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EDITOR OF REDSTATE

I’m going to make a political point now

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  January 10th, 2011 at 05:00 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

For those still attacking Sarah Palin for daring to use the word “targets” and maps against Democrats, including Gabrielle Giffords, please note that the DLC and DCCC, the D is for “Democratic”, also had maps with targets in earlier years. Likewise Markos Moulitsas of the Daily Kos targetted Gabrielle Giffords himself. The self-serving attack over the use of maps and the word “target” is both dumb and hypocritical.

But for those of us on the right, we have an obligation to be responsible on something else.

There have been a lot of false statements over the last twenty-four hours about Mr. Obama calling for a “Moment of Silence” instead of a “Moment of Prayer.”

While he did call for a moment of silence instead of prayer, he followed up by saying, “It will be a time for us to come together as a nation in prayer or reflection, keeping the victims and their families closely at heart.”

On September 11, 2001, George W. Bush, before leaving the elementary school in Florida, asked for a “moment of silence.”

We should not be bashing this President for asking for one.

But I feel the need to make a political point here about why this President is getting bashed for his “moment of silence” when other Presidents, from Carter to Reagan to Bush to Clinton to Bush, did not.

He recently made people mad by quoting the Declaration of Independence and leaving out the bit about the Creator. During his inaugural address he mentioned atheists and subsequently proclaimed us not a Christian nation.

In yesterday’s “moment of silence” he wanted prayer or reflection. Here’s the problem — when conservatives push for school prayer and advocate for a “National Day of Prayer,” they include “or reflection” to get around namby-pamby atheist objectors.

But the left uses it too. The left uses it to accommodate atheists.

President Obama’s statement stands out because it is just another verbal telling that he’s ideologically of the left. He already has problems with a public perception of him and his faith. That things like this keep coming up suggests the general public is right in their skepticism of the sincerity of his faith.

If you are on the left, you are seeing red right now. Everyone else is nodding slowly in agreement.

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COMMENTS

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  • wannabeanncoulter

    That things like this keep coming up suggests the general public is right in their skepticism of the sincerity of [Obama's] faith.

    You hit that one out of the theological ballpark, Erik…. Well done, sir.

  • wannabeanncoulter

    That things like this keep coming up suggests the general public is right in their skepticism of the sincerity of [Obama's] faith.

    You hit that one out of the theological ballpark, Erik…. Well done, sir.

  • rj1913

    However, the continued and grasping morbid exploitation of the Tucson atrocity, for political points, questions your character.
    If you find that statement disrespectful or to be a banning offense, I’ll save you the trouble and simply show myself to the door.

  • edintexas

    While Dear Leader was on vacation, he and his family went to church. I noticed it because the news report used the word “rare” in describing the “First Family’s” church attendance.

  • edintexas

    This is a new low for someone who has been around as long as 3 years. A threadjack and an ad hominem attack all in one post.

  • proudmarinemom

    .

  • jim2342fromct

    Sunday was a sad day for more than the tragedy in Arizona.
    The main stream media chose to immediately try to focus attention on the Tea Party , conservatives, gun ownership and specifically, Pallen as the underlying reason for this tragedy. However, it didn’t take long to determine that the individual who committed this atrocity was unbalanced with a history of behavioral problems.
    Further, in response to the examples used by the MAIN STREAM MEDIA to cast blame it becomes obvious that Democrat, Lliberal Progressives had used exactly the same kind of rhetoric and ads in their campaigns. Finally, low and behold
    THIS NUT TURNS OUT TO BE ALIGNED
    WITH THE LEFT NOT THE RIGHT AT ALL..
    Now we are seeing claims that criticism of the media and pointing out the left’s rhetoric is “POLITICAL”.
    Hypocracy runs rampant on the left and the majority of America had better wake up and take them to task and force them to be more accountable as it relates to truthful and objective reporting of events and policies affecting this country’s future.

  • ciscoguy
  • http://www.flaliberty.org scorpio0679

    Conservatives have been on the defense over totally bizarre attempts to link Sarah Palin to the Tucson incident . . . how on Earth did you get that Erick is making a cheap political point at the expense of Giffords? I have a fairly keen eye and ear for that type of thing and it is the last thing that came to my mind reading this.

  • Goldwater_Conservative

    about this guy being a paranoid conspiracy theorist, and that was the driving force behind what he did. People should be looking at what people like Alex Jones and Jesse Ventura say on a daily basis to their listeners, not Sarah Palin. A healthy distrust of the government is very much American, but the Alex Jones crowd on the right, and th Michael Moore crowd on the left take it to a very dangerous and delusional level and many times their followers are the ones that are driven to violence.

  • southcoast

    As I listen, sparingly, to the coverage of this event, I am astounded at the head long rush to spotlight Sarah Palin while the legacy media seems fit to ignore the words of the president over the three years. While one is free to question Sarah Palin in her political pursuits, it cannot be done without an honest comparison of the rhetoric from those who oppose her and her outlook on politics.

  • renny

    Even his high school classmates weren’t down with his weirdness, and as far as tea party association goes, the left has yet to produce a true act of violence by a tea partier anywhere.

  • scottb

    The President statement that “if they bring knives we’ll bring guns” or McCaskill statement ” American should get pitch forks” would have ANYTHING to do with promoting valiance, now would it.

  • conservativemusician

    (n/t)

  • erp617

    Republican leadership in congress won’t change because when they go along to get along, they get pork for their friends, get re-elected, get invited to paries, get big perks and pensions.

    Serving the public?

    Nah.

  • shamann
    Sarah Palin has blood on her hands

    Sarah Palin’s cult followers respond to her malevolent and violent rhetoric that promises to commit violence against what these radicals consider their enemies – their enemies happen to be the vast majority of Americans

    Her worshipper?s are not attracted by her non-existe?nt ideas or brain power. The are drawn like moths to a flame by the violence and hate she directs at other Americans. This is why her lack of policy credibilit?y, her insipid gibberish, her ignorance of the issues – none of it matters to these people because they love her for her hatred.

    History shows that unless people like this are stopped in their tracks, they will do violence, commit murder and attempt to purge or “cleanse” the nation of those they hate -

    these teabagger types hate Blacks, Hispanics, feminists, labor activists, environmen??talists, Muslims, gays, intellectu??als, progressiv??es, pro-choice people, etc.

    The genocide in the Balkans was committed by civilized, educated, white Eurpoeans – and teabaggers vulgarians are a much more violent crowd than the Serbs.

  • oblio

    n/t

  • gwalt

    Ashame man—–c ya!

  • http://www.redstate.com/tnjim TNJim
  • ultraconservative
  • shamann
    Sarah Palin Must Accept Responsibility

    Sarah Palin has a special responsibi?lity and opportunit?y in the wake of the attempted assassinat?ion of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. For it was Sarah Palin and Sarah Palin alone who earlier put the crosshairs of a gun on Rep. Giffords. And so far, Palin’s response has been Facebook prayers for the victims and an official denial that her widely distribute?d map involved gun sights at all. This is obscene duplicity at best.

    Let us be clear. We do not know why the shooter targeted Rep. Giffords. Sarah Palin did not arm him or pull the trigger. We do not know if the shooter admired, loathed or ignored Sarah Palin. We will eventually know, and that will be a different accounting?.

    But only Sarah Palin put 20 Democratic members of Congress in her crosshairs?, and only Sarah Palin bragged that 18 are now gone, leaving Rep. Giffords and Rep. Nick Rahall of West Virginia.

  • ultraconservative

    …much to the chagrin of you and your ilk, as well as the left-wing media. Sarah Palin has NOTHING to do with this.

  • shamann

    The Real Agenda of the Seditious Tea Party

    The Tea Party has been beating the same anti-Govt drum Timothy McVeigh and Eric Rudolph used to beat. Tea Partiers are of the same philosophical/political ideology as the violent militias/white supremacis t/neo-Nazi groups.

    They hate the Govt of the United States. They hate minorities and they hate the fact that the US Govt helps create a level playing field so minorities can have the same opportunities as whites.

    These people cannot tolerate the idea of sharing this nation equally with minorities – Blacks, Hispanics, Muslims, gays… they hate all diverse groups and they loathe multiculturalism.

    They see America changing and becoming more diverse and they pick up their assault rifles and demand their white country back.

    The election of a Black president sent them over the edge.

    This anti-Govt hatred is a common theme in the violent and seditious rhetoric of Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Michele Bachmann , etc.

    Their hatred for the US Govt runs so deep that even the first lady’s campaign against child obesity is attacked by Palin who accuses Michele Obama of waging a Govt campaign to usurp the rights of parents.

    Bachmann warns the census is a Govt plot to create concentrat ion camps. Glenn Beck warns that FEMA is preparing concentration camps. Right winger began buying up all the guns and all the ammo as soon as Obama won the election

    These people are the enemy within.

  • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

  • proudmarinemom

    And you never,ever made an anti-”Govt” remark during the Bush administration, right? You cheered as American troops marched through Baghdad and applauded your beloved “Govt” then, didn’t you?

    Back atcha.

  • proudmarinemom
  • kervick

    Let’s not conflate spirituality and prayer. Some Americans pray. Some do not. Asking for a moment of silence allows one to participate in the common good using the auspices of his own conscience.

  • redneck_hippie

    I leave criticizing the propaganda-media to others. It is necessary and right but it just doesn’t interest me. However, there is ample room to point out a weakness where it exists in our president. Every time he tries to present himself in this way, he fails to connect. The problem is he can’t be a true believer in Marxism and sell himself as belonging to mainstream American culture.

  • america1st

    as with Roger Maris: not all atheists are left wing loons, but rather purely don’t CARE about religion and simply don’t wish to have it force fed by those who do. Even among conservatives we are not as uncommon as “moderate moslems” in the cult of islam.

    B. Hussein may be (& likely is) a muhammadan, based on what history is available, verbal faux pas by intimates & his instinctive genuflection to the guardian of Mecca which he sought to disguise by subsequent bows. But ahead of allah, he puts barry soetoro, and this is what the slow learner public is finally perceiving at great cost to all of us, our culture and our nation.

  • idealjoe

    The environmental activists which have hi-jacked the Democratic party, I believe, are the heart and soul of the anti-Palin agenda.They understand that she represents total energy independence and even placing the U.S. among energy exporters. She has common sense which they seem to also abhor and has the courage to stand behind economic policies that actually work. They hate that! They hate oil, coal, hydro, and even nuclear power sources. But these are proven resources and technology has brought them a long way toward clean energy and will continue to do so. She also represents someone who is a self-made success story, without any help from government. They hate that! She has a child with a physical handicap that they would have aborted. They hate that! But………there are many other Americans who admire her and support her. She is the perfect All American poster mom. They hate that! Anyone else agree?………Disagree?

  • myron_j_poltroonian

    I’m certain that untold gallons of ink and billions of electrons will be sacrificed in the name of blaming the real enemy of liberalism – freedom. Someone recently quoted one of my favorite authors, Robert Heinlein. I find it particularly insightful and prophetic here.

    “When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, ‘This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know,’ the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives. Mighty little force is needed to control a man whose mind has been hoodwinked; contrariwise, no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fission bombs, not anything?you can’t conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him.”
    Robert Heinlein (1907 – 1988)

  • rsturm

    Are we actually being challenged by the LEFT to answer for the people acting-out in violence and anger, due to RHETORIC?! Talk by talk-show hosts? News reports by news-channels or their dying cousin, magazines? Speaking out by ANYONE anywhere, who has opinions?

    See, I think maybe the many years of violence and murder happening at the Arizona border… or maybe the murder of that Rancher who had tried to be kind to our INVADERS (don’t call them illegals)….. or even the illogical acts of NOT building fences and NOT enforcing state or federal laws to protect our own citizens there……. you know – those issues of REAL violence perpetrated (or permitted) by those self-declared Socialists in the WH and in our 111th Congress?!!

    Someone please tell our CLUELESS LEFT that the above events confuse and agravate us all, let alone our mentally unstable young people, and perhaps may even spur them into committing murder and mayhem – just like they experience there in AZ!

    Oh.. and mention the fact that if they weren’t so ashamed of the whipping (shellacking?) they just took at the hands of the Tea Party, they may not have been so quick to embarrass themselves – AGAIN – by this childish, CYA rhetoric with SORE LOSER stamped all over it.

  • leehazel

    Doggone it Erick, you and Hannity can not seem to get it. There is nothing Democratic about the Democrat Party. This is just another very real PC playing with words to change meanings to their advantage.
    If I am wrong I’ll apologize.
    Lee

  • leehazel

    Your analysis is right on the money a usual. Obama is the most on-again, off-again Christian I have ever seen. It really boils down to “How do I benefit the most, and by what words either for or against Christians given this opportunity” (whatever the opportunity might be).

  • hinoon42

    I REALLLLYYY think US citizens and Gov’mnt need a TIME OUT!! Mrs. Palin, The Tea Party, and Monte Python did NOT put a gun in that man’s hand, and showing a picture of her with an AK Assault rifle in her hands, is just about the LOWEST trick I think I have ever seen!! I suppose in a few days we’ll see that picture changed to have her in Cammo’ Togs with a picture of those poor people in front of her??!! Putting an Islamic President was not a great plan, after all. It has us ALL thinking crazy thoughts.

  • tayten

    I a so saddened by this tragedy, and also saddened by all the speculation by the media, about the Whys?? How anyone can blame Sarah, or the tea party for this man’s actions, is beyond me! I also feel so saddened that this man chose to say, “I do not trust God.” That sheds a lot of light on this situation.
    Without trust in God, people feel no sense of worth or hope for their lives. This is running rampant in this country.
    I started a website several months ago, for the sole purpose of encouraging Christians and Patriots to stand Up and Faith Up for our God. Christians have been the “silent majority”, but its time to be heard! Today’s Christians need to step up and be heard, they need to speak up for their faith and help to keep God at the foundation of our nation, as our founders intended. I wonder what God is feeling as he looks down upon this country? this world?
    The website is our way to promote Christian values back into mainstream America. The website is: http://www.PatrioticChristiansToday.com We created a wristband that unites Americans who want to build a better America. The wristband is red/white/blue with the America flag and this important message, “Patriotic Christians Still Trust GOD.” Stand strong for Trust in our God!

  • sheryl

    As a child of God i have his spirit inside to be my compass through life. I had
    to accept Christ first as my Lord and Savior for his Holy Spirit to dwell inside.
    I’m seventy years old and he has carried me,walked with me, and cried with
    me since he became my partner during vacation bible school in 1947. Praise
    His Name.
    The young man in Arizona needed God instead of a gun!

  • missingbrick

    If Iam not mistaken, obama never mention the name of God, or Jesus Christ in his planned speech. He did mention live in partners , something of that nature. It sounded like that he was mentioning homosexuals relationships in living together, which is a political point. This statement sunk the whole boat.

  • gekster

    and no mention of God.