Monday morning, Ken Cuccinelli, former Attorney General of the Commonwealth, appeared on CNN’s “New Day†program opposite Symone Sanders, former press secretary for Bernie Sanders. They spoke about the Charlottesville events, and the President’s underwhelming, confounding response to them. Things got out of hand. When Cuccinelli didn’t seem contrite enough of behalf of Donald Trump (because, being a conservative, he’s clearly Trump’s biggest fan, because REASONS) and wouldn’t initially condemn Robert E. Lee as “emblematic†of white supremacy and racial hatred, Sanders continually talked over him and interrupted, with host Chris Cuomo’s passive cooperation. Cuccinelli eventually had enough of being interrupted and talked over, and said “…can I finish Symone, will you just shut up for a minute and let me finish?†Sanders became apoplectic, as if her civil rights were being violated by being asked to ‘shut up.’ The height of irony was Sanders, doing her best impression of a screaming harpy, demanding ‘decorum’ from Ken Cuccinelli, in almost every instance a thoroughgoing gentleman, who in this case was pushed to his limits. Sanders has no sense of fairness, decency, or decorum of her own. Chris Cuomo, of course, being Chris Cuomo, jumped in and remonstrated with Cuccinelli for using the phrase, “shut up†and did nothing to address Sanders’ antics, including using the same phrase herself.
This is another example of the leftist bias of a cable news host, but also of a larger trend, the assumed moral superiority of minorities in public discourse. This perceived superiority is what must be challenged. It has no basis in reality, and enables egregious behavior like Ms. Sanders’. No demographic has a claim on a phrase or a particular role in public discourse, and it’s high time conservatives challenged it whenever it’s assumed in the media.
Cuccinelli, being the gentleman that he is, apologized, even calling Sanders after the fact. Sanders, for her part, of course, said she “didn’t have†an apology for Ken Cuccinelli. She didn’t deserve one herself, and shouldn’t have gotten one. As for Cuomo, he should be called out for his tacit assistance in bullying Cuccinelli.
47 comments
Stop watching TV. Cancel your cable. Cut the cord. Unsubscribe from the New York Times and the Washington Post. There are plenty of other reliable news sources on the internet (many British newspapers, for one).
I demand that Democrats join with us to remove Klansman Robert Byrd’s name from every federal building, which in West Virginia will leave a lot of blank surfaces!
Byrd was a Democrat white supremacist. But why expect him to be different from all the other Democrats sore about losing the Civil War, slavery, and Jim Crow?
I would not go on one of the hate-fests, but if I ever changed my mind, I would take a sign with me to hold up when constantly interrupted saying “silenced by CNN” or whatever network it was.
As we should all know by now, as predicted months ago
BOTH the Republican and the Democratic Parties are shifting off crumbling foundations, for many reasons, including that we face many new threats and opportunities, with remarkable shifts among demographics, with new technologies, with changes in American regions and states, all in a changing world. Each has its own crumbling foundation and since there had been built up some common foundations (what each claimed, how each talked, the resources that each held exclusively or almost exclusively, and the resources each wanted to win, etc) the common foundations are also crumbling. That’s a lot of crumbling.
As the foundations of settled political claims, policy positions, and promises crumble – which erodes public trust, and raises public mis-trust, more and more – making moral claims – especially moral claims that are redolent of ‘trust’, ‘trustworthiness’, etc – can be a powerful move. It suited Republicans in the Reagan years to actually form, join, endorse, promote the ‘Moral Majority’ – DUH! – and now it suits Democrats to make moral claims – DUH!
Republicans’ ‘Moral Majority’ explicitly appealed to trust or trustworthiness of ‘authority’ : the authority implicit when calling self ‘the moral MAJORITY’, pronounced through preachers and pastors, citing Christian (and rarely any other) texts. Currently Democrats appeal to a trust or trustworthiness of ‘knowing how you feel’; how ‘you feel’ about Trump, how ‘you feel’ about racism and other bigots (because, please, no one loves a bigot, even Republicans can’t really love a bigot, can they?)
If Republicans want to get a grip they will have to have a language and a approach that claims a morality – around trust and trustworthiness – that is not primarily about authority, and that does deal with powerful positive feelings at work in America. As often noted Reagan years did speak a lot to powerful positive feelings. Trump provides absolutely NO positive feelings despite his claim to be ‘making America great’. The possibilities that THAT claim had are ABSOLUTELY destroyed by the selectivity of who is appears to be ‘making great’ – as little Lisa Simpson said about Jebediah Springfield, who Trump is ’embiggening’ Trump is always ’embiggening’ himself. And has reached out in effective, sustained ways to ’embiggen’ all of us out here America.
Local and state Republican parties ought to reach out to have an ’embiggening’ discourse, that understands moral emotions, and speaks primarily to positive moral emotions.
Completely agreed.
This is why Tucker Carlson is SO popular. He assumes HE has the moral authority over his guests and doesn’t apologize to them.
Truer words were never spoken. Cuomo bullied Cuccinelli into that apology even though the liberal talking head needed to be told to shut her yap. If anything, Cuccinelli should have said – I’ll apologize for telling her to shutup after she apologizes to me for conisistently interrupting me, and you apologize to the American people for all the lies you have told about Republicans over the decades.
Good on Mr. Cucinelli for his willingness to speak, and for the integrity that shows in his humility. I applaud the author’s points here.
However, this author and most on TBE are dodging the essential point by making moral equivalences that allow the reader to find MORE blame in liberals, preserving the notion of a morally superior conservative movement.
But morals are intended to be absolute references, not relative ones. Against absolute standards, conservatives are left wanting. Period.
It’s past time to restore a moral compass to the conservative movement.
I call it moral supremacy. Just as bigoted as the other side. Especially when Intersectionality is their belief.
Cuccinelli shouldn’t have accepted an invitation from CNN in the first place.
I guess if you want to be heard you have to pull your earpiece and hope you can just talk your words into the transcript.
“When Cuccinelli…wouldn’t initially condemn Robert E. Lee as emblematic of white supremacy and racial hatred”
You know what else is emblematic of white supremacy and racial hatred? The party of slavery, Jim Crow, the KKK, and segregation.
So when is the Democratic Party going to change its name? How is it any less offensive than a Confederate flag or monument?
Symone Sanders, like all other Democrats and extreme Leftists, is a feral human.
F’em all. The only superiority they have is being mentally ill PC snowflakes.
I guarantee more people will have read this article than saw Chris Cuomo’s show that day. Conservatives should avoid being seen on CNN. MSNBC won’t even allow them on, AFAIK.
“President Trump takes the courageous decision to officially name Antifa as a Terrorist entity. All Federal employees identified as Antifa Operatives will be dismissed from their positions immediately” “Involvement with Antifa will disbar applicants from any future Government positions””Universities that refuse to expel students that have affiliation with Antifa will have 100% Federal funding removed”
Thats how to kick the crap out of the Left in one swoop.
we will remember, remember the 7th of November.
I assume so. That is the day the Lenin’s Bolsheviks seized power in Russia. Why not be open about it? Now we know who you are – antifa.
but being in the KIan is mandatory?
The picture says it all. Obnoxious black woman with a big mouth who can’t shut up because she’s an obnoxious black woman.
Lovely, this old white man with a small mouth is bringing friends to the polls.
Good! That is the lawful way to do things. You get to vote but you don’t get to prevent others from voting. You get to speak but you don’t get to prevent others from speaking. You, as an American, can peaceably assemble, but you don’t get to prevent others from peaceably assembling because you hate what they have to say. You are either with America in this regard or you are an antifa terrorist.
“This perceived superiority is what must be challenged. It has no basis in reality, and enables egregious behavior like Ms. Sanders’. No demographic has a claim on a phrase or a particular role in public discourse, and it’s high time conservatives challenged it whenever it’s assumed in the media.” Which is why I love Trump — He FIGHTS (unlike the GOPe enuchs).
And from what I can glean of the alt-right, these young people are using identity politics to expose the inherent racism of the left. As Vandy Law prof (ret) Carol Swain puts it, these “White Nationalists” aren’t like your father’s or grandfather’s. They are not violent (unless attacked) and welcome blacks and Jews among them. http://video.foxnews.com/v/5540546464001/?#sp=show-clips
Many have been inoculated.
Example, I was literally just flipping through channels on the television and they had a panel on CNN and the first guy started talking about how he was being affected by what had happened in Charlottesville, and he was getting upset and about to cry .. like, … seriously, I’m not kidding, about to actually cry on television … and I laughed. I cannot believe how over the top this is, how leftists can be so sure of their moral superiority that they can sit there and feel comfortable pushing this crap on people without a moment of introspection. It’s like they don’t even know how absurd what they are saying is, that’s how self-deluded they are. I didn’t laugh at the guy’s “pain”, I laughed because of the absurdity of the bubble the left is in.
Me, I don’t care anymore. If they want to keep chasing shiny objects, fine with me. Identity politics didn’t win them the last election, and it won’t win them the next one. The truth is, if this group that had gathered in Charlottesville didn’t exist, the left would have had to invent it, because this is exactly what they want to talk about, this is the “conversation” they want to have. Does it advance their efforts to win back the 1000+ seats they’ve lost in elections over the past few years ? No, of course not. Democrats think they’running down the field with the football but they don’t seem to realize they are running towards the wrong end zone.
Do we need to call white nationalists idiots every time we get the chance ? Absolutely. But the left doesn’t come across like a group that wants to get rid of white nationalism, they are coming across like a dog that has finally found its favorite chew toy and can’t put it down.
Reminder, it was literally two months ago when a Bernie Sanders supported shot at people on a baseball field. The left leaning media will run with this story for weeks, but they buried that one.
Well said!
“Do we need to call white nationalists idiots every time we get the chance ? ”
“White nationalist. You keep using that term…..”
Substitute raaaaacist, sexist, or whatever. Right now, just by using that term, you’ve already surrendered.
Don’t want unlimited immigration? White nationalist.
Don’t want to provide reparations for all imagined sins committed by people of pallor? White nationalist.
Don’t think Donald Trump is Satan incarnate? White nationalist.
I could go on but what’s the point? You cannot use the enemy’s language because the definition will simply be changed dishonestly to include you. You can’t live with fundamentally dishonest people, and the Left is exactly that.
“you’ve already surrendered …”
I didn’t say they were Nazi’s, or even white supremacists, but they ARE white nationalists, no different than black lives matter, except white. They self-identify by race. It isn’t like they are going around talking about their group in terms of their IQ scores (like Mensa), or how many movies they are in (like actors), or where they live (like Appalachians), .. no, they have defined their own group by the pigmentation of their skin.
Which makes them idiots.
The same as it makes black lives matter idiots.
Now if you want to argue that a bunch of people chanting “White lives matter” is actually a free speech movement, well by all means go for it, I’d love to hear how that all fits together …
I’ll argue for your right to go out and speak if you are a white nationalist, the same as I would for anyone who wants to speak, but I’m not going to argue for your stupid cause.
It isn’t like they are going around talking about their group in terms of their IQ scores (like Mensa), or how many movies they are in (like actors), or where they live (like
AppalachiansManhattan)Nope … such justifications for arrogance, condescension, bigotry, and discrimination are reserved for the Progressive elites. That needs to be condemned as vociferously as both white supremacy and BLM/antifa …. but because that kind of fascism comes in a soft-and-cuddly wrapper, people don’t do that.
The refusal to surrender the language that SDN advocates, is one way to tear off that wrapper. Incivility is another, as long as such incivility maintains respect for life and liberty.
President Trump is willing to engage in such incivility, while not seeking to lord it over us.
His opponents’ incivility is driven by their desire to lord it over us.
That is the difference.
There are a LOT of conservatives trying to take back the language right now, people like Milo Yiannopolis, Gavin McInnis, Shapiro, and others. But that’s different than lying. Trying to claim that this group in Charlottesville wasn’t full of white nationalists is a dog that won’t hunt. Like I said, if you want to make an argument against that, by all means let’s hear it … are you going to claim that throwing Nazi’s salutes and chanting “White lives matter” is satire ?
When a Bernie supporter travels over a thousand miles to hunt down Congressmen … EVEN LESS SO MUCH.
Claiming that the fringe of white supremacists are an equal threat to our liberty, at this point in time, as the alliance of BLM/antifa with the softer, cuddlier fascists in the Democrat Party, is denying the truth.
The white-supremacist fringe does not have the backing of a political leadership looking to leverage their extremism to impose their own agenda. BLM and antifa have just that.
That illusion of equality, is the wedge in the door that will lead to a total focus on the lesser threat, while allowing the Leftist fascists to re-impose their greater threat more freely.
Don’t lose sight of this.
The greatest danger is that the Democrat Party embraces the violent left in the name of justice when the intent is the exact opposite.
A white nationalist group came into existence to counter an extreme anti-white movement. How effing stupid does somebody have to be that they can’t figure out the causality?
That’s sad.
The opposite of a racist movement isn’t a counter- and equally racist movement. The opposite of a racist movement is a NON-racist movement.
White nationalism and leftist racism are two sides of the same coin, and they feed off of one another to cause chaos whenever they meet.
The only sane path is to turn your back on both.
Yet you blamed all conservatives. That makes you wrong. Retract and rewrite, otherwise we can write you off as a cuckservative/leftist troll.
I don’t give a CRAP what you think of me … AT ALL
I guess that’ll do for a concession speech.
Blocked. I don’t waste time on trolls, little sockpuppet.
Or to confront and condemn both as Trump did. As president you do,not have the luxury of turning your back.
We haven’t tried that? Golly gosh that would come as a big surprise.
You are arguing for the Bill of Rights. I suspect you don’t much care for the Wesrboro Baptist Church but you honor their feedom to speak no matter how ugly you perceive it.
You cannot use the enemy’s language because the definition will simply be changed dishonestly to include you.
While usually true, there are exceptions to the rule that can prove useful, if applied at the right time … such as …
… Only Democrats care about skin color …
As if I needed another reason to not watch the Communist News Network channel?
Agree. Except that Ken does know better than to lose control like that.
Ken looked pretty hysterical at the Republican National Convention when Donald J. Trump was nominated to be president. He made quite the spectacle, I must say!
Yes… yes they do. A healthy dose of “this is America, damn it, and everyone has their right to free speech whether we like what they say or not” would not be inappropriate either.
It’s CNN. What did you expect? Quit watching that BS.