While The Washington Post found it highly newsworthy in a horrified way that Virginia GOP gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli would compare abortion to slavery, their Sunday magazine humorist Gene Weingarten thought it was funny to suggest Republicans have a softer line on slavery then on tax hikes.
His column addressed the question "Are there subjects so controversial that you just can’t joke about them? I believe the answer is no. You just have to do it right." Like mock Republicans as savagely racist:
Taboo Topic: Slavery
Q: What’s the difference between slavery and higher taxes?
A: If a rock-ribbed conservative congressman said something positive about slavery, he could probably still be reelected.
Gene wasn't probably thinking of joke-ruining examples, like how Sen. Trent Lott was dumped as majority leader for saying strangely positive things about Sen. Strom Thurmond's 1948 segregationist presidential candidacy.
As for slavery comparisons, Weingarten mocked me on Twitter for tweeting after the Cuccinelli story: "Pro-lifers should not confuse abortion with slavery. After all, slaves were allowed to live."
Liberals can't stand a conservative suggesting something like abortion is worse than slavery (or even that abortion is worse than waterboarding, or worse than slaughtering chickens for McNuggets). They probably wouldn't like us describing the rights of the unborn as the "civil rights issue of our time." They think "forced birth" is a form of slavery.
Weingarten responded: "LOVE this kinda talk from the right!...i LOVE this stuff, Tim. Keep it up. Your party will marginalize itself into the Know Nothings."
