It’s one of the staples of the media’s liberal bias playbook: If a Republican says something that is even perceived as offensive then every other Republican ABSOLUTELY MUST apologize for it, do it quickly, and do it loudly. Those who don’t are assumed to agree with whatever it is that’s causing the outrage du jour.
President Trump made some now famous/infamous comments on Twitter over the weekend that have everyone in the MSM heading for the fainting couches.
The debate as to whether the tweets are racist, xenophobic, just plain trolling, or all three can be had at another time.
Demands for elected Republicans to denounce “Trump’s racist tweets” (the agreed upon talking point phrase for the in-cahoots media) began almost immediately. Predictably, Maine’s Susan Collins and Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski jumped right in, eager to please the MSM lefties.
South Carolina’s Tim Scott soon joined them:
JUST IN: GOP Senator Tim Scott calls Trump's tweets blasting Dem congresswomen "unacceptable" and "racially offensive" https://t.co/zj7F93eq1w pic.twitter.com/UhzIogxnAo
— The Hill (@thehill) July 15, 2019
In theory, this should have kept Collins, Murkowski, and Scott safe in the eyes of the Dems and their media puppets.
In reality, the outrage mob is never satisfied:
You should be able to condemn racism without a caveat. https://t.co/YP4PU9koQG
— Rep. Joe Kennedy III (@RepJoeKennedy) July 15, 2019
CNN contributor Susan Hennessey wanted to make sure that everyone knew she thought the statements were lacking in the level of groveling she wanted to see:
With this, Collins, etc, it seems we now have The Official Furrow-Brow GOP Response: Swipe at Democrats and then mildly condemn Trump's tweet. Then move along. https://t.co/d3Zd1wrikn
— Susan Hennessey (@Susan_Hennessey) July 15, 2019
Commentary‘s Noah Rothman summed up the playbook response rather nicely:
Hours 1-24: Deafening Republican silence.
Hours 24+: Insufficient Republican zeal.
— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) July 15, 2019
Whenever anyone on the right capitulates to the demands of the always-furious left it is never, ever sufficient.
Two main issues are at play in the dynamics of this particular story.
The first is one that endures: progressives and Democrats despise Republicans no matter what. It has nothing to do with any given policy, it’s that they have a totalitarian lust that fills them with the urge to destroy any viewpoint with which they disagree.
They all love to pretend that isn’t so, and that they’re only this combative now because of President Trump, which is garbage. Democrats have been saying that all Republicans are racist since I first became active in politics, and that was a long time ago.
They hate because they hate. It’s what they do.
The other thing going on is that they’ve spent this year trying to make Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and her three progressive House newbie cohorts a protected class. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) can spew foul-mouthed anti-Semitic statements all day but anyone who dares denounce her is immediately branded an Islamophobic sexist.
If more than one member of AOC’s squad is called out, the person doing the calling out is labeled “racist.”
Make no mistake, Collins was right to add a caveat to her statement. AOC, Omar, Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) are thoroughly awful people who are constantly making public statements that deserve condemnation. Even the Democrats are sick of them.
In a bygone alternative universe, it would have been possible for Republicans to both disagree with a Republican president and the Democrats he was sparring with in any given situation.
This “you will be made to care” modern Democratic Party has no patience for anything but total surrender.
Sadly, too many Beltway Republicans have yet to figure that out.
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