Nathaniel

Shockey

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August 12, 2009

Pelosi’s ‘Un-American’ Comment Was the Least Troubling Thing She Said

Any conservative who pays even a small amount of attention to various conservative news outlets has heard of Nancy Pelosi’s most recent criticism of “un-American” actions.

Fox News reported: “House Speaker Nancy Pelosi along with her top deputy questioned the patriotism of those disrupting town hall meetings to air their complaints, (claiming) such behavior is ‘simply un-American.’”

Within a total of about 10 minutes of listening to talk radio today, I heard both Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage lampoon Pelosi for her use of the increasingly popular label “un-American.”

For the record, I can stand about as much of anything Pelosi writes or says as the next guy, which would usually amount to about six seconds’ worth. But let’s not get carried away.

Pelosi (and Steny Hoyer, who co-wrote a USA Today column making this claim) stated, “Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American.” She didn’t say “disrupting town hall debates is un-American,” nor did she say, “Disagreeing with this administration is un-American,” although I do occasionally wonder if this is many people’s actual belief.

She wrote a seven-word sentence with which most Americans would mostly agree.

She actually didn’t call anyone un-American. Not even when referring to specific actions – “hanging in effigy one Democratic member of Congress in Maryland and protesters holding a sign displaying a tombstone with the name of another congressman in Texas, where protesters also shouted ‘Just say no!’ drowning out those who wanted to hold a substantive discussion” – did she specifically label them as un-American. She called them “disruptions,” and “part of an ugly campaign.”

What people ought to be attacking her for is the rest of the column, where she repeatedly referred to the new health care plan simply as “reform.” While including very few specific and concrete parts of the plan, even her alleged “facts” were the moral opposite of facts – ambiguous, misleading and inaccurate at best. Her attempt to explain and simplify the new health care plan made very little sense at all.

This column represented Nancy Pelosi’s magnanimous attempt to explain and urge the passing of this administration’s large step toward socialized medicine. It presented conservative columnists and talk show hosts with a grand opportunity to dissect the dangers of socialized medicine. But instead, many seem to have been mesmerized by that titillating word “un-American.” What a waste.

As we all probably remember, the most prominent use of this word in recent history came during George W. Bush’s first term. As many people felt the Iraqi War was being mishandled, criticism of the president and his administration occasionally seemed to overlap criticism of the soldiers. Conservatives rushed to the defense of our troops, concluded that this criticism of the war undermined our effort, and suddenly a large group of liberals were labeled un-American. While there probably is a constituency of U.S. citizens that seems to lack the proper respect and appreciation of our soldiers, throwing around this silly word didn’t, and will never do, anyone much good. It’s too arbitrary, and can easily be used to promote any individual’s purposes.

Instead, why don’t we talk about what’s good for our country? America was founded on principles of freedom, limited government and courage in the face of tyranny. That doesn’t make these American ideals. History has proven that these ideals are good for America. Instead of talking about who is the most American, why don’t we identify those people who are doing the most good and those who are doing the most harm?

The cold, hard truth is that no one is any more American than anyone else, unless of course we’re including in the discussion someone who isn’t a citizen of North or South America.

While we ought to honor our forefathers, we don’t do anyone any good by assigning them nebulous qualities and charging everyone to live by them, at least not if we want anyone to listen.

While a close friend may know exactly what you mean by the “good old days”, if you plan on affecting change in someone who is ignorant, you had better be more specific.

All to say, jumping on Pelosi for her lazy use of an imprecise, misleading word is letting her and her co-written column off the hook way too easily. In fact, it’s also making you look a little dumb yourself.

© 2009 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

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