Spot the "Liberal"

The kind of emails I've been getting from my conservative friends of late on Sarah Palin afford me the opportunity for an illustrated lecture in Wingnutology 101. (Not that you need it; you're all kicking it at the Ph.D. level just by virtue of being a regular reader.)

Check this [1], from the Republican Majority Campaign Fund, an ask for "maximum possible gift of $2,300" to help launch "launch a multimillion dollar TV and online ad campaign to reach millions in the next two weeks":

Note, dear students, the equation of late-night comedian Bill Maher with "the Obama campaign" and "the Democratic Party headed by Howard Dean." It goes on to bray, "But you can stop Chris Matthews, Oprah and the rest of the liberal media...."

Now this [2], a come-on for Townhall magazine subscriptions. Here we find this notional "left" attacking, among other things, "her heritage," which language is, among other things, super-duper creepy. What is her "heritage"? The only people I know who refer to generic European Americans as possessing a "heritage" are, frankly, white supremicists. [3] Bravo! A new low.

But that's not the point I'm here to make in this lesson. The point is simply this: in actual fact progressives have been remarkably disciplined in laying off Palin's family, her intellectual infirmities, and all the rest, and articles like this one [4], by someone I've never heard of, and who doesn't appear to be particularly well-known as a liberal [5] (see here [6] for comparison's sake), are few and very far between.

No matter. For these rhetorical purposes, Bill Maher's a Democratic operative. And Chris Matthews. And the fictional creature who, somewhere out there, is attacking Sarah Palin's "heritage." Anyone, really, that any given conservative happens not to find useful on any particular day.

Which is the conservative definition of "liberal." Which means that no actual liberal can ever get credit for considering the conservative vice presidential nominee on her manifest qualifications for office. Which concludes our lesson for today.

Republican Majority Campaign Fund e-mail

Townhall Magazine sales pitch