Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Here's some more of that new civility everyone is talking about

A tea party rally in Madison, Wisconsin over the weekend and pro-union counter-protesters booing during the national anthem?





To be all fair and balanced, here's Ann Althouse who has been doing great work covering all that has been happening on the ground in Madison over the past couple of months:

I'm seeing some assertions about this on blogs and in YouTube videos, and it's wrong if not unfair and deceptive. I don't have my own video, because I mishandled the button on my camera, but I was right behind the Tea Party crowd amid anti-Tea Party protesters who were making a lot of noise trying to drown out whatever was coming from the podium. They were, in fact, succeeding in their purpose so well that they could not hear when the national anthem began.

I started walking forward and it took a while for me to recognize the anthem. My observation was that those who could hear it were not booing. The "rockets red glare" line seemed louder, and there was a noticeable hushing that extended back into the anti-Tea Party areas of the crowd.


Perhaps. In the video, however, we're hearing plenty of the national anthem, loud and clear, as well as plenty of booing and cat calls until the towards the end of the anthem when the pro-union types seem to get a clue.




Oh, and check this out (via Lee Stranahan):





That's not "I strongly object to your political values and principles" - that shrieking, caterwauling, that ululating... that's just pure hatred.


But it's all good because Paul Krugman has now come out and said that being uncivil is like patriotic or something. Good to know because whatever thin veneer of post-partisanship still claimed by the back-bencher currently residing in the White House, the same post-partisanship he campaigned upon, has officially been laid to rest by the grand poobah of statist punditry.

We're glad it's over. All that new civility balderdash was really crimping our style.

2 comments:

SarahB said...

So, Ann thinks it isn't fair that the union thugs couldn't hear the anthem because THEY were rudely trying to drown out the tea party. Huh. Maybe she wants us to wipe their noses too.

Dean said...

Yeah, it was kind of odd all the way around.

I'll give her a pass as she has done great work there in Wisky-town covering the 3-ring circus.