People Against The American Way
By Murray Soupcoff (05/24/03)
As that old anti-lib saying goes, "Hell hath no fury than David Horowitz scorned." And usually for good reason.
One of Mr. Horowitz's latest outbursts against the outrages of the left, People Against the American Way, can be found on his own FrontPageMagazine Web site. There, FrontPageMagazine's ringmaster of anti-leftist rhetoric is justifiably upset by the latest ploy of the celebrity left to undermine any criticism of their hysterical whining and anti-Bush baiting during the Iraq War.
Here's how David Horowitz articulately states the case against all whiners of the 'glitterati' left who are now complaining about criticism of their anti-war remarks and the supposed re-emergence of McCarthyism in America:
You've got to admire the tenacity of leftists. The same people who were colossally wrong about the war on terror (in both Afghanistan and Iraq); who clamored for America to sheathe its sword when America itself was under attack; who defamed America and its supporters as enemies of freedom even after the wars that led to liberation -- these same people, now that history has thoroughly embarrassed them and refuted their claims, are ... on the attack!
They have not taken a moment to reflect on their treacherous antics, which would have kept the Iraqi oppressors in power and anti-American terrorists on the loose; they have not reserved a second for regrets about blackening America's image or weakening her citizens' resolve in resisting the forces that would bring this nation down. But having attacked -- in time of war -- their President as a 'Nazi' and their country as 'the real axis of evil,' the left is now complaining because others have called them to account.
From Greenwich Village to Hollywood the American left is crying victim -- 'McCarthyism,' 'persecution' -- because Americans are revolted by what they said and did.
This scribe agrees. For example, take that consummate propagandist posing as a newscaster, Peter Jennings (if you must).
Not long after the fall of Saddam's statute, ABC's consummate Bush hater and overzealous anti-American (we're referring to Mr. Jennings of course) sounded the alarm about another menace to freedom in the world. Of course, he wasn't talking about Saddam Hussein (or should we make that the late Saddam Hussein), or Fidel Castro, or even the ACLU. No his warning was about the same vast right-wing conspiracy first brought to America's attention by Hillary Clinton in a Today Show fibfest that was worthy of Baghdad Bob, as she attempted to defend her philandering husband against irrefutable evidence of his, er, philandering.
So the ever-patriotic Peter Jennings -- who, as far as we know, still hasn't taken out American citizenship even though he's lived and prospered in the United States for more than half of his life -- called on Americans to take to the barricades to defend Hollywood's persecuted stars and starlets from "well organized and aggressive efforts to make life very difficult for celebrities who speak out against the war." And of course, those "difficulties" were obviously being organized by all those 'meanies' on the right of the political spectrum -- according to Jennings anyway.
Of course, Peter Jennings and friends ignore the real reason that the lives of so many Tinseltown airheads are getting difficult -- because they took advantage of America's very generous constitutional guarantees of free speech to appear on every cable news show they could find to denounce and disparage President George W. Bush, to make outlandish predictions about all the cruelty and carnage which would be inflicted on the Iraqi people by the American "invaders" and "occupiers," and to celebrate an imaginary "breakdown" in the American military campaign which they happily interpreted as an American defeat -- not too popular themes for the majority of the audience watching these foolish and misguided outbursts in the name of world peace.
In fact, as far as we can tell, no-one in Hollywood has been fired or blacklisted or gone to jail for speaking out -- certainly not as a result of the actions of the administration of George W. Bush. No, the great affront to Peter Jennings and his ilk is that a number of outraged Americans are voting with their pocketbooks and refusing to buy the albums of the Dixie Chicks, or to attend the lame films of Alec Baldwin, Tim Robbins and company, or buy the products of advertisers who choose to advertise on TV programs featuring America's outspoken celebrity turncoats.
These outraged Americans are exercising their free-market rights. The very same free-market rights these same celebrity activists thought it was fine (and moral) to exercise when they encouraged a boycott of products from Saab, and a host of other corporations, because these companies bought ads on Dr. Laura Schlessinger's TV talk show.
The problem only seems to arise when the shoe (or should we say the boycott) is on the other foot -- when American consumers are determined to take a pass on commercial wares from the likes of Tim Robbins, Janeine Garafola and the Dixie Chicks.
And perhaps what bothers Peter Jennings the most, in the light of his many anti-Bush and pro-Saddam remarks during the war, is that he may be next. After all, it's not very difficult to flip the channel from ABC to Fox News -- a trend that will likely increase in the coming months.
"It's not fair!" whine Peter and his celebrity friends. "There oughta be a law against this kind of thing!"
Poor persecuted babies.
Maybe you should call in to Dr. Laura's radio show for advice.
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