The dinosaur media had one of its collective orgasms today, to the point where it's obvious that marching orders went out from the White House. The message? All you redneck,bitter clingers in flyover country hate Muslims and are a bunch of seething bigots. And for good measure, you're stoo-pid enough to think that President Obama is a Muslim, too!
Let us wade among the slime...
Time: Poll - Majority Opposes Mosque, Many Distrust Muslims.
Related: Does America have A Muslim Problem?
Ben Smith at the Politico:"The rise in Americans who say they believe Barack Obama's a Muslim say more about many Americans' hostility toward Islam than it does about the rising hostility to Obama on the right, which is hardly news." and "Condemning the mosque, Gingrich echoed Mussolini."
Washington Post: "The number of Americans who believe -- wrongly -- that President Obama is a Muslim has increased significantly since his inauguration and now accounts for nearly 20 percent of the nation's population."
New York Times: 'In defining Obama , misperceptions stick.'
Maureen Dowd, New York TimesOur Mosque Madness -
Glenn Greenwald:
Courage in the Face of BigotryThe Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg: 'the lunatic racist Pamela Geller, who has been leading the crusade against the so-called Ground Zero mosque.'
Media Matters: When does Fox News' ugly Muslim bashing become the story?
Gene Lyons, Salon:
Who Will Stand Up to GOP's War on Islam?There's a lot more, and as I said, it's obvious that the wires were heating up between the White House and its media allies.
Of course, they're correct. We're all nothing but a bunch of bigots. I recall to my shame the nationwide lynchings of Muslims after 9/11, the numerous mosques that were burned to the ground, the celebrations in the streets, the passing out of sweets in celebration after each atrocity...
Oh, wait. Come to think of it, the
celebrations were happening in the Muslim world instead of in America, weren't they?
This is, as a certain president might say, a teachable moment.
There has never been a clearer example of the divide between the elitist Left (including our president) and the vast majority of Americans.
The Left accepts as a tenet of faith in its twisted creed that America is racist, a force for evil in the world and deserves, above all, to be punished for its supposed sins. In particular,they have an abiding dislike for the country's culture and traditions, particularly its Judeo-Christian roots.
Proof? Imagine that there was a huge church or synagogue planned for construction in the same area. How long do you think it would take the ACLU or the Center for Constitutional Rights to file suit? And what would the chorus of the Left be singing then?
Actually, we don't have to speculate. There was a small Greek Orthodox Church, St. Nicholas at Ground Zero located directly in front of the second tower at 155 Cedar Street. It was heavily damaged in the attack, and the church was promised a site to rebuild at 130 Liberty Street, about 100 yards away.
Unlike the Ground Zero Mosque,
that rebuilding has been stalled by legal roadblocks and by New York City officialdom for years and was finally rejected by the city.
Some animals are apparently more equal than others, to paraphrase Orwell.
Americans are an incredibly decent and tolerant people, by and large. Even those who harbor prejudice generally would not support institutionalizing it in our laws. And they have proven themselves more than willing to be tolerant of Islam. But as time goes by, more and more of them are realizing that there is a serious disconnect between that tolerance and America's traditional values and the ones espoused by Islam - particularly the Saudi-funded wahabi version being imported into our country by, among others, Imam Rauf, who favors establishing sharia as the law of the land.
The simple minded flacks for the Ruling Class don't get it, because they've scripted this as a simple tale of redneck knuckle draggers hating the Other. And therein lies a vicious trap they've set for themselves.
Ever since 9/11, two currents have been running neck and neck when it comes to the media's take on Islam: the constant drumbeat, continuously echoed in the Main Stream Media that Islam is a Religion of Peace and the equally well reported and awful reality that based on the violence performed
expressly in its name, it isn't anything of the kind.
There's more than a bit of cognitive dissonance at work here,because the two scripts directly contradict each other.
Our president of course is caught in the same mental bear trap, since he shares the essential disdain for America and American values with the Left. Which is why he continues to dance on one side of the issue, and then another....and then wonders why most of his fellow citizens view him with distrust and disdain.
