June 15^th

Today I have some utterances by Mona Charen to discuss; yesterday I didn’t have anything from the right so there was no detritus. Now That Hillary Clinton has “declared” there will be many opportunities for right wing rhetorical excess. The right wing just can’t resist so I will have new ammunition!

Today Mona’s column is titled “Clinton deploys ‘they hate you’ strategy.” If you read Mona’s column, Clinton is never quoted as saying “they hate you;” this is supposed to be “…a strategy that has worked well for Democrats for decades.” Now why do you suppose that strategy has worked so well? Could an example have been Romney’s comments to his ultra-rich donors about the 47 percent who don’t pay income taxes and therefore are surely moochers who will never take responsibility for themselves? When you say that it can really irk the people you’re talking about…and others!

Charen claims Clinton’s June 12^th speech was “dishonest and divisive.” Well Mona that’s nicely alliterative but if you want a better example of dishonest and divisive see Romney’s remarks to his multi-millionaire donors cited above. She says Clinton’s claim that voter ID laws are designed to suppress voting by African-Americans is false because “minority voting is up even in states with voter ID laws.” If this kind of thinking is what Barnard College teaches, then Mona should ask for a tuition refund. The fact that more minorities are voting might mean that there are more than enough minorities to overcome the conservative bias against allowing them to vote. Pennsylvania Republican house leader, Mike Turzal, said that the state’s voter ID law would “allow Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania;” he proudly called this as an accomplishment. Then Romney lost Pennsylvania anyway. If you really wanted to persuade the voters that Republicans “are haters” all you need to do is let them read a half dozen or so of Mona Charen’s columns.

Then Mona concludes with a quote from Clinton about Barbara Jordan, “She famously reminded us that when the constitution was written it left most of us here out. But generations of Americans fought, marched, organized and prayed to expand this circle of freedom and opportunity. We should be clearing the way for more people to vote, not putting up every roadblock anyone can imagine.” Mona then wants us to note Clinton’s word “us.” She claims, “Multimillionaire international celebrity Hillary Clinton claims membership in an oppressed class due to her sex.” But Mona, the “founding fathers” did deny women the right to vote.

In 1918 there were three women on the Forbes list of the richest people in America. They each had fortunes exceeding 50 million dollars and not a single one of them could vote. Mona apparently doesn’t understand that this has nothing to do with wealth (but how like a conservative to assume it does); it has to do with the right to vote.