Time Magazine's Joe Klein leveled another accusation of racism against Tea Party protesters today, employing fallacious arguments that could be torn apart by any student of basic logic.
Tea Party protesters, by Klein's account, are similar to the caricature of the 1990s religious right: "largely poor, uneducated, and easy to command," in the words of the Washington Post. Klein takes that WaPo adage and adds 'racist' to the end.
The Tea Party protesters are scared above all, Klein asserts, "by an amorphous feeling that they [sic] America they imagined they were living in--Sarah Palin's fantasy America--is a different place now, changing for the worse, overrun by furriners of all sorts: Latinos, South Asians, East Asians, homosexuals...to say nothing of liberated, uppity blacks...
"Finally, I should say that the things that scare the teabaggers--the renewed sense of public purpose and government activism, the burgeoning racial diversity, urbanity and cosmopolitanism--are among the things I find most precious and exhilarating about this country."
Here's what the Tea Party protesters find most precious in America: that we are a nation of limited government, not activist government. The protesters don't fear racial equality. They fear a government that, in the name of that objective, gives itself powers so expansive that it can nationalize banks and automobile manufacturers, confiscate and spend trillions of dollars on a whim, conduct experiments with 18 percent of the economy (health care), decide how much energy Americans can use, and dictate payment and compensation for private companies.
Tea Party protesters worry that the President is taking his Chief of Staff's advice, and being careful not to let this crisis go to waste. Emanuel was advocating the use of a crisis to vastly expand government power to mitigate social ills. It is the means of Emanuel's plan, not the ends, that Tea Party protesters oppose.
Klein derides those who want to prevent the economic crisis from allowing the administration to enhance its own power, just as Klein himself warned of the previous administration's purported use of the 9/11 attacks to do the same.
"Cheney's overreach was a result of understandable panic after the 9/11 attacks," Klein wrote in May. "But the real problem, as evidenced by the Vice President's actions in other areas (like environmental policy), was Cheney's twisted belief that the Constitution confers on the President near-dictatorial powers, especially in a time of war."
In Klein's mind, war is not a suitable reason for the dramatic expansion of federal power. Why is economic crisis any different? The objective--economic recovery--is absolutely essential, as was rooting out extremists that plotted to attack the United States. He opposed Cheney's power grabs in pursuit of the latter, yet he defends the current administration's expansion of power in pursuit of the former.
Klein offered absolutely no evidence to support his absurd accusations of bigotry. But it's not hard to decode his astoundingly fallacious argument: Because the administration wants to end racial and social inequality, and the Tea Parties were held in opposition to the administration's policies, protesters at the Tea Parties obviously do not want racial and social equality.
Of course anyone who has ever taken a class in symbolic logic will recognize that Klein is employing an oft-used logical fallacy: If we give the Obama administration unprecedented power, there will be no inequality. We won't give him that power, so inequality will never disappear.
Klein seems totally ignorant of the American philosophy of limited government, which holds that the state is not a tool for remedying social ills. It is a means to secure our rights, and nothing more. Those who are wondering what Tea Party protesters are arguing for--rather than what they are arguing against--should take the sentiment to heart.
That Klein dismisses this philosophy as racism because it opposes the use of the bludgeon of federal power in pursuit of a utopian agenda shows that he is completely ignorant of even the possibility of reducing inequality without dramatically expanding federal power. At this moment, since the Obama Administration most fully embodies Klein's philosophy, opposition to Obama is opposition to the only means of achieving such equality, and therefore is necessarily racism.
John Stossel mused that when he asks reporters about leftist bias, "I get blank stares. It's like asking fish about water. 'What water?' say the fish." When liberalism is the only possible solution, opposition to it becomes not about civil disagreement, but rather about bigoted obstructionism. Klein's conclusion in this sense is correct, but he needs to check his premises.
Liberalism is the ocean to Joe Klein the fish. The lack of consideration for any other view than one's own is a very dangerous world view for a journalist to have. The liberal bias is ingrained in Klein's perspective. That there could ever be another way to mitigate the problems he sees in society does not even occur to him, and he is therefore disposed to see all who oppose his one-sided vision of government as racists.
In discussing "The Perils of a Righteous President," as the article was headlined, Klein in 2004 derided President Bush's "overheated sense of good vs. evil," saying it had led to a "crusade", and that "Those who opposed the crusade opposed democracy. Those who opposed the President coddled terrorists ... They were not morally serious."
This moral absolutism, which Klein was so quick to criticize when it led to policies he did not favor, is the same absolutism, albeit for a different crusade, that now brings him to dub Tea Party protesters as racists.
Klein cried foul when the Bush Administration sought to enhance executive power for the stated objective of prosecuting the war on terrorism. But now that he agrees with the ends of enhanced executive power, he is morally outraged that anybody would disagree. This double standard is all too pervasive among journalists, most notably among those who decry as racism any opposition to President Obama's policies.
Editor at Large
Comments Policy
A Left Pointing Moral Compass Is No Moral Compass At All!
September 17, 2009 - 15:50 ET by jefflebowskiGo to hell, Joe Klein! You and your effete communists are dismissed. You have called down Hell upon you by insulting the middle class taxpayer and you will have to deal with it!
Here's an article I just posted on Nancy Pelosi's "fears" of violence:
http://angrywhitedud...
You Commies keep kicking the lion!
Angry White Dude
the boy who cried wolf
September 18, 2009 - 09:01 ET by AJBIt will soon come to pass that all this screaming 'racist' for any reason will devalue the true racist activity in our society. I really pity the poor people who are truly treated wrongly who will be overlooked because it will become impossible to find them amongst all the other claims which appear to be based on extending one particular political philosophy.
You know that if the
September 17, 2009 - 15:54 ET by COYou know that if the majority of Americans were to stop watching the state run media and stop buying magazines like Time, there would be no platform for these insane journalists like Joe Klein. What Klein is claiming is totally a lie. If anything, I would guess the public who are mesmerized by Obama are the uneducated, bigots and the like. Most of us can see the smoke screen these guys are trying to put up. The facts are brought up and instead of dealing with them, they scream racist. It's like dealing with little kids.
Question for Mr. Klein: I'm
September 17, 2009 - 15:55 ET by BKeyserQuestion for Mr. Klein: I'm self-employed in a volatile industry; one that has not yet healed, and shows very little sign of returning to prosperity in the short term. I work very hard to keep afloat, yet I'm concerned that the current government philosophy will only make it harder for me to achieve and more likely that sometime in the future I'll need to rely on government assistance- either for myself in the worse-case, or through my clientèle in the best. As such, I disagree with the policies of this administration. So, Mr. Klein, what am I really worried about?
Joe Klein...you are a - - -
September 17, 2009 - 16:02 ET by shooterJoe Klein is an arrogant, elitist, pseudo-intellectual, white guilt-ridden, a**hole!
He's a typical limo-lib who just needs to go away and let Real Americans run this country.
_________________________________________
"An armed society is a polite society" -- Robert A. Heinlein
Let's see
September 17, 2009 - 16:03 ET by legacyrepublicanLet's see. I have a Bach of Arts degree. Both my in-laws have master degrees. One brother in law has an MBA, another has a Bach of Arts too. They are against Obamacare ( can't count my late brother and mother both of whom had Master degrees and hated HillaryCare )
Yea, I guess he is right. We are poorly educated and poor. ( yea, that was sarcastic ).
add J.D.s , MBA, MDs ans
September 17, 2009 - 16:11 ET by Edhenryadd J.D.s , MBA, MDs ans PhDs in our family, living in blue areas, married to minorities.
Most of them ("them" = about to go out of business, biased, co-dependent, weak media) haven't a clue. The rest know exactly the truth and ...
A word about education . . .
September 17, 2009 - 20:49 ET by GalvanicYou'd be hard pressed to see an MSM reporter or anchor with more than a undergraduate degree, yet they'll describe folks with master's degree and PhDs as "uneducated."
I reiterate....
September 17, 2009 - 16:03 ET by lsudolemitewhy does anybody care what Joe Klein thinks about anything? It's laughable to think that Time is a credible news journal anymore, just a haven for liberal hacks preaching to the choir.
Small audience
September 17, 2009 - 20:50 ET by GalvanicKlein and Maureen Dowd write for each other.
I'm nostalgic for the Klein "Little Lord Fauntleroy"
September 17, 2009 - 16:06 ET by SickofLibsI'm nostalgic for the Klein "Little Lord Fauntleroy" sucking-his-thumb cartoon.
I'm sorry...
September 17, 2009 - 16:12 ET by RukusBut that picture of JokeLine... he's snockered! Put the bottle down dumba$$! Sheesh!
Gary
Levi Johnstoned: The One Trick Phoney!
Just when you think Klein
September 17, 2009 - 16:14 ET by G. MayJust when you think Klein couldn't make himself or his magazine more irrelevant...
I wake up every morning thanking God.
September 17, 2009 - 16:43 ET by Willis_Leon_JohnsonThank You God for creating people like Joe Klein so the rest of us have some to point to and show our children what a true loser in lifes lottery look, and acts like.
And thank you for allowing the powers at Time magazine for having the good sense to give this person an outlet that truly exposes WHY he is such a loser in life.
AMEN
http://gjresult.com
Somebody should build a Race-baiting graphic...
September 17, 2009 - 16:50 ET by krendler...depicting the individuals and groups who have been smeared as "racists" by liberals and the media over the past 20 months for the unpardonable sin of being in opposition to The Anointed One.
A tree would be a nice metaphor with the branches symbolizing how the spread of the liberals' "RACISM!" shotgun has widened.
Bill Clinton could be at the root of the tree, as he was perhaps the first (and most ironic) of the targets of the race-baiters. His sin, of course, was calling Obama a "kid" and his voting record a "fairy tale". He was promptly thrown under the bus as a "racist" or "racially insensitive".
That was the precedent. If they were willing to pull it with Bill Clinton of all people, they were going to use it with anyone who spoke out against The Great Barack.
From there, add Hillary, Geri Ferraro, John "That One" McCain and the RNC (as Barack said, "You know they're gonna remind you I'm black"). Joe Wilson of course. "You Lie" is clearly a racist remark. Tea Party participants. Attendees at the Republican National Convention (too many whites - must be racists). Anti-ObamaCare protesters.
And just think. We're still in the first year of his term!!!
The tree of racism. Inspired
September 17, 2009 - 18:53 ET by BKeyserThe tree of racism. Inspired by krendler. ?
Furriners?
September 17, 2009 - 17:32 ET by Pancho SanzaWhile Joe Klein views the NYC skyline from his tony Manhattan condo, it begs the question:
How many of HIS neighbors are Latinos, South Asians, East Asians, homosexuals, and liberated, uppity blacks?
"Finally, I should say that
September 17, 2009 - 17:41 ET by MidAmerica"Finally, I should say that the things that scare the teabaggers--the renewed sense of public purpose and government activism, the burgeoning racial diversity, urbanity and cosmopolitanism--are among the things I find most precious and exhilarating about this country."
He's saying that finally the right sort of persons are running the country and closing the city gates to keep out the riff-raff (like Sarah Palin) is a moral imperative. Can you imagine the sense of relief he gets by being so above those filthy little debauched souls who live out their wretched lives in such intellectual squalor, those proto-humans who go to menial jobs and spend their time mowing grass and shopping at Wal-Mart and Sears. uhggg!
Two-Baggers and BO-Blowers
September 17, 2009 - 18:17 ET by MCLANTIERETwo-Baggers and BO-Blowers. That's the new term that I'm going tousing to refer to Obama-droids.
Isn't it interesting that the likes of a skanked-out old crone like Maxine Waters had an ephitath hurled at her, she'd be screaming at the top of her lungs about it. Joe Klien, too ... using a slur reserved for his oral-sexing friends and bestowing it on someone he likes even less.
Well, I'm here to kick-ass and name names. For the really UGLY onesof the Lefty HERD (ie: Maxine Water, Jeananne Garafelo, Babs Striesand, and Joy Behar-hardy har har) ... I think TWO-BAGGER fits the bill perfectly! When I look at those sows ... two bags ain't enough ... but it'll do for now.
Maybe COYOTES! (as in the level of UGLY) -- Rush Limbaugh is right ... woman on the Left tend to have more "edgy" looks ... not all, mind you -- but only someone with 20/400 vision could dispute Maxine Waters probably has round marks all over her body where men have been touching her with 10 ft poles!
Definately a TWOBAGGER.
And for those in the News Media who's adoration of King Barack Obama more closely resembles REAL TeaBagging ... we can refer to them as BO-Blowers.
mclantiere
two bags
September 18, 2009 - 11:27 ET by Willis_Leon_Johnsonand a light switch.
But even then a person would be haunted with nightmares accompanied by screaming night sweats.
http://gjresult.com
I'd really like to know
September 18, 2009 - 12:23 ET by Tugboat PhilIf these pompous lefties are so flippant about the use of the term "teabagging" that they not only explian it to, but use it as frequently around their kids or grandkids? Do you suppose Maxine would take it kindly if she were approached in public and told that teabagging was a family activity and that they'd like to teabag her mother or daughters? Do BO and Michelle explain the term to their kids?
If we are teabaggers, does that make supporters of the administrations policies teabaggees?
Gun Control - The theory that a woman found dead in an alley, raped and strangled with her own pantyhose, is somehow morally superior to a woman explaining to police how her attacker got that fatal bullet wound.
I used to be a subscriber...
September 17, 2009 - 18:17 ET by carolina09Many, MANY years ago. Now, I think it's been ten years since I picked one up. They're not in any dentists' offices anymore.
I can't even bother myself to be annoyed by this irrelevant writer. Calling me a racist?....yawn....
I've got news for Klein, we
September 17, 2009 - 18:37 ET by Radical1979I've got news for Klein, we don't live in little white communities. We live in the "real" world, with blacks, asians, hispanics, homosexuals, etc. That's not the problem. The problem is that those on the left have no respect for those of us who do see things in terms of good and evil, and would like to have the right to keep believing in the Constitution and the rights outlined in the Bill of Rights.
I Disagree
September 17, 2009 - 18:40 ET by yidwithlidSorry to disagree, but Klein doesnt have a moral compass
Sammy Benoit
Yidwithlid
Http://yidwithlid.bl...
→ I get it now
September 17, 2009 - 18:47 ET by Cool ArrowI misread that line.
I thought it said "oral complex"
LYDSEXICS UNTIE!
So, let me get this
September 17, 2009 - 18:53 ET by GordoSo, let me get this straight...
I am married to a woman born in China, one of my best friends is a homosexual and my supervisor at work who I am great friends with (fantasy football, BBQ's, etc.) who is black all make me unable to protest government spending because I'm a racist?
Huh?
Joe Klein sits in his ivory tower and tells me who I am?
"Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties." --John Milton
Well, Gordo, here's the thing.
September 17, 2009 - 19:12 ET by FeynmanFanBeing called racist by liberals has nothing to do with whether you are actually a racist. The purpose is only to try to shame you into agreeing with the liberal agenda because the mere charge of being a racist is so hard to rebut and it throws you off your original purpose.
"Reason and persuasion are the only practical instruments against error. To make way for these, free inquiry must be indulged" - Thomas Jefferson
FTA: Government
September 17, 2009 - 18:54 ET by midnightramblerFTA: Government activism.
I am very afraid of those two little words.
From an email to Jonah
September 17, 2009 - 19:09 ET by CooltomFrom an email to Jonah Goldberg on NRO:
Jonah,
If Joe Klein wants to go down the "racism" road, let's ask where he lives.
Pelham, NY. Demographics: 87.33 percent white. 4.57 percent black.
Pelham borders the Bronx, New Rochelle, and Mt. Vernon, all with much
greater "diversity" that Joe loves. Why did he not choose to live in those
places? Someone like Joe Klein might argue that this is a form a racism.
Pelham is a very nice town and I don't begrudge anyone living there. I think
people should be free to live where they want to live. But if people want to
start throwing around the race card, let's put all the cards on the table,
so to speak.
congrats cooltom -- you
September 18, 2009 - 11:38 ET by Jack Bauercongrats cooltom -- you just trumped Klien's race card.
I wonder if one of the 4.7% is Klein's valet?
Hi Joe! You'd better heed
September 17, 2009 - 20:33 ET by RMRHi Joe! You'd better heed the following warning from your good friends at the AP. Check out this headline:
'Racist' claims defuse once powerful word
With the word being used so often, it's harder to define its meaning
Associated Press
Updated 12:48 pm PT, Sept.17,2009
Joe, they are waving frantically, trying to warn you and other libs to get of the race-bating tracks before you get crushed by the run-away freight train called the American voter. Ha! Ha! Ha!
Klein, you IDIOT! That's how YOU think!!
September 17, 2009 - 21:20 ET by TailgunnerAs I said to another left wing nut, YOU think WE think the way YOU think.
Everything you accuse conservatives of is exactly what YOU would think in the same circumstances.
The racism is INSIDE liberals...not OUTSIDE.
Anyone who uses race to make, attack or defend a point is a RACIST. Pure and simple.
And right now that includes about 98.6% of the Democrat Party.
But feel free to vent, Klein. It'll give you something to think about as you iron your SHEETS.
Nationalized Healthcare is a DEATH SENTENCE.
Democrats are the party of killers, racists, pedophiles, bribe takers, serial sexual harassers, liars, perjurers, obstructors of justice and treasonous frauds.
I read part of this.
September 17, 2009 - 21:46 ET by pbthinkerI started to read this and got to the second paragraph and found this little phrase:
" First of all, I tried to make it clear that I wasn't talking about classic white-black racism, though elements of that are present, to be sure. My sense of the teabaggers is more complicated:"
Once I saw the word "teabaggers" I didn't have to read any further. It's like a non-starter for me, since I do believe we all know it's a derogatory term so why would a "respected" journalist use such a term trying to make a point.
Is there little wonder the Mostly Specious Media is going down the tubes. If you want to have an intelligent conversation about the protesters using the term "teabaggers" is about as smart as referring to civil rights marchers as "ni**ers" and I would think that Joe would know that.
Perhaps, he's spent too much time with Chris Matthews.
Election 2008-God's way of showing us that elections count.
Very well written and thought out posting Mr.Markay.
September 17, 2009 - 21:52 ET by CTThe desperate cry of racist being the liberal cudgel de jour is revealing of the left’s failing position. What seems like liberal rage from the one less credible than anonymous is dripping fear.
Fringe Media = FAIL
I have a very hard time accepting a charge of 'racism'...
September 17, 2009 - 22:43 ET by Tailgunner...from a political party whose most senior and honored Senator, their Majority Leader for a decade, Senator Robert K Byrd, IS A KU KLUX KLAN OFFICER AND RECRUITER!
(There's no such thing as a 'former' Klansman, just as there's no such thing as a 'former' Nazi. Once a racist, bigot and domestic terrorist, ALWAYS a racist, bigot and domestic terrorist.)
Nationalized Healthcare is a DEATH SENTENCE.
Democrats are the party of killers, racists, pedophiles, bribe takers, serial sexual harassers, liars, perjurers, obstructors of justice and treasonous frauds.
Ad hominem argumentation
September 17, 2009 - 22:52 ET by Alfred J. LemirePeople tried to demolish Gov. Palin's argument seeing members of her family coming before a "death panel"--the reference was singular, not plural. Since it was highly unlikely her child would come before a panel solely concerned with end-of-life decisions soon, readers ought to have realized she was using a metonymy. As her other writing indicated, she was concerned with a series of regulations that would issue from folk with ethical judgments like Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel's, one hostile to the weak of mind and body at the beginning of life and at its end stages--when people start getting Medicare coverage. Dollar-saving will come at their expense, by denying care in ways that will hasten death, thus the “death panel” image.
So lefty journalists erected straw men to demolish, as the ever-corrupt AssociatedPropagandists (AP) did. As she later wrote, the President chose not to respond to the substance of her concerns, preferring to charge Ms. Palin with lying, a most uncivil, and erroneous, accusation.
Joe Klein uses another weak means of arguing his case: ad hominem. He manifested deep and intense prejudices and bigotries. They merit no rebuttal. (Her substantive argument is worthy; his personal argument is not.) As with too many on the left, he prefers imputing mental and moral defects to opponents of the Democrats'policies to dealing with the substantive and warranted concerns that brought many of them to Washington, for a rally most lefty journalists tried to ignore or belittle.
As I had expected, USA Today Monday put a link to a story on Rep. Joe Wilson on Page One. The large and more recent Saturday rally in Washington, in the paper's back yard? That got a couple tiny paragraphs weaved into the Wilson story.
The last time I bought a USA Today was for the Olympics last summer. The next time will be for the Olympics in 2010. Or maybe not. Joe Klein's publication? What was its name? I don't read it anymore.
Really...Caricicature...
September 17, 2009 - 22:54 ET by nan101I don't even get angry anymore...I just feel sorry for them.
The delusionional world they live in must be a sad and confused place.
My beloved sister is dealing with mental illness and she can not even recognize that it is happening to her, it breaks my heart beyond all belief.
I really do believe that liberal thinking comes from a place that creates a world in which morals and values and saying no...is a bad thing. Mental illness is just sad, and the people who hold to these crazy ideas are deteriorating more every day.
Judgement Day - 2010
Sorry Nan
September 17, 2009 - 23:09 ET by cajun2Been there done that. Have courage.
Im not angry with Asians, blacks, Latinos, I'm angry with the snobs in NY, Boston, DC, SanFrancisco, and any other elitist, regardless of color or origin ,who wants me to live and believe the way they do. I have the right to decline. I vote. and I vote no!.
>>>largely poor,
September 17, 2009 - 23:17 ET by seanrobins>>>largely poor, uneducated, and easy to command,
My, gosh - that sounds exactly like Obama's core constituency!
sean robins
blog.seanrobins.com
→ seanrobins
September 17, 2009 - 23:32 ET by Cool ArrowObama's core constituency differs from us, primarily, in the last respect.
Obama's constituency is easily bought. Their souls were sold into the slavery of entitlement years ago.
LYDSEXICS UNTIE!
Ah, Yes, the classic dismissal
September 18, 2009 - 00:35 ET by CobraManKlein resorts to the classic dismissal of the opposition, denigration. To whit, that they are ignorant, unkempt, and ill-mannered. Which, btw, is the what Liberals accused the Conservatives of claiming about their opposition when he Conservatives were in power. I wonder of Klein even recognizes the irony of his latest claims?
The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States.
The US Constitution
Unless you're a fetus.
The US Supreme Court
Joe who? Was he Clinton's
September 18, 2009 - 07:33 ET by buddycJoe who?
Was he Clinton's Press Secretary?
Da left versis we dum "unedumicated" Christians
September 18, 2009 - 09:53 ET by stage9Tea Party protesters, by Klein's account, are similar to the caricature of the 1990s religious right: "largely poor, uneducated, and easy to command,"
Can someone please "enlighten" me as to where the idea that the majority of (let's just cut through the minutia - "religious right" = Christians) Christians are largely "uneducated"? Most of the Christians I've ever come into contact with have all completed some form of higher education - doctors, lawyers, scientists, teachers, engineers, businessmen, et al., all without caving in to godless liberalism while in college.
However, even if Klein were right ( a big "if"):
To the poor:
Matthew 5:3 - "Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven."
To the wise:
1 Corinthians 1:27 - But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
To the easily commanded:
Mattew 25:32-33 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
Notice the references to "left" and "right"...Do you know where the goats, the ones on His left will go?
Matthew 25:41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
Is this a scriptural coincidence? Perhaps. But there's one thing we "un-edu-micated" Christians understand that most don't - Don't ever turn your back on a goat.
"If God is dead, somebody is going to have to take his place. It will
be megalomania or erotomania, the drive for power or the drive for
pleasure, the clenched fist or the phallus, Hitler or Hugh Hefner."
— Malcolm Muggeridge