Remember learning about Venn diagrams in elementary school? Venn diagrams are the diagrams with intersecting circles. The circles represent different sets of things and the area where they intersect with each other shows where the different things are logically connected.
During Tuesday's Democratic presidential primary debate between Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and three other guys who occasionally interrupted them, CNN host and moderator Anderson Cooper asked the candidates to identify which enemy they were most proud of making. That caught me off guard and it started me thinking about Venn diagrams.
I thought the Democrats were here to unite us all? Wasn't Obama supposed to bring all races and creeds together to fix all our problems, stop the oceans rising, heal the planet, etc.? CNN shouldn't be asking them about their enemies. We shouldn't have any by now. Besides, I thought enemies were something only Republicans were supposed to have--you know, like anyone who isn't a white male.
Well, if the 5 people supporting Lincoln Chafee who are not members of his family need a reason to change their allegiance in the presidential primary race, his answer to the enemies question should do the trick. Chafee responded that he was most proud of making the coal industry an enemy.
Yes, that's right. Chafee fought for "climate change"--wait, back then I think it was called "global warming" or "global cooling" or something else--and tried to get the coal lobby to cooperate (read: cave) with what were no doubt industry killing regulations. Because if you want to make an enemy, why not shoot for one of the most important commodities in one of the most critical economic sectors.
Absurd. Chafee should have answered cancer, or human traffickers, or Beelzebub. Maybe he would have gotten a little bump (a Beelzebump?). Then again, any bump would have been ruined by his pathetic attempt to explain away a Senate vote by saying he hadn't read the bill because, gee, give him a break, he'd just gotten there.
Hillary answered the question too and in a way that would make Richard Nixon blush. She named the NRA (piggy-backing on Martin O'Malley's answer), "the health insurance companies, the drug companies, the Iranians, [and] probably the Republicans."
Remember Hillary's early work as a congressional staffer? She served on the Watergate investigation under the House Judiciary Committee. She had ample opportunity to study Nixon and apparently she learned a lot.
First, like Nixon, she sees her political foes as her enemies. Nixon actually kept an "enemies list" that included numerous Democratic senators and representatives, media figures, prominent businessmen, labor leaders and celebrities. He didn't, however, mention any terrorist organizations--though the Black Panthers could qualify. I'm not sure Hillary would think so considering, according to her husband's former campaign manager Dick Morris, she supported two Panthers when they were on trial for murder in 1970.
To our knowledge Hillary hasn't maintained a Nixonian-style enemies list. But we know she frequently marginalizes her attackers as part of a "vast right-wing conspiracy" to bring her and her husband down. She may not have written the names down but don't you think she knows exactly who she believes is part of this "conspiracy"? She spearheaded the effort to stop the "bimbo eruptions," numerous women who credibly accused her husband of various sexual infidelities before and during his presidency. And close friends have confirmed she was certainly an aggressive first lady. Maybe Hillary’s enemies list is buried somewhere in those emails she unilaterally deemed too "personal" and deleted before investigators could see them.
Second, also like Nixon, she clearly has a penchant for hiding information. Dating back to those missing, subpoenaed Rose Law Firm billing records that [shazzam!] magically appeared in the West Wing during Bill Clinton's presidency, Hillary has a long history of hiding things. And it's not just personal or private career stuff. Obfuscation and secrecy are at the core of the entire email and private server scandal. There are plenty of laws at all levels designed to ensure that the records of public employees are disclosable to the people. It's called freedom of information. What better way to prevent the public from knowing what you're doing than to set up your own home-brew server and use non-government issued email addresses. Set your closest aides up on the same server with their own private addresses so you can keep a circle of secrecy the public will never see. Then, when investigators want your emails because you may have broken various laws, don’t give them digital copies; print them off and claim you’ve provided 55,000 pages and been cooperating the whole time. Declare victory and depart the field. Not exactly the spirit of full disclosure.
The media is finally [begrudgingly] covering Hillary's email and server scandal--you can practically hear them gritting their teeth as they report on everything digital from Huma Ambedin to Benghazi. But they love when House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-CA, implies the Benghazi Select Committee exists to bring Hillary's poll numbers and presidential chances. This GOP fratricide emboldens Hillary to describe Republicans as her enemy and essentially get away with it. Hey, she's just responding to an enemy attack.
Yesterday Hillary walked back her comments about Republicans as enemies saying the answer was "a little tongue in cheek" Sure it was. Because comparing people from the other party to a terrorist regime is so droll. Remember the Left smirking it up when Wisconsin Governor and former presidential candidate Scott Walker allegedly compared labor protestors to terrorists? Me neither. They went apoplectic. Yet, Democratic representatives and Vice-President Crazy Uncle Joe Biden can compare "tea party" Republicans to terrorists in the 2011 fight to raise the debt limit and the liberal media barely flinches. President Obama's strategic communications advisor Dan Pfeiffer compares Republican to terrorists for trying to negotiate spending cuts in the 2013 budget talks? Virtually no criticism.
It's not even the first time Hillary has compared her "enemies" to terrorists. Remember when she compared pro-lifers to terrorists because they want to halt federal funding for Planned Parenthood over something so insignificant as, oh, dismembering babies to sell their parts for profit? Cue the crickets.
Yet coincidentally, last week, Bob Woodward claims in his latest book to have uncovered a 1972 handwritten memo from Nixon where he said the bombings in Laos and Vietnam had accomplished "zilch." The day before the memo, Dan Rather had interviewed Nixon and he'd said the bombings had been very successful. Nixon lied to Dan Rather 43 years ago! OMG! And the liberal media runs with it as if, well, they were reporting on a current Republican politician comparing a liberal to a terrorist.
Describing your political adversaries as enemies is one of the Left's favorite tactics. People don't want to compromise or work with their enemies. Your enemies have nothing reasonable to say, no fair points to make, no legitimate opposition to your position. They must be destroyed.
You oppose abortion or the selling of baby parts for profit? You are engaging in a war on women. Do you compromise with those you are at "war" with? Well, if you are President Obama...I digress. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, D-RI, recently urged the Justice Department in the Washington Post to bring civil lawsuits against the fossil fuel industry (i.e. "climate change deniers") under the Racketeering Influence and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) law. That's something you do to enemies, not adversaries. Civil RICO penalties not enough? Then prosecute them criminally under RICO. Moveon.org has published an open petition to propose just that for the NRA. Sure, MoveOn proclaims they don't necessarily endorse the petition ;-) but they haven't taken it down either. Others have petitioned to declare the NRA a terrorist organization.
This brings me back to Venn diagrams. In Hillary’s Venn diagram there are two circles. One contains “Republicans and Conservatives” and the other contains “Enemies.” And rather than typical Venns that show the circles overlapping a little, these two circles for Hillary overlap each other 100%. Oh sure, Hillary also mentioned in her answer the health care and pharmaceutical industries as enemies. But they are made up of evil Republican fat cats who just want more profit at the expense of women and children. Unless, of course, they donate millions to the Clinton Global Initiative, like pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. Surely she doesn’t mean them.
The Left’s world view is perfectly captured in Hillary’s Venn diagram. Islamic terrorists aren’t the enemy, climate change deniers are and they need to be sued. Iran isn’t an enemy—we can negotiate with them—but Congressional Republicans are because they disagree with us and won’t get out of our way. Mentally ill people with guns aren’t an enemy, the Second Amendment is and the NRA needs to be criminally prosecuted.
There are several more Democratic debates coming up between Hillary, Bernie, and one or more of the other guys. Remember the Venn diagram as you watch. Liberals do believe their political opponents are adversaries; they are enemies. Given the level of political discourse coming from the Left, we can expect to hear more from them on how they plan to deal with their enemies. And more silence from the liberal media.
