The manufacturing of outrage
against Rep. Steve
Scalise tells us far more about the fortunes, strategy, and tactics of
Democrats in an era of decline than provide any useful information about issues
of the day.
Essentially (an excellent summation
of the events is here),
the Republican was invited 12 years ago to give a speech to a civic association
in Metairie by his next-door neighbor who ran the group. What he didn’t know
what the same guy also headed a small group that endorsed former state Rep.
David Duke’s white supremacist philosophies and had booked in the same room
later that day a meeting of the group. The room had no paraphernalia regarding
that group visible at the time, and while the majority of the audience that
heard Scalise’s 15-minute speech on state and local issues dealing with
taxation, a pitch he apparently gave often that year as the state House of
which he then was a member was dealing with controversial changes, some
participants from the other group also wandered in. Joining Scalise were
representatives of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office and the American Red
Cross.
Scalise did not remember the event
(not surprisingly given its datedness and that he probably has spoken at
thousands of similar events), and upon jogging his memory really only recalled
the subject matter and that he saw no visible sign that any white supremacists
lurked about. Even if he had known the group would be using the room later, he didn’t
know specifics about the group, with this lack of knowledge being commonplace
among Louisiana politicians (if former
Sen. J. Bennett Johnston is any indicator), with the only public
information about it apparently having been circulated in a lightly-read local
shopper. The rest of the details reported in the media were filled in by the
guy who invited him. This was why he
made a blanket apology about the appearance even as he didn’t know of the
presence of group members at the time.
Contrast this with the alternative
version that the more fevered section of the political left has offered:
Scalise knew of the group and went specifically to talk to them in any event
knowing that or learning upon it at his arrival, despite knowing that any politician
that willingly associated with Duke or his organization (Duke himself has said
there is absolutely
no relationship between him and Scalise) would be committing political
suicide. Needless to say, this version seems highly implausible while the other
appears quite reasonable, backed by the various character references about his
personal life that Scalise has received since the reporting began from
politicians on both sides of the aisle and his subsequent policy advocacy that
makes it obvious the tremendous cognitive dissonance that Scalise would have to
engage in for that latter story to represent reality.
But apparently some on the left
seem quite willing to endure that dissonance, or alternatively ignore the
inconvenient facts in order to permit faith in that interpretation.
Interestingly, that has been limited to the fringe left, with the story itself apparently
very old news shopped by a disgruntled representative of the Democrats’ Angry
Left branch and former candidate years ago against Scalise, knowing then it was
too thin a reed on which to make any impact in a campaign but now during a slow
news period figured it could gain attention, that found a willing dupe proven eager
to become the Louisiana left’s online version of the Weekly World News. Only a few and far leftists have reacted by
calling for Scalise to exit his leadership position in the House and/or resign
his seat, most
prominently the merchandisers
of intolerance at the Southern Poverty
Law Center.
More centrist and established
Democrat interests outside the state have remained silent on this, knowing full
well the phoniness of the extremist interpretation but at the same time
welcoming such a development because anything negative about the GOP, no matter
how outlandish, helps them. And with the nutjobs’ promulgation of it this
explains why the story is here, why it was publicized, and why now.
Nationally, six years of the
least-restrained liberal governance in history has put the country at a tipping
point where the 2016 election outcomes could signal a move towards a conservative
era for some time to come, with huge Republican majorities overall at the state
level, control of Congress, and indicators that such power will percolate into
the White House and more broadly across the federal government. In Louisiana,
Democrats lie in tatters with no majorities in any state political institution
with elections next year more likely to increase Republicans power than
decrease it. Simply, the left is losing the battle of ideas in both of these
venues and from its perspective anything goes to try to prevent further erosion
of its power, aided in knowing that a friendly media will present any calumnies
which they don’t have to believe but which will give them an out to publicize by
claiming they must report on controversies.
At the state level, the choices are
either to move away from the far left that state Democrats have embraced or to
double down on what has put them in a precarious position and try to distract
from that. To date, the state
party shows no sign of moderation and at least the hacks behind this story are
trying to drive forward the distraction process in creating a false narrative
for the simple that seeks character assassination of Republicans, no matter how
ludicrously. If we have learned anything about this incident, it is that these
unhinged Democrats are more than ready to open fire and to impoverish political
discourse in their quest to claw back power.
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