Rich: 'What Killed JFK' Was Dallas's 'General Atmosphere of Hate'
On Monday, Noel Sheppard at NewsBusters noted how former New York Times op-ed writer (and before that, theater critic) Frank Rich, who now plies whatever his trade is at New York Magazine, criticized MSNBC's Chris Matthews for writing a "man-crush of a biography" about John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated 48 years ago today.
Monday evening, Allahpundit at Hot Air identified a particularly egregious contention in that same very poor Rich piece, namely that "the hate that ended his (JFK's) presidency" which inspired avowed communist and Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald to commit his heinous crimes (Oswald also shot Texas Governor John Connally in JFK's motorcade and killed Dallas police officer J.D. Tippit later that day) came from the right. Really. What follows are selections from Rich's risible self-righteousness:
Story Continues Below Ad ↓Though he was onboard for ... (the Warren Commission's) conclusion that Oswald was the lone assassin, ... ("Death of a President" author William Manchester) did not buy its verdict that there was “no evidence” of any connection between Oswald’s crime and Dallas’s “general atmosphere of hate.”
Manchester is uncharacteristically contentious about this point. He writes that “individual commissioners had strong reservations” about exonerating Dallas but decided to hedge rather than stir up any controversy that might detract from the report’s “widest possible acceptance.” While Manchester adds that “obviously, it is impossible to define the exact relationship between an individual and his environment,” he strongly rejected the universal description of Oswald as “a loner.” No man, he writes, is quarantined from his time and place. Dallas was toxic. The atmosphere was “something unrelated to conventional politics—a stridency, a disease of the spirit, a shrill, hysterical note suggestive of a deeply troubled society.” Duly observing that even the greatest presidents have been vilified in their time—Lincoln as a baboon and Jefferson as “Mad Tom”—Manchester saw something “more than partisan zeal” at work in this case. He detected “a chiaroscuro that existed outside the two parties, a virulence which had infected members of both.” Dallas had become the gaudy big top for a growing national movement—“the mecca for medicine-show evangelists of the National Indignation Convention, the Christian Crusaders, the Minutemen, the John Birch and Patrick Henry societies.”
Immediately after the assassination and ever since, the right has tried to deflect any connection between its fevered Kennedy hatred and Oswald’s addled psyche with the fact that the assassin had briefly defected to the Soviet Union. But at the time even some Texans weren’t buying that defense. An editorial in the Dallas Times Herald chastised its own city for supplying “the seeds of hate” and “the atmosphere for tragedy.” The editor of the Austin American wrote that “hatred and fanaticism, the flabby spirit of complacency that has permitted the preachers of fanatical hatred to appear respectable, and the self-righteousness that labels all who disagree with us as traitors or dolts, provided the way for the vile deed that snuffed out John Kennedy’s life.”
Sure, Frank. Two left-wing newspapers (the Austin paper is legendarily leftist; the Times Herald was columnist knee-jerk liberal Molly Ivins's home for many years) blaming an atmosphere of right-wing zeal for left-wing violence, and that equals "some Texans." That soooo seals the argument. Zheesh.
It’s oddly comforting to know that the same sort of smear merchants who tried to pin the Gabby Giffords shooting on the right, including Rich’s former colleague Paul Krugman, were doing their thing with JFK’s assassination too almost 50 years ago. At least, it seems, things haven’t gotten worse over time: If they couldn’t pin Giffords on us, then by God, they’ll pin something on us. Looking forward to Rich’s inevitable essay on whether John Wilkes Booth was, kinda sorta, the first tea partier.
Here’s what I really want from the left: A systematic treatment of when and how “climate of hate” reasoning about collective responsibility can fairly be applied to an act of violence. It used to be that a nutjob had to at least agree ideologically with the group that’s being blamed, but Rich gets us a step away from that. Under the Oswald theory, ideology no longer matters; all that matters is shared “hate” for a particular target. By that logic, I guess, the Al Qaeda sympathizer busted by the NYPD yesterday for targeting police could be blamed on OWS since both are angry at the cops.
Just another reason not to take Rich seriously. It's surprising and too bad that at least some New York Magazine readers do.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
- Tom Blumer's blog
- Login to post comments
Comments
atmosphere of Hate?
Submitted by djwolf12 on Tue, 11/22/2011 - 11:00pm.
Earth to Frank Rich: the last time I checked, in the 1960 election JFK/LBJ, you know, THE DEMOCRATIC TICKET, won the state of Texas by an overwhelming margin. Yet again, these douches in the media still fail at their attempt to revise history into a progressive Obamatopia.
Already said, and overwhelming is wrong also
Submitted by TheHistorian on Wed, 11/23/2011 - 1:11pm.
The fact that the Dems won in 1960 was already said. But your OVERWHELMING comment is not true. The win was 50.5 to Kennedy and 48.2 to Nixon. Makes Obama's 52% unanimous if this is overwhelming.
There was large fraud in Texas. From the webpage rangevoting.org
John F. Kennedy:
Kennedy's election in 1960 over Nixon involved heavy fraud in Illinois and Texas. (If Nixon had won those two states, he would have won the presidency.) As examples of ballot box stuffing: In Texas's Angelina County, in one precinct, only 86 people voted yet the final tally was 147 for Kennedy, 24 for Nixon; in Fannin County the 4895 registered voters cast 6138 votes (75% for Kennedy). Discarded spoiled ballots were to be placed by Texas law in "ballot box 4" for later re-examination, but many counties (e.g. Fort Bend County, which had a huge 16% spoilage rate, topping even the worst Florida 2000 County) just discarded them, and did not store them, making any biased discarding decisions uncorrectable and unprovable. The 100%-Democrat Texas Election Board refused to conduct a recount, so game over.
If you want to cite history, PLEASE CITE HISTORY, not your recollection.
Dennis Prager
Rich is a poor historian
Submitted by Lord-come-soon-... on Tue, 11/22/2011 - 11:09pm.
Lee Oswald was driven by a need to be a "somebody" He wasn't even in Dallas long enough to be caught up in the so-called "hate" from the right wing. Did Rich forget that Oswald tried the previous April to assassinate a right wing former General named Edwin Walker? Oswald was also a member of the ACLU. Maybe it was the communist leanings of that bunch that drove him to assassinate JFK. This is just another example of leftist fantasies.
It's more complicated than that....
Submitted by lotr on Wed, 11/23/2011 - 1:48pm.
Lee Oswald was first and foremost driven by hardcore leftist political ideology.
When I say "leftist" I don't merely mean "liberal." I distinguish between a "leftist" and a "liberal." In the case of Lee Oswald specifically, we are talking about a self-styled Marxist revolutionary, someone who fully admired Fidel Castro, identified with the Cuban Revolution and saw himself as an agent for that cause in the US. It was for this reason that Oswald assassinated Kennedy.
The desire for recognition was there, sure, but not any more than anybody else who fancies himself a great political mind before their time. And Lee Oswald was indeed ahead of his time. That's why he ended up being such an enigma to the public and even to the Warren Commission itself, an enigma that remains to this very day.
Earth to Frank Rich
Submitted by Samaritan01 on Tue, 11/22/2011 - 11:13pm.
The last time I checked a bizarre little Marxist killed JFK, that's right Frank the assassin was a Leftist...just like you!!
A left-wing democrat stinking commie is what killed JFK
Submitted by Dave. on Tue, 11/22/2011 - 11:18pm.
Frank Rich is either a liar or a moron.
-Dave
Vote for the American in November
Dave -- really, no need to make . . .
Submitted by Gary Hall on Tue, 11/22/2011 - 11:41pm.
. . . a selection between the two choices.
(;`> gary
Well why not just
Submitted by hbnolikeee on Tue, 11/22/2011 - 11:48pm.
let's say BOTH.
LOL guys,
Submitted by Dave. on Wed, 11/23/2011 - 1:12am.
I know.
I was just being charitable.
For once. :-)
-Dave
Vote for the American in November
Dixie
Submitted by MidAmerica on Tue, 11/22/2011 - 11:20pm.
The Republican Party in early 1960's was NOT a Conservative party. They were not a source of hate about Kennedy. However racial politics was a major factor in the 60's. The Federal governments push to end segregation infuriated many in the South including democrat Southern governors. Also to many in the South anti-Catholic bigotry was a major factor in their opinion of Kennedy.
It may seem a little bizarre to you young folk but the generation in power in the South during the sixties were the last generation of the Civil War era. Yes there are still echoes of the old South today but they are mere remnants.
Liberals are usually the assassins
Submitted by pbthinker on Tue, 11/22/2011 - 11:40pm.
If you think of all the assassinations that have taken place, the vast majority are by liberals. Lee Harvey Oswald lived in the Soviet Union. About the closest you can come to a conservative is the Puerto Rican group who tried to assassinate Truman. Anarchists certainly aren't conservatives, and it's not a conservative principle to murder a President to get a Hollywood star to notice you. Just look at the hate liberals gin up with other liberals!!!
This is just another example of the ignorance at the New York Times.
According to that video the Vet made me watch
Submitted by Jer on Tue, 11/22/2011 - 11:48pm.
a couple of years ago describing the ideological dynamics in the USA, anarchism was on the far right of the spectrum.
Jer
Where is the smiley?
Submitted by The Vet on Wed, 11/23/2011 - 1:25am.
Are you being serious. The spectrum refers to the political spectrum.
political - 1a : of or relating to government, a government, or the conduct of government
The scale moves from left (full government control of all aspects of life) to the right (almost no government control of most aspects of life). Get it? Key word - government. See? Government. Has to be there. See?
anarchy - 1. a : absence of government
So rightly, anarchy is nowhere on the scale.
Where the right scale ends, where all government ceases, there is anarchy. NOTE - the scale/spectrum has ended. There you find anarchy. There is no more government. There is no more spectrum.
I don't remember if the video put it in that perspective but that is the correct perspective.
And Unsane says it is a circle. 100% government involvement leads to anarchy as well as people will throw off the yokes of oppresive governments.
Finally, that was not the point in my bringing the video to your attention if I remember, and I believe you complained about the source weasel zippers style.
Vet...
Submitted by Jer on Wed, 11/23/2011 - 1:44am.
I don't remember if the video put it in that perspective but that is the correct perspective.
How could I possibly challenge a man who exhibits such profound confidence in his infallibility. ;-)
My recollection is that anarchy was on the far right of the linear scale, but represents a societal condition inevitably precedent to totalitarianism on the far left of the scale and, as such, is part of a circular process--as you indicate Unsane has posited.
No, I not only did not complain weaselzippers style, I did not complain at all about the video, except to say it was a bit simplistic but otherwise a useful and informative presentation of the subject which I would invite my son to watch.
Jer
Or nephew....
Submitted by The Vet on Wed, 11/23/2011 - 2:08am.
And if I also correctly remember, you would not watch it with me unless I took a swig of that nasty durian flavored Cisco you love so much.
And guess what, Vet...
Submitted by Jer on Wed, 11/23/2011 - 2:23am.
This Christmas--for you and all the kin--Cisco Boiled Custard!
Jer
Hey, Jer.
Submitted by Newsbubba on Wed, 11/23/2011 - 11:50am.
I saw on the news that Jack Daniels won the Whiskey Rebellion!
One more attempt to destroy a thriving company with higher taxes has failed.
Now if TN can just get the feds to leave guitars alone.
I'm beginning to think that they are against everything that TN stands for, including same-family weddings!
My God! Does Oliver Stone
Submitted by LAM SON 719 on Wed, 11/23/2011 - 1:07am.
My God! Does Oliver Stone know?
My God! Does Oliver Stone
Submitted by LAM SON 719 on Wed, 11/23/2011 - 1:08am.
My God! Does Oliver Stone know?
Ohhhhh That's Rich ....Rich
Submitted by donabernathy on Wed, 11/23/2011 - 5:39am.
and all this time I was under da impression that it was a bullet that ripped his head apart that killed 'em....
roflmao
There's something deeply sick..
Submitted by greggy on Wed, 11/23/2011 - 6:02am.
about the way too many liberals desperately long for acts of violence by the right.
It is so desperately hoped for that even after it became clear that Jared Loughner held no conservative beliefs, and was a drug using, disturbed person who had asked incomprehensible questions at Gabby's townhalls, and the President publicly stated that politics didn't have anything to do with what happened, we still have liberals who desperately cling to the belief that it did.
They wanted it to be true so badly, that no amount of evidence to the contrary is sufficient for them to accept that it wasn't so.
After all, hadn't Jane Fonda tweeted that it was Sarah Palin's fault? Why, that should be good enough for most everyone, right?
Hmmm...
Submitted by DumbCanuck on Wed, 11/23/2011 - 9:22am.
....Adds another dimension to the phrase "OH THAT'S RICH!"
"There... Are... Four... Lights!"
Frank Rich isn't the only one peddling this ...
Submitted by ombdz on Wed, 11/23/2011 - 9:30am.
The left's favorite author from Bangor, Maine has jumped into the fray with some, shall we say scary, thoughts ... http://bit.ly/qVdDUt
Some strange revisions of history
Submitted by Galvanic on Wed, 11/23/2011 - 12:59pm.
Over the past year or so, we've heard the Dems and MSM lionize Ronald Reagan for his compromise with Tip O'Neill that resulted in raising taxes. This is the same Reagan who was blasted by the Left as a dangerous, anti-intellectual cowboy who would lead the US into a world war.
Now we have them blaming "right wing hate" for the assassination of President Kennedy, even though we know the assassin to have been a Leftist with sympathies for the USSR and Castro's Cuba. Somehow Dallas -- allegedly a city of boiling hate in 1963 -- inspired the young communist to kill the President. And did we mention that he was also a former Marine?
Well, then again, they've also described Obama's performance as 'centrist' and even 'conservative,' even though he's added some $5 trillion to the national debt in less than 3 years, and signed into law the most far reaching piece of social legislation since the New Deal.
Nailing it
Submitted by Galvanic on Wed, 11/23/2011 - 9:38am.
"The editor of the Austin American wrote that “hatred and fanaticism, the flabby spirit of complacency that has permitted the preachers of fanatical hatred to appear respectable, and the self-righteousness that labels all who disagree with us as traitors or dolts,. . ."
That would appear to describe Frank Rich, the Daily Kos, and the rest of the fellow-travllers.
Touche!
Submitted by Pilgrim1949 on Wed, 11/23/2011 - 10:33am.
Former USAF, former collegiate saber fencer blade-through-the-heart kudos for skewering the looking-glass psycho-babble self-identification of the Libtard fringe.
Their usual lack of self-awareness and passionate knee-(just-plain-ordinary)jerk projection of their own phobia and hangups-writ-large would be comical to behold if it weren't so deadly threatening to our nation's present and future.
The Occupy-space rabble have also done us a great service in spewing forth (from various bodily orifices) the real heart-and-soul of the Lib/Prog/Dem worldview taken to its (il)logical conclusion.
Get-out-the-vote and vote out the crud in 2012!
"Ye canne change the laws of physics....." but some politicians believe that with the right legislation you can pretend they don't really apply to your own pet projects...
Or to quote some wag here: Project we much
Submitted by needle on Wed, 11/23/2011 - 11:25pm.
Or to quote some wag here: Project we much
- Looking forward to the self-annihilation of the Manipulated Stories Machine.
What actually killed JFK was
Submitted by Gat New York on Wed, 11/23/2011 - 10:08am.
What actually killed JFK was the fact that he and his brother turned on the very people who were asked to deliver votes for JFK in the 1960 election - the mafia. This was a mob hit as was the hit on RFK. And the family knows it.
Stop your Texas envy, Rich!
Submitted by Meredith1966 on Wed, 11/23/2011 - 11:23am.
I think Rich is just pissed that he's not from Texas, so he has to vent his frustration by lashing out against Texas and Texans. Some psychological stuff going on there...
Okay, kidding on that, but his opinion does seem to carry on this general narrative of all things Texan being backwards, hateful, fill in your own negative adjective and you get the idea. It came out in full, Eastern liberal intellectual snobbiness when Bush started his run for the presidency back in 1999, but it goes back even farther, back to the days of, yes, Kennedy. The Kennedy inner circle thought Lyndon Johnson, the Texan, a backwards-ass rube that they had to tolerate for electoral purposes. They didn't respect him, although I think JFK came to appreciate him after a time even if others didn't. You see Texas-bashing today in pieces like Rich's, but also in pop culture, TV, late-night talk shows, etc., and it's kind of like white-guy bashing in that it is seen as socially acceptable. Kind of juvenile if you ask me, so I don't take Rich or his kind very seriously.
I will say this, though--Rich ought to spend a little time on YouTube watching the coverage of JFK's arrival in Dallas the morning of his assassination. He'll see that the crowds that came out to Love Field in Dallas were tremendously excited that President Kennedy was visiting Texas, and no one came to jeer him. Were there people in Dallas who didn't like him? Undoubtedly. But lumping all Texans and all of Texas in with them in order to characterize Dallas as a 'city of hate' because Kennedy was assassinated here is a reach; Dallas no more hated Kennedy enough to spur his assassination than did Washington, DC, as it pertains to Lincoln's assassination. JFK's killing is the story of a little, overlooked loner who wanted desperately to 'be somebody'. Oswald didn't represent Dallas any more than Booth represented Washington.
"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them." - Thomas Jefferson
intellectual plagarism?
Submitted by UndercoverConse... on Wed, 11/23/2011 - 7:43pm.
wasn't "author" Stephen King saying exactly this same crap not even two weeks ago?
http://m.newsbusters.org/blogs/scott-whitlock/2011/11/11/stephen-king-ri...
these useful idiots can't even come up with original BS anymore.
Or is this part of another "Big Lie" campaign?
The Left NEEDS O to be attacked, and are doing EVERYTHING they can to make it happen.
WWW.GS2AC.COM. 2nd Amendment Action in the Bay Area, CA. We're not all "Breakfast Cereal" folks here! :)
"Proportional Response leads to Perpetual War"
"Remember, Remember the 2nd of November!"
The Left has simply NEVER
Submitted by needle on Wed, 11/23/2011 - 11:32pm.
The Left has simply NEVER been able to accept the FACT that Lee Harvey Oswald was essentially a COMMUNIST.
This says a lot more about Liberals themselves than it does about any of their tortured conspiracy theories.
- Looking forward to the self-annihilation of the Manipulated Stories Machine.
What killed Kennedy
Submitted by Cool Arrow on Wed, 11/23/2011 - 7:50pm.
What killed Kennedy was his inability to kill Castro with a poisoned cigar.
Years later, Bill Clinton was heard to say "sometimes a cigar is just a phallic symbol".
At any rate, Kennedy lost that duel with Castro. Just before killing President Kennedy, Oswald was passing out "Fair Play For Cuba" fliers in Florida.