What Joe the Plumber Shows Us About the Left
In “their rabid character assassination” as Ed Morrissey puts it, of Joe the Plumber, “a man who did nothing more than ask a question,” Obama supporters and their allies in the media remind us (yet again) of the tactics of all too many on the left. Instead of challenging their conservative, independent or just plain non-orthodox leftists critics on the plain of ideas, they dredge up whatever they can find in an attempt to destroy our credibility.
They just get upset with anything which upsets their narrative.
They don’t want to investigate Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac because such an investigation might undermine their narrative that deregulation and Wall Street greed prompted the mortgage meltdown. When conservative suggest that government programs might have precipitated the mess, for example, one leading Democrat accused such heretics to the media narrative of racism.
Similarly, when Joe the Plumber upset the Obama campaign’s middle-class narrative, Joe Biden savaged the citizen because his team “simply can’t tolerate an outspoken citizen successfully painting the Democratic ticket as socialist overlords.“
What is it about those on the left, including some very intelligent and thoughtful people, who get whipped into a frenzy any time anyone takes issue with their ideas? What accounts for their repeated attempts at character assassination of their critics?
I doubt we’ll find the answer in studying their worldview, but we might it by studying their character and considering their hysteria. The answer has more to do with their psychology than their adversaries’ politics.
Perhaps, we won’t arrive at understanding their mania, but we do know this one thing:Â when someone emerges onto the national stage who challenges the narrative of the left, all too many liberals, along with a number of hangers-on in the MSM, will all but ignore his points and attack his person.
UPDATE: Media spend more time investigating Joe’s tax problems than Barack Obama’s. In what kind of nation, do the media investigate critics more than candidates?
UP-UPDATE: Rush Limbaugh: The media “just can’t stand it because Joe the Plumber caused Obama to screw up. Joe the Plumber caused Obama to actually give it up on what his campaign is really all about.” Read the whole thing!
UP-UP-UPDATE:Â Iowahawk:
Joe simply had the temerity to speak truth (or, if you prefer, an uninformed opinion) to power, for which the politico-media axis apparently determined that he must be humiliated, harassed, smashed, destroyed. The viciousness and glee with which they set about the task ought to concern anyone who still cares about citizen participation, and freedom of speech, and all that old crap they taught in Civics class before politics turned into Narrative Deathrace 3000, and Web 2.0 turned into Berlin 1932.0.
(H/t: Glenn.)
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The Sunday talking heads will appear tomorrow. I wonder if they will bring up the unsavory nature of the attacks on Joe the plumber or even the honest response that Joe received from Obama that OBAMA believes in “spreading the wealth” through federal taxation and programs. You have to love it when Obama says that he is going to give 95% of the voters a tax cut, but raise the taxes on the other 5% …………… it is blatant pandering. And, yes, I will be not be in that 5% that will be penalized for earning too much.
Comment by Swampfox — October 18, 2008 @ 5:49 pm - October 18, 2008
You might say that Joe the plumber is being penalized for practicing politics without being properly vetted or without the necessary license. How dare he question anointed One!
And, meanwhile we all know that Iraq can conduct a better election with less voter fraud than we can in the United States. I will forever remember those Iraqis that went to vote and put their thumb in an ink well, knowing that there those in Iraq might murder them for voting and having that inked thumb.
Comment by Swampfox — October 18, 2008 @ 6:03 pm - October 18, 2008
OBAMA + DEM CONG = USA RIP
Comment by Ted — October 18, 2008 @ 6:08 pm - October 18, 2008
It’s socialistic that a person even needs a license from the state to work as a plumber.
Comment by V the K — October 18, 2008 @ 6:19 pm - October 18, 2008
Hammering The Plumber…
Rather than discussing - in a civil manner - the issues. Dan Blatt, Gay Patriot West, has the details. In “their rabid character assassination†as Ed Morrissey puts it, of Joe the Plumber, “a man who did nothing more than……
Trackback by what if? — October 18, 2008 @ 6:46 pm - October 18, 2008
Oh, that we once more could find ethical “journalists” scattered amongst our media outlets, rather than the current spate of talking heads spewing forth “essential issues” they think their master from Illinois desires covered. Too few, too silent, too enslaved, almost too late.
Comment by 49erDweet — October 18, 2008 @ 7:56 pm - October 18, 2008
Joe committed a blasphemy and Barry’s followers are gathering the wood needed to burn the heretic.
Liberalism is a religion and has more than its share of fundamentalist kooks.
#4: V, I don’t think Joe needs a license to perform residential plumbing work in Ohio. I wonder what some of these drive-bys would think about licensure for journalists. Or presidential candidates?
Comment by SoCalRobert — October 18, 2008 @ 8:05 pm - October 18, 2008
He works for a licensed plumber, and therefore, does not need one himself, as I understand it. However, if he buys the business, he will. This is how a Buckeye explained it to me.
Comment by rightwingprof — October 19, 2008 @ 7:22 am - October 19, 2008
I am curious, in all fairness what was your response when Michelle Malkin and the rest of the right wing crowd went after 12 year old Graham Frost after he spoke on SCHIP? How decent was it to attack a 12 year old child?
Or how about Bill O’Rielly when he went after Shawn Hornbeck who had been kidnapped and molested for years? I am curious to know what does that say about the right? Was that character assassination or just politics. Joe is a grown man, these were children does that make it OK?
[Attack a 12-year-old? Hardly.
First, unlike Joe the Plumber who was approached by the "opposition," the Democrats put Frost forward. As Mark Steyn put it, "If a political party is desperate enough to send a boy to do a man’s job, then the boy is fair game." Not just that, pretty much all conservatives pointed out was that his family sent him to an expensive private school which is kind of relevant when he is backing a program which would give him more government money. Oh, and they looked into his family's real estate holding. That's not attacking him, but looking into the wealth of his family, the people who alerted their son to the DNC. If anyone should take a hit for making a kid a public figure in this case, it's the Democrats who brought him forward, not conservatives who made an issue of his family's finances. --Dan]
Comment by Greg — October 19, 2008 @ 10:32 am - October 19, 2008
Oh, so he’s an undocumented plumber? I guess the only time it’s okay to be undocumented is when you’re illegally trespassing in our country.
Comment by V the K — October 19, 2008 @ 12:13 pm - October 19, 2008
First of all, Joe the Plumber did not at all plan pre-meditated character assassination on The SnObama. He was merely playing football in his front yard with his son when He Who Shall Not Be Named was strolling through his neighborhood with the salivating MSM in tow.
Second, all he merely did was ask the question “will your plan tax me more?” The Snob, in his infinitestimal wisdom, let the mask slip and showed his Commie colors (red, I believe).
Then the DNC communications staff (aka the Drive-By Media) started a hatchet job when it came to the public’s attention that The Snob’s policy had (gasp!) been questioned by a commoner, who (if you believe the Snob’s sympathizers in North Korea, Cuba and China) should know better.
Unlike Graham Frost, who was a willing pawn in the national debate over health care and had his stage-parents push him forward, Joe the Plumber was, in fact, minding his own business - something the DNC believes should not be left to the public’s own devices. Steyn was right: if you send a boy to do a man’s job, you attack the boy. Joe is a man who was not sent to do anything at all.
Finally, if anything else is evident in this past week’s coverage, it is the fact that the Dhimmicrats do not - I repeat, DO NOT - care about the “average” American. They are now the party of elites - which is also evident in the SnObamas’ room service tab at the Waldorf Astoria. (Iranian caviar? Ugh. Nouveau riche, indeed.)
That is why the polls are tightening.
That is why The Snob’s lead has been cut by a third (check Zogby and Rasmussen if you don’t believe me).
That is why Ohio is now in play - as well as Florida, Pennsylvania and West Viriginia.
We are all Joe the Plumber. And we’ve had enough of the American-hating DNC.
Regards,
Peter H.
Comment by Peter Hughes — October 19, 2008 @ 1:41 pm - October 19, 2008
Furthermore, what the Frost child did was point out nicely what the leftist Democrat Party believes, which is that rich white children should have their healthcare paid for by a tax on tobacco that, according to Democrats’ own rhetoric prior, disporportionately affects the poor and minorities.
Why does the Democrat Party hate poor black people and insist that they should be taxed to pay for healthcare for wealthy whites with their own houses, businesses, and expensive cars?
Comment by North Dallas Thirty — October 19, 2008 @ 3:40 pm - October 19, 2008
#12 - “Why does the Democrat Party hate poor black people and insist that they should be taxed to pay for healthcare for wealthy whites with their own houses, businesses, and expensive cars?”
Because, ND30, that is exactly what the DNC platform is all about - keeping their constituencies under their collective thumb and (in the parlance of some old Southerners): “keeping them in their place.”
In other words, the DNC doesn’t want any uppity blacks or other minorities to upset the apple cart. To them, they are the “house niggers.”
Regards,
Peter H.
Comment by Peter Hughes — October 19, 2008 @ 3:56 pm - October 19, 2008
Graeme Frost was never attacked by anyone. No one tried to take away his livelihood. No one tried to slander his character. No one did anything other than reveal that his family’s financial circumstance were better than what the Democrat’s had led people to believe. It was germane to the debate at that time, since the Democrats were proposing a massive expansion of a welfare program so that upper-middle class families like the Frosts would have access to it.
In short, the truth about the Frost family was germane to the issue at hand.
In Joe the Plumber’s case, he asked a question of the One and the One, in an Unguarded Moment, let his left-wing socialist freak flag fly. Knowing whatever lurked in the background of Joe the Plumber was, and is, irrelevant. The issue was the question he asked and the answer the One gave.
And Bill O’Reilly was completely out of line to go after Shawn Hornbeck, but 1.) Bill O’Reilly is a complete blowhard and 2.) there was nothing political about it, it was just O’Reilly being an a-hole; not an entire media apparatus sent out to destroy a person.
Comment by V the K — October 19, 2008 @ 4:27 pm - October 19, 2008
What Joe the Plumber really did, was get Obama’s mask to slip. He got Obama to reveal his true attitude - elitism; and his true intentions - raising taxes on small business. That’s the sin. Left-liberals don’t win nation-wide races, if their true intentions are known.
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — October 20, 2008 @ 10:28 am - October 20, 2008
I find this whole situation frightening. I am from Minnesota. If you have been following the 6th District here, you probable know of Incumbant Michelle Bachman’s controversial comments about Barack Obama and Congress being investigated for Anti-American views made during an interview with Chris Matthews of Hardball. He basically set her up with his line of questions.
Joe the Plumber asks Barack a hard question and Barack says something controversial and Joe is investigated. Chris Matthew asks Michelle Bachman a tough question which she answers and Michelle Bachman is hammered. Why isn’t Chris Matthews being investigated for having the Audacity to ask a tough, loaded question?
Media Bias?? Me thinks so.
Keep up the good discussions.
Doug
Comment by Doug Davis — October 31, 2008 @ 5:55 pm - October 31, 2008