives share the same agenda as radical Jihadists in the Islamic world.

The Taliban comparison was coined by former NAACP president Julian Bond in 2001 and quickly came into wide usage, including Senator Tim Johnson, Marshall, Lewis Lapham, Matthews, and Kos. The release of the Kos book will only make things worse.

Comments

[David]

Kos claims that Republicans are so divorced from reality that the two parties cannot work together. Ironically, what he shows is that he is too divorced from reality to work with the other party.

Kos points out that a substantial minority of Republicans give nutty resonses to some poll questions. As has been observed in earlier threads here, a substantial number of Democrats give equally nutty responses to poll questions about Bush and other Republicans. Someone who disapproves of Obama or Bush is apt to agree with extreme positions on a poll as a way to register strong dislike. Unless his/her response is matched by nutty actions, it doesn't mean much.

Perhaps Kos is simply illustrating the truism: Conservatives think liberals are good people with bad ideas. Liberals think conservatives are bad people with bad ideas.

[nyar]

The rhetoric is accurate and your pusillanimity is part of the problem with liberals ever getting anything done. You are part of the problem, Brendan, and I hope that liberals and Democrats never, ever listen to your toxic ideas and horrific willingness to let right-wingers win forever. Every time gay people lose custody of their children for being gay, every time people die of easily preventable diseases because of a state that can't support its citizens, the pathetic wimpiness characteristic of Brendan Nyhan is part of the reason. You should be ashamed of yourself, Brendan, and they should be furious at you for helping create the political climate in which Democrats operate with complete spinelessness just like you.

[greg marx]

I'm just looking forward to the Markos Zuniga-Dinesh D'Souza book club.

http://dineshdsouza.com/books/enemy-intro.html

[daniel rotter]

You're "truism" is nonsense, David. There are liberals who "thnk conservatives are good people with bad ideas" and there are conservatives who "think liberals are bad people with bad ideas."