Our political Quote of the Day comes from filmmaker Michael Moore who sparks a great sense of deja vu when you read his quote:
A guest on Piers Morgan Tonight, Moore contrasted the assassination with the post-World War II Nuremburg trials. He claimed that America then, unlike now, put itself above the level of its enemies by trying their leaders instead of simply executing them.
The liberal filmmaker ripped Americans’ disregard for a trial and their support of an assassination. “The second you say that, you’re saying that you hate being an American,” he huffed. “You hate what we stand for, you hate what our constitution stands for….We should be standing up and saying ‘listen, damn it, we’re Americans. This is the way we do it. You commit a crime, we put you on trial.'”
This is one more example of how in today’s politics outrage is selective. How many Democrats and liberals have been outraged over suggestions by Republicans and conservatives that somehow they “hate America” by not seeing their way or not totally agreeing with them on certain issues? Now Moore using the same tactic: suggesting that those who do not see things through his political prism are somehow not really American. And yes, the way he phrased it leaves him (and his political supporters) some deniability — but it is clear what is being said.
It’s part of the unfortunate early 21st century tendency to look back to the mid-20th century and do a form of more genteel rhetorical McCarthyism.
There are times when the right and left blur. This is one. Just change a few things from this quote and it could be uttered by Sean Hannity.
I’d suggest the people who know what America really is are the people on the left, right and center who don’t suggest those who don’t see things their way hate being an American or hate America.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.