Someday soon, I hope I hope I wake from this Covid fever-dream and return to the same reality I left a few months ago. Is it really “extolling violence” to use the rope-tree metaphor to describe what should be done with truly evil criminals?
“GOP Rep. Extols Lynchings During Hearing on Anti-Asian American Violence” — Daily Beast.
Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) kicked off Thursday’s House hearing on violence and discrimination against Asian-Americans by railing against the Chinese Communist Party and extolling lynchings, saying he takes “justice very seriously.”
The House Judiciary Committee hearing, which was originally scheduled to address the marked increase in anti-Asian hate crimes and violence in recent months, took on added urgency after a 21-year-old white man went on a murderous rampage on Tuesday that left eight dead, including six Asian women.
What did Roy say that got the left on their hind legs spouting their indignation?
“The case we are talking about here the tragedy we just saw occur in Atlanta, Georgia,” Roy declared. “I would also suggest that the victims of cartels moving illegal aliens deserve justice. The American citizens in south Texas, they are getting absolutely decimated by what’s happening at the southern border deserve justice.”
The conservative congressman continued: “The victims of rioting and looting in the street… last summer deserve justice. We believe in justice.”
And then came an admiring reference to lynchings, a violent and public form of vigilante action that most often targeted people of color: “There’s an old saying in Texas about ‘find all the rope in Texas and get a tall oak tree.’ You know, we take justice very seriously. And we ought to do that. Round up the bad guys. That’s what we believe.”
Roy should have known that metaphor and allegory go right over the heads of leftists. There’s an empty spot in their brain where understanding those devices is kept in normal people. An autopsy would find a total lack of gray matter in that spot in the brains of radicals.
Since Roy doesn’t think like a leftist nutcase, he saw nothing wrong with employing a little country wisdom to explain to the city boys that, in the end, evil is evil whether perpetrated against Asian women, black business owners, or Hispanic border residents.
It would be bad enough if Roy had offended cluckers and finger-waggers in Washington. But then he showed just how much of a “racist” he was by going after the Chinese Communists.
“I think the Chinese Communist Party running the country of China, I think they are the bad guys,” Roy exclaimed. “I think that they are harming people and I think they are engaging in modern-day slavery.”
“What they are doing to undermine our national security, and what they are doing to steal our intellectual property, and what they are doing to rattle throughout the Pacific, I think it’s patently evil and deserving of condemnation,” he continued. “And I think that what they did to hide the reality of this virus is equally deserving of condemnation.”
Each and every one of those charges is true — both objectively and morally. But we can’t say anything nasty about the Chicoms because, well…racism.
That kind of anti-China rhetoric — employed by Donald Trump and the GOP — is an example of what studies have shown has led to the surge in hate crimes against people of Asian descent in the United States.
A study from October found that racist comments made by Trump and other Republican lawmakers were to blame for the rise in violence.
“Some of this blame lies squarely on political leaders who have demonized China — both because of the virus and ongoing geopolitical tensions — and in turn Asian Americans have fallen in harm’s way,” House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler said in his opening remarks at the hearing.
“Words have power. What we say matters. How we treat each other matters,” Nadler (D-NY) added.
Obviously, criticizing China — even by telling the truth — is a terrible, racist thing to do and Roy should apologize.
My advice? Next time, lie.
Some Asian-American members were upset that Roy was trying to steal their thunder. This was their hearing to emote about anti-Asian violence. Roy was trying to inject all sorts of other issues into the victim-fest, which was very unwelcome.
“I want to go back to something that Mr. Roy said earlier,” an emotional Meng stated. “Your president and your party and your colleagues can talk about issues with any other country that you want, but you don’t have to do it by putting a bull’s eye on the backs of Asian-Americans across this country! On our grandparents and on our kids!”
Holding back tears and her voice quivering, the Democratic lawmaker added: “This hearing was to address the hurt and pain of our community and to find solutions! We will not let you take our voice away from us!”
When it becomes “racist” to tell the truth about an enemy nation or to use a common metaphorical device that the entire world understands is not a serious threat to “lynch” anyone, we have entered a reality that I want to wake up from in a hurry.
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