America According to Liberal Bias

A Response to “This is Your Nation on White Privilege" by Tim Wise

by Chip Townley ( Originally posted 9/19/2008 )

(NOTE: Click on the link above to read Tim Wise's article - mine will make much more sense if you read his first. )

For those of you who find it hard to be intellectually honest enough to realize how slanted reporters and columnists have become in America. I will attempt to offer the following examples of liberal bias.

Liberal bias is praising Barack Obama as a champion of "choice" when he supports the killing of viable babies that survive late-term abortion attempts because he wouldn't want his daughters to have to be "Punished with a baby", while at the same time moralizing over Bristol Palin for becoming pregnant at 17. The age of consent in Alaska is 16, by the way, which you never hear reported, do you?

Liberal bias is using the candid off-hand comments of an idiot 18 year-old boy from Alaska to typify the sentiments of white America. Gangsta rappers who advocate killing cops however, are obviously all just artists with a hard-edged social commentary.

Liberal bias is joyfully blasting Sarah Palin for being inexperienced, and intimating that she is incompetent because she does not have the right educational pedigree. Revitalizing a state that supplies over 20% of America's energy, cleaning up the corruption in that state, and leading her constituents with a greater than 80% approval rating obviously does not count towards executive experience. Apparently though, being a community organizer does.

Liberal bias is when every errant word a conservative speaks is analyzed to find the juicy sound bites that, when taken out of context, make the candidate sound stupid. Of course, no one questions why Barack Obama said "Over the last 15 months, we've traveled to every corner of the United States. I've now been in 57 states? I think one left to go." Why is he not crucified for that minor gaffe?

Liberal bias assumes that being a gun enthusiast automatically means you are a scary person.

Liberal bias excuses the statement Michelle Obama made when her husband began running for president, that "for the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country". This is apparently a defensible statement because it is a slam on the Bush administration. Any statement, after all, is acceptable if it bashes the Bush administration.

Liberal bias places considerable value on being a "community organizer", but none on being the mayor of a small town. Both roles try to affect change on a local level, but a mayor is accountable for her actions, and held up for public scrutiny. That makes sense, I guess, since avoiding accountability is a liberal virtue.

Liberal bias is hyping Hillary Clinton as the great hope for Women finally breaking through that glass ceiling, yet assuming that Sarah Palin must be a bad mother for trying to do the same thing. Quick question... has Michelle Obama's motherhood been called into question because she is spending all of her time campaigning for her husband and making guest appearances on every TV show known to man? No. According to the women's rights movement in this country, empowered women are supposed to be able to balance family and career, right? Apparently, that only applies to liberal women.

Liberal bias minimizes Barack Obama's friends and social contacts as irrelevant. It assumes that every conservative is a part of the "old boy" network, but Obama represents real change. Somehow, the senator comes out clean when he conveniently abandons his long-time associations with the likes of Jeremiah Wright and William Ayers. Furthermore, Obama is one of the most financially connected politicians in the country, but somehow we are supposed to believe that all that special interest money comes without strings, right?

Liberal bias crowns Michelle Obama as “the new Jackie O.", paints Cindy McCain as an ice queen, and accuses Sarah Palin of being an unfit mother. These women are all very capable, powerful, intelligent wives and mothers. Only one, however, fits the liberal mold of what smart, strong women are supposed to look and act like. The other two break that mold, and are snarled at by the very people that claim to stand for all women.

Liberal bias is accusing Palin of doing nothing but attacking Obama in her RNC acceptance speech, when she, in fact, spent more than the first half of that speech outlining specific policies she put in place as governor, and specific platforms she would support as VP. She also spent the last quarter of her speech extolling McCain’s qualifications and ideals. For Senator Obama, however, opining that America is horrible and stating that he would not represent "four more years of Bush" is apparently a coherent policy statement.

Liberal bias downplays the fact that Jeremiah Wright, one of Barack Obama's mentors by his own admission, has screamed "God damn America" from the pulpit (which I doubt Colon Powell would agree to, by the way). Conservative pastors, however, are frequently labeled "extremist", "fanatic", or "fundamentalist" simply because they don't compromise their biblically based theology to adhere to the confines of political correctness.

Liberal bias skews everything conservative towards Bush. The media has succeeded in making "Bush" a bad word, and therefore every question tends to be tailored to identify the candidate with the bad word. Some questions are simply devious or stupid, and should be avoided.

Liberal bias paints Barack Obama as a "savior" for America, and a "man of the people". The media considers his education to be his qualification for leading the country, and his eloquence to be his mandate. The idea that some people see him as aristocratic and aloof has little to do with either his education or his charisma. That reputation was garnered in part by his own words, when he said of working class middle-Americans: "They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them...".

Liberal bias loves to characterize all non-liberal whites as racist, unenlightened fear mongers and haters. The idea that some idiot on an e-mail or blog thread somewhere called Obama's fist bump a "terrorist fist bump", is immediately used as evidence of broad racism and irrational hatred. In contrast, far more acerbic and hateful remarks are published every day concerning our current president's personal habits and mannerisms. No one seems to be crying for the injustice against George Bush.

Liberal bias is quick to dismiss the past indiscretions of liberals as the exuberance of youth, while dredging up and highlighting every flaw in the lives of conservatives. They are all human, every one. That is a fact that is often overlooked in the media's fervor to worship Obama the savior. Is it any wonder we see him as aristocratic, when he can get away with just about anything without being held accountable like us plebeians?

Liberal bias defines racism as the hatred of other races by whites. Somehow, it is virtuous for blacks to hate whites, as long as they cite slavery or segregation, or any number of social ills. They must have a good reason for their hatred, because years ago, great wrongs were institutionally perpetrated against blacks in this country. Yet, somehow, John McCain has no right to say that he hates the people that physically tortured him and his fellow POWs for years? Any black man in America today can take umbrage over the slightest perceived inequity because he may have had an ancestor 6 generations ago that was a slave. We accept that, and even excuse bad behavior because we are embarrassed as a nation by that blight on our history. Sure, racism still exists today, but I do not believe it fits the liberal definition anymore, and we cannot continue to pretend that we are fighting racism in this country, when we seem content to merely trade one racism for another.

Liberal bias embraces the victim mentality that has come to pervade our society. Because a black candidate claims to be a victim of racism, and of adversity growing up, he is somehow credited with strength and character. On the other hand, military personnel are universally painted as aggressive, somewhat dim bullies. So a victim is considered more righteous than a soldier. We are supposed to like the victim more, because we can all, in some way, identify with his challenges. Most of us cannot comprehend the adversities and sacrifices of a soldier who has put his life in jeopardy for the sake of his country. I guess that is why the liberal mindset does not consider the merit of his bravery.

Finally, Liberal bias assumes that all conservatives are clones of George Bush, and that the ills of society are all attributable to W. I am not a huge Bush fan, but if you believe that the president is solely responsible for the woes of the job market, the housing crunch, inflation, and wall street, you have been mislead by the liberal media. Take a high school correspondence course in US Government, then examine our dysfunctional legislature and the gigantic invasive bureaucracy that accompanies it. Do you wonder why Fannie May had to be bailed out? Ask John McCain. He apparently foresaw this trouble in 2005 when he co-sponsored a bill to reform the financial Government Sponsored Entities. That bill failed because politicians on both sides of the aisle were in the pockets of Fannie May and Freddie Mac. To learn more about that, you will have to ask Barack Obama, who was the second largest recipient of contributions from Lobbyists for the GSEs. That is a curious statistic for a junior senator who claims to be a harbinger of change and an enemy of “business as usual” politics.

Because of the unpopularity of our current president, you can count on either candidate being a change from the current administration. Remember, they are both politicians, and neither would enjoy dealing with the vitriol that W endures on a daily basis. The question of this election is not whether or not you want change, but in which direction you want that change to go. Newsmakers, talking heads, and self righteous bloggers would have you believe that Barack Obama is the only intelligent choice for president this November. It is not because they believe the hype they are selling, it is because they don’t want you to question that hype. Don’t swallow the sound bites and believe they are truth. Don’t let a reporter do your thinking for you, or make you believe you are stupid if you disagree with the party line.

The problem with our political process right now is not “white privilege”, racism, sexism, or some other social injustice. The problem is that we have this lemming-like tendency to abdicate our own judgments to sources that do not tell us the whole truth. The problem is the appalling lack of integrity and responsibility displayed by both the media and the voters. The problem is that we would rather drink in and regurgitate liberal bias than make an informed decision. The problem is us, aligning our views according to white privilege, black angst, rich guilt, class warfare, and anything else that makes life simpler than dealing with the unfiltered truth.