Monday, August 01, 2011

Is "Terrorist" the new "N-word?"

Vice President Joe Biden is alleged to have dropped the “T-word” in describing American citizens aligned with Tea Party philosophies that are counter to the prevailing winds on Capitol Hill in the wake of the latest round of maneuvering in the debt-ceiling fracas. 

Like many other things the Vice President says, this thought was not original--actually being uttered by Pennsylvania Democratic Representative Mike Doyle in a closed-door caucus session, according to Politico.com. Later, on the CBS Evening News, Mr. Biden denied having used the "t-word." (Of course--what else would he say when confronted on national TV?)

Flight-93 crash site, Shanksville, PA.
No, Congressman Doyle, and Mr. Vice President, terrorists are the ones that kill people for disagreeing with them—you know, like the ones that crashed that jet liner into a cornfield in your state ten years ago, next month.

Terrorists are the ones that shoot up US Army bases, like Ft. Hood, where the soldiers aren’t looking for an enemy to strike. Terrorists are the ones within our own population who, for religious reasons, are conscientious objectors to fighting and shooting Muslims in foreign lands, but have no such qualms about killing US troops on our home soil. Terrorists hang their victims from commercial cranes; terrorists hang women; terrorists hang 7-year old children.

A few years back it was really fashionable to drop the N-word if you were of the dark-skinned persuasion, but woe be unto the member of any other ethnicity to use the same slang term in a sentence. It was okay for rappers to include the N-word in the lyrics of their “music” as a badge of honor, but there was a double-standard for use of the pronoun by anyone else. 
It was verboten. 
It was ridiculous.

I think we’re seeing that double standard in play with the Vice President and his crony, Mike Doyle, who have painted patriots with the bloody brush of terrorism in describing their tenacious stand for traditional American principles of self-reliance, fair compensation for work well done, and abhorrence of taxation without representation. 

They’ve also painted themselves into an uncomfortable corner, because at the end of the day, regardless of political persuasion, the American people are sick and tired of Republicans, Democrats, and the POTUS and VPOTUS behaving like little terrors in the school yard: There’s very little content to their commentary, and when thwarted the best response they can muster is name calling.