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Suppose someone like Mike Pence or Donald Trump or Rush Limbaugh were to say--as a transparent comment on the effeminate and race obsessed Barack Obama--that he could not grapple with serious issues because people of his sort are "confused, blind, shrouded with hate, anger, racism, mommy issues," all Hell would break loose.  And rightly so, because it is quite wrong to reduce political issues to amateur psychologizing or to find base irrational motives for other people's arguments.  Only children--the word Vladimir Putin used to describe Obama and Ms Clinton--talk this way.

But when Obama uses the same words in a transparent reference to President Trump, he is treated with respect.

We all know this is true and we know why it's true, but why do so-called conservatives continue to pay any attention whatsoever to CNN-FOX-NBC etc?

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Thomas Fleming

Thomas Fleming is president of the Fleming Foundation. He is the author of six books, including The Morality of Everyday Life and The Politics of Human Nature, as well as many articles and columns for newspapers, magazines,and learned journals. He holds a Ph.D. in Classics from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and a B.A. in Greek from the College of Charleston. He served as editor of Chronicles: a Magazine of American Culture from 1984 to 2015 and president of The Rockford Institute from 1997-2014. In a previous life he taught classics at several colleges and served as a school headmaster in South Carolina

5 Responses

  1. Harry Colin says:

    The answer that I would suggest is contained in your description – “so-called conservatives.” These are the same people who cheerlead our global military adventures, gorge themselves on the refuse that Hollywood spews out and rush to buy as many items as possible that are made in distant lands by indentured servants.

    Just recall how many people claim to be “economically conservative and socially liberal;” while this stance might delude these folks that true leftists won’t still hate them, all it truly reveals is that they buy into all of the leftist agenda but only object to being taxed aggressively to pay for these ridiculous schemes. They are examples of the law of contradiction.

    I am increasingly sick of reading or hearing how Fox News trumps CNN or PMSNBC (gotta give Rush his due on this title); aside from the question of how Fax relates in any fashion to conservatism, when one combines all the others together, their numbers swamp Fox anyway. We are awash in a tsunami that is eroding everything we hold dear.

  2. Dot says:

    So-called conservatives pay attention to CNN, FOX, NBC, etc. because it’s easy to sit down after a meal and flip on the TV. Now they have their tablets, I-phones and whatever else is used to “stay connected”. The liberal left has the same so-called devices.

    People now can go anywhere as long as there is Wi-fi. Technology has made it so. I see no constructive point in criticizing them without a solution. What your phony conservatives don’t do is make noise, cause riots and destroy property.

  3. Avatar photo Thomas Fleming says:

    One has a duty, as scholar, journalist, writer, to state such truths as one can arrive at and to refute the sophistries that displace truth. Conservatives in America have generally given aid and comfort to the revolutionary forces whose effects they may well deplore. But those who play the part of Lafayette or Kerensky deserve everything they get.

  4. Dot says:

    Dr. Fleming, I appreciate very much your obligations to state such truths, but how have “conservatives in America given aid and comfort to these revolutionary forces whose effects they may well deplore”? Perhaps there are three groups in America – left, right and traditional?

    I just try to mind my business and take care of my house, my yard and myself. I have a small wooded area that I find peaceful and where I put the fall leaves that I have raked. The work I do is rewarding for me. I walk up and down hills every day for about 35 minutes. I am trying to learn another language and am active in my church. I don’t have a TV, don’t subscribe to any new paper and don’t have use for I-phones. I just make use of the internet. I consider myself thoroughly modern but not a victim of the latest piece of technology that many people think they need.

    Wish you and yours and Happy Thanksgiving.

  5. Avatar photo Thomas Fleming says:

    Dot, I’ll postpone the discussion until some point at which I have time to address your very good query. In the meantime, may I say, your description of your everyday life should be an inspiration to all, and I am very grateful to hear it.