The American Right’s Problem

Nicholas

Was it millions of citizens that jumped to the conclusion that the Tea Party et al were behind this attack...or the liberal elite and their lapdogs in the media that rushed to (and continue to) spread their own prejudices about the movement?

Rhoda Klapp

The British Right is in power? I thought we were all here moaning about our traditional party being hijacked by nu labour and common purpose. Please give an example of a right-wing thing done by the current incumbents.

Oh, and Nicholas is right, and US polls would agree with him.

Russell Seitz

Alas, the Palinites who first went ashore in Ketchikan from NR's 2007 Cruise to Nowhere have returned south to sup most bloodily on the brains of the nation .

From seeing the placidly Tory Spectator overrun with neocranks and climate zombies in the years since, one fears whatever distemper they caught from the bears up there has proven contagious.

Steffan John

I don't want this to turn into yet another Israel/Palestine debate, but Tonge's comments - though pretty bad - weren't the jew-hating trope implied here.

What she said was that the Israel Defence Forces were “to be commended for their fantastic response to the Haitian earthquake”, but "to prevent allegations [on harvesting organs] from going any further, the IDF and the Israeli Medical Association should establish an independent inquiry immediately to clear the names of the team in Haiti.”

Offensive? Clearly. But it's also clear that she wasn't starting from the position that IDF/Jewish forces had probably, or would probably, do such things, or that she gave such claims any credence.

http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/27070/tonge-investigate-idf-stealing-organs-haiti

David

The writer of this piece needs to live closer to the US. It may not be Palin as an individual who was the reason for the shoot-up in Arizona, but it certainly was her backers and supporters on the extreme right of the Republican party who were and are responsible for hysterical lies and gun-happy attitudes prevalent in the US. The woman is a curse and a threat to national sanity, international goodwill and, quite probably the lives of political opponents, especially "liberals". I live in Canada, and am one of an increasing number who no longer have any desire to visit the US, and who view the fundamentalist, gun-toting right wingers led by Palin as very firghtening.

call me dave

Wrong! It was the Lamestream Media's assumption that the killer was a Tea Partier. The Lamestream Media is diseased, demented and dying. When the're gone they won't be missed.

call me dave

"the attempted assassination of Stephen Timms by a knife-wielding constituent last year."

You seem to have forgotten to mention the constituent was a Muslim.
Wonder what her motive was?
Jihad, perhaps?

Erica Blair

Who would have thought that Cohen would use this incident to have a go at a defender of the Palestinians.

Actually I would.

As for Cohen's final remark - what on earth is he trying to say?

normanc

Was going to make a post but Nicholas and others have bet me to it.

What you wrote may have been true 20 years ago, it isn't now.

A minor point, but if you use the term 'blood libel' you're actually not antisemitic, but the opposite. If you thought it wasn't a libel you would be antisemitic.

But to be fair I'm sure the nuances of this phrase that the media are obsessing over never into Palin's head when she made the speech.

And 'Strictly speaking she is right'. It really most have caused a liberal journalist pain to write this. Nothing I have seen Palin say or write has in anyway seemed extreme or idiotic.

The media are a funny bunch. GW Bush (and Palin) was consistently lampooned as some sort of dunce but the immaculate one is lauded as the most intellectual president ever when he only ever reads from teleprompters (first time one had to be set up in Indian Parliament was for him) and when he does talk without one stutters and stumbles and generally makes an ass of himself.

It's a funny old world.

David Lindsay

I want to know who told Sarah Palin the term "blood libel", which it is hardly as if she would already have known. The answer to that would be the answer to an awful lot.

But what about the blood libel that all opposition to the Iraq War was anti-Semitic? That was said routinely at the time, and for a long time thereafter. The warmongers all did it. Every one of them. I suspect that certain British sites only stopped when, including in their comment boxes, I lately started making a fuss about it. It still crops up from time to time.

The people presently berating Sarah Palin put it into print or onto the airwaves every single day for months, and regularly for years. They have never expressed one word of remorse, either for that or for their catastrophic war itself.

J. Leyden

The fact that the Tories weren't blamed for the attack on Steven Timms had NOTHING to do with how Tories conducted themselves. Everyone knew the assailant was a radicalised Muslim, so the connection could not even have been made.
It's the mere possibility that Laughner could be Right-wing that allows American hacks to slander the Right.

Jim

There is no evidence, none, that this lunitic ever read or heard Sarah Palin words, or talk radio, or the Tea Party. Those who say he did are fools.

AY

Nick you surprise by that unintelligible comparison.

The attack on Timms was conducted by the jihadi enthusiast, a woman inspired and belongng to the well defined and legally existing Muslim fifth column in the UK. I say that jihadis are legally operating in the country because otherwise they would be in jail or deported. Instead, they occupy parts of the UK where they de-facto established Sharia. These areas, Sharia settlements, are used as terror bases to wage civil war on non-Muslim population. The attack on Timms was the part of this war, as well as 7/7. Then, that tent-woman with knife was hailed in the court by her fellows demanding her release. In general, jihadis shout blood libels against British soldiers at will. All that goes with impunity.

Now, how is that related to the murders committed by mentally ill loner in the US?

Or to the tea party movement, which has main interests, as one can guess, just in national self-preservation - protecting individual freedoms, and unity of law. As opposed to revolutionary advances of Obama's barbaric socialism (and British barbaric jhadism BTW).

These are all unrelated things and your today's article is just an exercise in vanity journalism.

Andy

The British right is not in power.

The American right have just won an election and look good to win the next.

Tomaso

The phrase 'blood libel' refers specifically to the anti Semitic slur that Jews murder Christian children and use their blood to prepare matzo for passover.

To use this 'loaded' phrase to refer to what amounted to a personal attack by a handful of bloggers and journalists is offensive in the extreme.

You can't just use words and phrases to mean what you want them to mean.

Stuart Seacole Smith

Nicholas nailed this right off the bat at 2.45 Jan 15th.

A further thought though: this kind of smearing, playing the victim card and false hand-wringing are all trade marks of the left. And they think they can and should be allowed to get away with it on the basis of their ultimate conceit: an unshakeable belief (or pretense) that they are somehow on the side of all that is light and good; whilst according to their bogus logic their opponents must be the opposite of all that.

Rhoda Klapp

Agree with SSS. While this reaction of the left to ascribe as evil all who do not agree with them is the US Right's problem, it is not within the power of the US Right to do anything about it. The left will still see them as evil anyway. They will still make the same outrageous claims against right-wing commentators based on their effectiveness, not on the things they actually say, while giving a free ride to objectionable things said from stage left. Strange that Cohen can see the stupidity of the left's position as regards Israel, but appears to go along with it in other areas.

daniel Lionsden

As excellent a commentator as you usually are, Mr Cohen, this article shows your two blind spots, both related: Islam and the media.
You still operate under the assumption that the media is the centre-ground while in reality it has step by step shifted to a fairly extreme left statist and elitist position. I must admit that I have been shocked by the supposedly 'rightwing' journalists who have simply accepted the 'tea party to blame' narrative and lept up to cry "Sarah Palin is nuts" when she tries to defend herself from scurrilus accusations.
As far as Mr Timms goes, I can assure you that if his attacker had not been a Muslim, much the same deceitful rheotoric would appear as in America, blaming the attack on the air of nastiness around the conservatives and Cameron's speeches would be poured over to find a link, while actual violence carried out by the left, such as the student riots, would, and still continue to be, excused.

VikramK

I broadly agree with your comment Mr. Cohen. Palin, however odious I find her, cannot be held morally responsible for the actions of this man, committed whilst of unsound mind. However, the link between the anti-Obama vitriol and his actions whilst not causal, is certainly contextual. His crimes and those of Timothy McVeigh occurred in a context of paranoid politics promoted by perfidious pundits and politicians. Thus while it is useless to blame Gingrich for McVeigh or Beck and Palin for this crime, they created the context in which such a crime could occur.

Val Smith

I suppose there's something wrong with the US. The Left in office is not good for American liberals, it's for sure! The Left will be the Left anywhere and anytime. In Russia they established Gulag. Hope we won't see the same in the USA though who knows...

elixelx

Vikram: is there any particular REASON you find Sarah Palin "odious"?

Augustus

Obviously, the liberals must be scared to death of this woman to continually go after her. She's obviously unafraid. She's assertive, and obviously successful. She can
put down a buck with one shot. Obviously, therefore, some men and women are intimidated.

Charlie

The British media left's response to this incident is interesting, and I suspect might come back to haunt them.

At the same time as happily regurgitating the idea that Loghner was inspired by the shrill cries of the the US right-wing media, they are stoking up the anti-cuts/anti-fees temperature with their own irresponsible rhetoric. Are they really going to be able to claim that their rhetoric is not responsible when we run out of luck and someone is killed in the protests? I suspect they will as their hypocrisy knows no bounds, but it will he hard to take seriously.

If their indignation is genuine (rather than political) they should look to their own rhetoric, and that of their fellow-travelers, before it is too late.

Gene Carr

I have often wondered why so much attention is paid to Gov Sarah Palin, not to mention the amount of vitriol directed at her. I have concluded that there is only one possible explanation. The GOP establishment knows that she will sweep the primary nomination, and the US Left know that she will ovwerwhelm Obama in 2012. She is a genuine reformer and Washinton trembles at her coming. She will go through that town like a dose of salts.

Archie

I rather fancy a woman who can handle a gun and at the same time make lefties quake in their Guccis!

Michelle

Sarah is beautiful and charismatic. She has power and influence among a certain set or sect. But on the whole she is just too much of an anti-intellectual to win election for an office that would place her in opposition to world class leaders. Bush, no matter how folksy he appeared, had an ivy league education. Some leftists seem to have an unhealthy obsession with Palin. They exaggerate her power. She's actually the reason John McCain lost the presidential election.

Gil

If anyone is wondering at Patricia Shaw's strange use of words 'Cohen the Bar Mitsvah'. I can assure you that she wasn't being antisemitic but... anti-Zionist. And I have a bridge to sell you!

Derek Pasquill

Given the disorientated liberal left's inability to understand why ordinary people like or even admire Palin, it should come as no surprise then to find that its response to the Loughner tragedy should plumb new depths of moral turpitude.

Plumb stupid, in other words.

jose garcia

"I never thought I would write this but Sarah Palin had a point"

and this is when i stop listening to you....

Sara palin has more know how and common sense in her little finger than most of the spectator bloggers put together , enjoy while it lasts, we are getting our news from other places, LIBERAL BIAS NO MORE

Patricia Shaw

Ah, what a shame li'l Nicky lacks a sense of humour and can t take a gentle ribbing, having to censor unflattering posts. You re writing for the Speccie now Nicky - where the house motto is 'don t think alike'..

Jolly Roger

I think you have missed something quite important Nick, with regard to your statement below:

"To date there is no evidence that Palin, the Tea Party or Fox News inspired the killer. American liberals say that she has blood on her hands. This allegation is not true."

The reason these accusations have been flying about are because of this:

http://happenstanceradio.com/community/index.php?do=/happenstance/blog/gabrielle-giffords-is-a-sarah-palin-target/

You said that:

"Its problem is that the first assumption of millions of people on hearing of the shooting was that the killer must be from the Tea Party. "

I dont think that is the case. The accusations are based on the campaign pictures on Palin's website with gunsight targets on Democrat Congressmen who are in favour of the Healthcare bill. For the record, I dont think the gunman was acting on this, but it is the link the left are using to point the finger at Palin.

Liz

Patricia Shaw. I very much doubt that it was Nick Cohen who had your revolting crap removed from this post. It was much more likely to have been people like me who objected to your remarks. It's not the first time you've made nasty personal attacks on the two writers on these blogs who are Jewish. What's your problem? I can't understand why the Spectator continues to publishes your ugly comments. They never have anything to do with advancing the writer's argument but everything to do with childish and predictable viciousness. I suggest you get professional help - you've obviously got serious psychological problems.

Patricia Shaw

Liz, getting your twisted little logic removed would be easy; much better for all to see your startling hypocrisy in all its glory.

If we used a mainstream UK media site to call for all Jews to be repatriated, to label Judaism as a violent, terrorist religion, to describe its followers as stinking rag heads and otherwise consistently to create a witch hunt of unbridled proportions, you'd scream your little head off.

Instead, you have no problems whatsoever with the fact that it does precisely that to Muslims every single day, across its blogs and Wall, as a matter of editorial policy.

Reserve your rancour for a just cause, instead of acting the Likudnik propgandist.

Geoff the Hawk

Regarding "indicators of the Tea Party's actuarial odds". What are the actuarial odds of the long-term survival of Western civilization if our "thinking" continues to allow a large proportion of us to simply infer causation without a shred of evidence and then not to blush and abjectly apologize when our emotion-based willfulness (which phrase also applies to the standard fare of postmodern academic frauds) is exposed as such?

Gene Carr

Millions of people did not assume that the Tea Party and Sarah Palin were to blame. But like me I'm sure that millions wondered how long it would take for the New York Times, MSNBC, ABC, CBS and the WaPo would connect it to Palin. I read somewhere that it took 30 mins.