The Left’s So-Called Empathy

[bonnie]

The Left’s So-Called Empathy

It doesn’t extend to conservatives or dead babies.

By Mark Steyn

Lest you doubt that we’re headed for the most vicious election year in memory, consider the determined effort, within ten minutes of his triumph in Iowa, to weirdify Rick Santorum. Discussing the surging senator on Fox News, Alan Colmes mused on some of the “crazy things” he’s said and done.

Santorum has certainly said and done many crazy things, as have most members of America’s political class, but the “crazy thing” Colmes chose to focus on was Santorum’s “taking his two-hour-old baby when it died right after childbirth home,” whereupon he “played with it.” My National Review colleague Rich Lowry rightly slapped down Alan on air, and Colmes subsequently apologized, though not before Mrs. Santorum had been reduced to tears by his remarks. Undeterred, Eugene Robinson, the Pulitzer Prize–winning Washington Post columnist, doubled down on stupid and insisted that Deadbabygate demonstrated how Santorum is “not a little weird, he’s really weird.”

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The short life of Gabriel Santorum would seem a curious priority for political discourse at a time when the Brokest Nation in History is hurtling toward its rendezvous with destiny. But needs must, and victory by any means necessary. In 2008, the Left gleefully mocked Sarah Palin’s live baby. It was only a matter of time before they moved on to a dead one.

Not many of us will ever know what it’s like to have a child who lives only a few hours. That alone should occasion a certain modesty about presuming to know what are “weird” and unweird reactions to such an event.

In 1996, the Santorums were told during the pregnancy that their baby had a fatal birth defect and would not survive more than a few hours outside the womb. So Gabriel was born, his parents bundled him, and held him, and baptized him. And two hours later he died. They decided to take his body back to the home he would never know. Weirdly enough, this crazy weird behavior is in line with the advice of the American Pregnancy Association, which says that “it is important for your family members to spend time with the baby” and “help them come to terms with their loss.”

Would I do it? Dunno. Hope I never have to find out. Many years ago, a friend of mine discovered in the final hours of labor that her child was dead but that she would still have to deliver him. I went round to visit her shortly after, not relishing the prospect but feeling that it was one of those things one was bound to do. I ditched the baby gift I’d bought a few days earlier but kept the flowers and chocolate. My friend had photographs of the dead newborn. What do you say? Oh, he’s got your face?

I was a callow pup in my early twenties, with no paternal instincts and no great empathetic capacity. But I understood that I was in the presence of someone who had undergone a profound and harrowing experience, one which it would be insanely arrogant for those of us not so ill-starred to judge.

There but for the grace of God go I, as we used to say.

There is something telling about what Peter Wehner at Commentary rightly called the “casual cruelty” of Eugene Robinson. The Left endlessly trumpets its “empathy.” President Obama, for example, has said that what he looks for in his judges is “the depth and breadth of one’s empathy.” As he told his pro-abortion pals at Planned Parenthood, “we need somebody who’s got the heart — the empathy — to recognize what it’s like to be a young teenage mom.” Empathy, empathy, empathy: You barely heard the word outside clinical circles until the liberals decided it was one of those accessories no self-proclaimed caring progressive should be without.

[Bravus]

Alan Colmes behaved extremely badly. I have a lot of empathy for the Santorums in this situation because my wife and I had one very like it, and although we did not take our baby home we did spend some time with her to grieve.

But Alan Colmes is not the left, and the left is not Alan Colmes. I try hard to lay anything an individual person does on the right at the feet of that person. Only if there is a pervasive pattern will I ascribe a characteristic to 'the right'. I'm *not* seeing pervasive pattern of those on the left ridiculing Santorum on this issue, quite the reverse.

[bonnie]

Alan Colmes behaved extremely badly. I have a lot of empathy for the Santorums in this situation because my wife and I had one very like it, and although we did not take our baby home we did spend some time with her to grieve.

But Alan Colmes is not the left, and the left is not Alan Colmes. I try hard to lay anything an individual person does on the right at the feet of that person. Only if there is a pervasive pattern will I ascribe a characteristic to 'the right'. I'm *not* seeing pervasive pattern of those on the left ridiculing Santorum on this issue, quite the reverse.

Sarah Palin and her little boy with Downs Syndrome experienced quite a bit of very cruel ridicule.

Several conservative women have been ridiculed and called some pretty vicious names.Especially those that are attractive. Michelle Bachmann's husband was subject to some pretty nasty remarks,all on a personal level

[Stan]

Be they conservative or liberal, they are sub-human... IMHO

I too, have a beautiful adopted Chinese daughter.

[Woody]

Yes Bonnie. Those liberals can be SO cruel and prejudice.

[bonnie]

Be they conservative or liberal, they are sub-human... IMHO

I too, have a beautiful adopted Chinese daughter.

This was not about adopting a child of another race.

Alan Colmnes made it as strange and bizarre as he could about parents with a dead child.

Reading what he said you would think they went home and played peek-boo for awhile

[Bravus]

I think Stan was referencing the Huntsman story.

[Bravus]

Of course, *that* ad was run by Ron Paul supporters.

[Stan]

Yes, I should have read the responses..

[bonnie]

There are wacko's on either side and in the middle,but personal derogatory insulting remarks has a much higher percentage on the left.This has nothing to do with the color of skin of a adopted child.

For John Huntsman it did,and the response should have been much stronger than the tepid,"I disavow"

Colmes should have been fired along with the other guy making those vicious statements.

I don't particularly care for Don Imus but look what happened to him and then take a look at what many on the left have said

[Bravus]

personal derogatory insulting remarks has a much higher percentage on the left.

Nope. Your filters persuade you that this is the truth, but it simply isn't. Politics in America has become a very dirty business, and neither side has a lock on either dirt or cleanliness.

[bonnie]

Of course, *that* ad was run by Ron Paul supporters.

I don't care if the ad was run by the pope. I disavow while accepting financial support from a group of people with this mentality tells me all I want to know.Nor do I care if it was mainstream conservative,they should be blasted so they understand what "I disavow" really means

[bonnie]

Originally Posted By: bonnie

personal derogatory insulting remarks has a much higher percentage on the left.

Nope. Your filters persuade you that this is the truth, but it simply isn't. Politics in America has become a very dirty business, and neither side has a lock on either dirt or cleanliness.

1.Basically left wing org

Feminist Groups Call Conservative Women ‘Nutty’ and ‘Whores,’ Media Ignores

October 19, 2010

2.

No joke. The same tolerance-worshiping Obama supporters who demanded change and got it are now suffering brain aneurisms from the mere existence of calendar celebrating (gasp!) conservative women.

Less than twenty-four hours after the launch of the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute​’s “Pretty in Mink” calendar, an onslaught of angry leftist bloggers unleashed a torrent of visceral hatred....

The ladies are “sexy loudmouth whores” according to a blogger. Another claims the calendar is “an attempt to make erections lean to the right.” The women, they complain, “aren’t even remotely attractive.”

Some insist the calendar women aren’t actually women at all, but are in reality men in drag. Others say they’re not even people. One blogger says the ladies “look like cyborgs trying their best human impersonation.” Another calls them “mutts.”

3.The list of conservative women targeted goes beyond Palin and O’Donnell. Sharron Angle, a former schoolteacher and grandmother of 10 in Arizona, is so “ crazy” and such a “bitch,” such a “ moron,” that she now leads a race against the most powerful man in the Senate. Nikki Haley dared to take on the good ol’ boys in South Carolina, even within her own party, and has been repeatedly slimed by a lovesick blogger. A mother of five and foster parent to 23, Minnesota powerhouse Michele Bachmann is labeled as being “ against children.” And Meg Whitman, a women who has actually created jobs and signed the front of paychecks, setting her apart from professional politicians, is a “whore” in the eyes of her opponent’s staffer and also, most shamefully, NOW’s California president.

4. Alan Colmes

In her speech in Dayton today, Gov. Sarah Palin announced that she and her husband are celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary, which means they were married on August 29, 1988.

On April 20, 1989 – less than eight months after they eloped – their first son, Track, was born.

5.Bill Mahers

telecast on HBO.

“And when I point out that Sarah Palin is a vainglorious braggart, a liar, a whiner, a professional victim, a scold, a know-it-all, a chiseler, a bully who sells patriotism like a pimp, and the leader of a strange family of inbred weirdos straight out of ‘The Hills Have Eyes,’ that’s not sexist. I’m saying it because it’s true, not because it’s true of a woman.”

For non-horror fans, “The Hills Have Eyes” involves an inbred family feasting on the flesh of innocent travelers.

The New York-based National Down Syndrome Society “does not have a comment on this clip at this time,” says Jordana Stern, the group’s Communications Associate.

[Woody]

Yes Bonnie I agree that the Left does do a lot more of the mean politics and they actually defend that approach.

[Bravus]

Nope. The two of your comparing your similar filters does not make it reality.

[bonnie]

Yes Bonnie I agree that the Left does do a lot more of the mean politics and they actually defend that approach.

Sarah Palin not mother of youngest with Downs Syndrome

The 44-year-old Idaho-native claimed to be the mother of five children, the youngest of whom was diagnosed with Down Syndrome. Palin’s decision to have the baby was applauded by the pro-life community.

Here’s some new evidence Daily Kos has brought forward, showing Sarah Palin is not the mother of four-month-old Trig:

– On March 6th, Sarah announced she’s seven month pregnant. Even close members of her staff were surprised.

– Her water broke one month before Trig was due, but she kept a previous speaking engagement in Texas and then flew 8 hours to Alaska. No one on board noticed that Sarah was going into labor either. The flight lands in Anchorage, Alaska. Instead of visiting a medical facility that can accommodate a premature birth in Alaska’s most equipped city, she drives 45 minutes away to Mat-Su Regional Medical Center, right outside the small village she used to govern as Mayor, Wasilla.

– On April 18, 2008, Trig was born one month premature. Sarah returned to work after three days. (Trig was diagnosed with Down syndrome while still in the womb.)

– Trig is not Sarah’s son, but grandson. It was her 16-year-old daughter Bristol (pictured right) who was carrying. (80% of the cases of Down Syndrome are in mothers under the age of 35.)

– Family had taken Bristol out of Anchorage High School due to contracting “infectious mononucleosis”. Reports say she was absent from school for five to eight months. Mono can last anywhere from two weeks to three months.

To read all of the incriminating evidence “proving” Palin is a liar, visit DailyKos.com.

[Woody]

Nope. The two of your comparing your similar filters does not make it reality.

I dunnno what yur sayin'. I heard it on Fox News.

I report U decide

[Bravus]

What is quoted there is nonsense: Downs Syndrome babies are predominantly born to older mothers, among other counter-factuals.

Look, no-one is claiming there aren't idiots as well as morally very bad people on the left.

I could dig up as many or more similar quotes from the other side, but I don't care to get filthy by scuba-diving in the sewer to win an argument.

Believe what you like: I'll continue to offer a reality check.

[bonnie]

What is quoted there is nonsense: Downs Syndrome babies are predominantly born to older mothers, among other counter-factuals.

[Woody]

Quote:

one side leads the pack

You make a good point Bonnie

[bonnie]

Quote:

one side leads the pack

You make a good point Bonnie

Trig Palin is a burden to society and should have been aborted.

So says columnist Nicholas Provenzo,

[Woody]

Quote:

Trig Palin is a burden to society and should have been aborted.

So says columnist Nicholas Provenzo,

Would she be a Demo by any chance?

[Dr. Shane]

Alan Colmes is not the left, and the left is not Alan Colmes.

I can't agree with you more.

Just knowing the characters involved in this story it makes me wonder.

Mark Steyn is a fill-in for Rush Limbaugh. He would criticize any liberal for anything - even setting his or her garbage can on the wrong side of the alley for pick-up. So, one has to take his opinion with a grain of salt. He is stirring the pot, nothing more and nothing less.

Alan Combs works for FOXNews. I wouldn't be surprised if the comment was scripted in order to stir up a controversy and along with that... ratings, ratings, ratings. Hard to fire a guy that brings in ratings.

[bonnie]

Would she be a Demo by any chance?

Just out of curiosity I am looking for both personal liberal and conservative attacks.So far all have been liberal.

I am sure there are conservative and independent wacko's but so far liberal's win the prize.

Juan Williams is a liberal BTW

Attacking black conservatives is “encouraged” and “a mindset” on the left, Fox News contributor Juan Williams told host Sean Hannity Thursday night.

The most recent such attack came from a liberal blogger who described tea party favorite Herman Cain as a “black garbage pail kid” and a “monkey” propped up to reaffirm white “superiority.”

On Thursday, the liberal Alternet blogger who hurled the racial insults at Cain defended the statements.

Earlier this week, the very same blogger also remarked that if Sarah Palin weren’t white, she’d be “tarred and feathered as an ‘affirmative action baby.’”

[Woody]

Quote:

Attacking black conservatives is “encouraged” and “a mindset” on the left, Fox News contributor Juan Williams

I find that I agree with Juan a lot.