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July 20, 2005
Escalating the Rhetoric
In response to the criticism she's received, LaShawn Barber has turned up the rhetoric:
Conservative bloggers are jumping all over me the way Republicans have jumped on Tom Tancredo. While the man said that threatening Mecca was a possibility in the event of escalated attacks, conservatives have drank from the same putrid cup of swill that liberals devour. Any time a politician who just so happens to be a Republican utters the slightest controversial word, the left is all over him. That so-called conservatives fail to see the difference between blowing Mecca off the planet and expressing an opinion about our options should Islamofascist ever, God forbid, launch the nuclear weapons we all know they have, is a bitter disappointment.Highly emotional rhetoric, self-congratulatory statements boasting of independence...does this remind you of anyone?Say what you will about me. I couldn’t give a rat’s behind. Criticism from conservative bloggers, particularly on my defense of Tancredo, means as much to me as the daily dung dropped by the most rabid and vacuous liberal bloggers who, ironically, live to read my blog.
I am an independent conservative for a reason. I don’t seek approval from any man, and I don’t attach myself to whatever hare-brained meme Republican bloggers float. Fortunately, the blogosphere is big enough for all of us. As I’ve done since the beginning, I’ll continue to occupy a tiny corner of the blogosphere that’s free of rancid PC jargon and Republican bootlicking.
Seriously, though, I think Barber has gone too far here. I tend to believe that when you disagree, you should do so agreeably instead of engaging in ad hominem attacks and cries of heresy to the cause. I've read many of the posts in Barber's trackbacks and have found nothing to justify the kind of language she's using.
What really bothers me, though, is this idea that anyone who disagrees with her and Tancredo is not a 'real' conservative, but a 'Republican bootlicker.'
Given Barber's inability to take criticism, and her increasingly nasty attacks, I would rather be a liberal than any conservative of which she'd approve.
Posted by slublog at July 20, 2005 11:57 AM
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Comments
slubby,
You had TCF until you erroneously drew the comparison with Andrew Sullivan! If your point was that his weighted criticism hurts the GOP to the same extent such lunacy from La Shawn inflicts, then you might have an argument. And, knowing the odds are long that you could produce an equally, embarrassingly deranged post from Sullivan, it's better you focus on what such petulance from Barber does to the Right.
Posted by: that colored fella at July 21, 2005 07:32 AM
I certainly didn't mean to convey that Barber and Sullivan are alike in their ideologies. Barber is a conservative and I believe Sullivan, despite his protests to the contrary, is a liberal.
Both have shown, though, a tendency to answer criticisms of opinion with rather inappropriate levels of personal rhetoric. I believe debates over policy should be less emotional than both bloggers have made them.
Posted by: Slublog at July 21, 2005 09:03 AM
All attempts at debating the Tancredo remarks with La Shawn Barber in a logical and reasoned fashion end up with one being called names by her, having your comments removed, and the most egotistical of all responses, having your IP blocked from reading her site. Like I spent a moment crying as I removed her from my favorites list.
She's a piece of work and certainly no longer a Christian role model for me. I judge her words to be bitter and poisonous.
There is no Christian argument for endorsing the threats of a man in no position to make such threats. One must be blind with hatred not to see how shouting "bomb Mecca" from the comfort of suburban America puts real heroes on the front lines in the GWoT in danger.
Posted by: SAS at July 29, 2005 05:41 PM