Fred Phelps: The Father of the New Liberal Tactics
By Adam Graham (07/23/08)
There are few people who are as universally loathed as Fred Phelps. I think it wouldn’t be understatement to say that more Americans sympathize with Osama bin Laden than approve of the tactics of the renegade Kansas minister.
Lesbian blogger Pam Spaulding has given Phelps the nickname, “The Rotting Cryptkeeper” for his tasteless protests of funerals of homosexuals, soldiers, Presidents, and just random people who die. Phelps and his hate-poisoned family, by their actions, set a new standard for loathsomeness.
What’s surprising is that, while loathing Phelps, some on the left are adopting his tactics. After all, what bothers us about Phelps is a basic lack of decency in the face of death.
Perhaps, the first person on the left to enter the class of Fred Phelps was cartoonist Ted Ralls, who immediately after the death of Ronald Reagan wrote a cartoon that in Phelpsian fashion proclaimed Ronald Reagan was in Hades.
When former White House Press Secretary Tony Snow passed away recently, the liberal AP writer of Snow’s obituary decided his death marked the perfect occasion to attack Snow’s time in that position. Meanwhile, the LA Times, which moderates its comments, chose not to moderate several cruel and vile comments about the deceased.
The death of Jesse Helms brought about a ferocious series of attack on his policy record and personal character from many, including from the selfsame Ms. Spaulding. As a North Carolinian, Spaulding’s attacks were mild compared to the rest of the left, who found great courage in virtually kicking the body of a dead man.
A state employee was hailed as a hero by the left for refusing to fly the flag at half staff in mourning of Senator Helms’ passing. The man was really a petty and small individual whose personal politics led him to disrespect, not only the family of a dead man, but the office Senator Helms held, as well as the State that elected Helms five times.
This is not to say that Jesse Helms’ career didn’t merit criticism, but some decency and respect towards the family of the recently departed should lead us to mute our disagreements and to show the basic decency to let the man be buried. Suspending criticism for a week or two doesn’t mean that all mistakes are forgotten and history is rewritten to scrub away all the errors.
In 1994, when President Nixon died, America treated his death with class and dignity with tributes paid to him and the positive things he accomplished during his lifetime. This didn’t blot the image of Watergate out of the national history, nor did it lead to a more positive view of Nixon after the time of mourning was passed. What it did do was show honor to the Nixon family, as well as to the office Nixon held.
Many twenty-first Century leftists, however, are so lacking in class and grace that they can’t hold back their opinions through a period of mourning lest anyone have a positive thought about a deceased person they didn’t like. Others are so egotistical that their opinions cannot be denied to the masses for a little while so that people can appropriately mourn.
Of course, not all liberals, or even all liberal bloggers, engage in this type of behavior. Arianna Huffington showed class by scrubbing away comments attacking Tony Snow from off her blog. In my home state of Idaho, liberal bloggers showed appropriate respect for the family of the controversial late Rep. Helen Chenoweth-Hage (R-ID) right after her death in an auto accident in 2006. And yes, if you search long enough, you can find conservatives who are as crass about death of their political opponents as some of the liberals I’ve discussed, but they are neither as numerous nor as prominent online as the leftist disciples of Fred Phelps.
There are some lines that American politics ought not to cross. It is not unreasonable to expect to bury our dead in peace. Those who are so egotistical that they won’t allow us to do that should be viewed exactly as Fred Phelps is.
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