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Townhall...
Conservatives
Need To Grow A Spine
By Douglas MacKinnon
October 7, 2011
I
once had a conversation with a
well-connected Democrat in Washington, D.C., with regard to lack of
advertising
in conservative publications.
Without
missing a beat, she said it
was because “advertisers and corporate America are petrified of the far
left.
The executives at these companies fear that if they advertise in
conservative
outlets, the far left will harass them, boycott them, threaten them,
and picket
them forever until they give in to the thuggish behavior.”
I
then pointed out that these same
companies who for the most part shun conservative outlets are thrilled
to
advertise in far-left magazines like Mother Jones and Vanity Fair, and
far-left
newspapers like the New York Times and Washington Post.
“Precisely,”
she responded. “Because
these companies know beyond a shadow of a doubt that conservatives will
never
lift a finger in protest. They may offer an initial objection, but in
the end,
they will do nothing.”
Unfortunately,
my Democrat friend is
all too correct. There have been endless examples of where
conservatives could
and should have risen up in protest against advertisers or liberal
outlets, and
didn’t.
When
do conservatives say “no more?”
When do they finally draw that uncrossable line in the sand? As an
independent
conservative, I am more and more worried that day will never come. As
my
liberal friend says: “That’s not the conservative way. They are much
too polite
and civilized for the hand-to-hand combat the far left lives for.”
Well,
another glaring example of when
conservatives and defenders of free speech can and should rise up
against the
politically correct censorship of the far left is upon us in the guise
of
liberal ESPN dropping Hank Williams Jr. from Monday Night Football.
What
did Mr. Williams do wrong? He
dared to touch the third rail of the far left and publicly criticize
their
oracle, Barack Obama. On the Fox News show “Fox & Friends,” Mr.
Williams
opined that GOP House Speaker John Boehner participating in the “golf
summit”
with Mr. Obama was “one of the biggest mistakes ever. ... It would be
like
Hitler playing golf with Benjamin Netanyahu.” Goodbye.
To
be sure, I wish everyone in the
public eye would stop invoking Hitler’s name for anything. That said,
Williams
wasn’t comparing Obama to Hitler. As is his right, he was simply using
that
example to highlight how nonsensical the “golf summit” was to him.
All
Americans and all conservatives
should understand that liberals firmly believe that free speech exists
only for
them. Not only will they do all in their power to deny the privilege of
free
speech to Republicans and conservatives, they will also purposefully
twist and
exaggerate words to destroy certain Republicans.
For
the latest example of that tried
and true tactic, look no further than the Washington Post’s ongoing
smear of
Rick Perry...
Read
the rest of the column at
Townhall
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