Anybody following me on Twitter (and if you’re not, shame on you), may have noticed how I and thousands of other Tweeters have been lambasting Sarah Palin for repeatedly using the word “refudiate” in her commentary. What has for the most part been casually dismissed as yet another “folksy” (translation: moronic) display by the former governor of Alaska, recently started a firestorm when she tweeted the following in response to building a mosque near Ground Zero:
Ground Zero Mosque supporters: doesn’t it stab you in the heart, as it does ours throughout the heartland? Peaceful Muslims, pls refudiate.
She later deleted that tweet in favor of a more carefully worded one:
Peace-seeking Muslims pls understand. Ground Zero mosque is UNNECESSARY provocation; it stabs hearts. Pls reject it in interest of healing
The ridiculous use of made up words aside, there are several things fundamentally wrong with her sentiments. Let’s examine them, shall we?
The most obvious thing staring us right in the face is her plea to a larger group to repudiate (is that what you meant, Sarah?) the actions of a smaller group. Rather ironic considering that just last week Sarah Palin blasted the NAACP for making the same plea about racists within the Tea Party movement. Allowing a subset of people to define an entire group really sucks, huh? In that case, perhaps the right should make it a point not to respond to one misdeed with another one.
From the day the towers fell, to the launch of the wars in Iraq/Afghanistan, to the day President Barack Hussein Obama was inaugurated – AND beyond – there has been a carefully structured plan to associate Islam with violence and terrorism. The lastest rage about a mosque being built near ground zero mirrors some of the aforementioned efforts to paint Muslims with a terrorist brush.
Then, there is the obvious question of how far this ethno-religious profiling goes. Would Palin and other like-mided people express the same outrage if an NRA building, KKK center, or a Roman Catholic church was built blocks away from the Oklahoma City Bombing? Recall, those are groups to which Timothy McVeigh belonged. If I had any reason to believe Palin would be just as pleaful to the Christian church or to gun owners, militiamen, or the Klan, I may be OK with her request to Muslims. But I don’t believe she’d utter a single word…outside of the obvious “you’re in our prayers” lingo.
Next, there is the little pesky thing people tend to refer to when it suits their agenda but dismiss it when it doesn’t: the Constitution. “Our great founding fathers” – the group to whom people like Palin love to refer – made it clear that religious persecution was off limits. Professor Juan Cole from Informed Consent took that fact even further by marvelously pointing out that during the American Revolution, the founding fathers actually openly EMBRACED the same religious ideology held by its British enemies. To wit, the professor says:
And here is a final point for Ms. Palin and her ilk to consider. The United States was born of a war against the British crown, the state religion of which was the Anglican Church. Those Anglicans who insisted on swearing allegiance to King George III were viewed as the enemy. And, the British custom of ‘establishing’ the Anglican church in many of the colonies, i.e. making it the state religion, was renounced by the revolutionaries. But there was no question that apolitical Anglicans could practice their religion freely, found Anglican (“Episcopalian”) churches anywhere they liked (even in places where the Americans and British had waged fierce battles, like New York), and even go to Britain to arrange for the training of Episcopalian/Anglican priests.
There is more. In 1787, Samuel Provoost was made the Episcopalian bishop of New York. He had been a Whig and a supporter of the Revolution even though an Anglican. In 1789, the US Senate made him its chaplain!
So not only did the Founding Generation not harbor a grudge against the religion of the British Crown (which had tried to crush them), they were perfectly willing to give non-Tory Anglicans high official positions in the new Republic. It would be as though the the current chaplain of the Senate were a former al-Qaeda member who had broken with Bin Laden and declared allegiance to the United States.
Finally, I thought it was very telling that Palin considers rejecting a mosque near 9/11 some kind of tool for “healing.” Healing? Really? Wouldn’t healing be the exact OPPOSITE of that? Wouldn’t healing come in the form of showing terrorists that we as Americans won’t become victimized and short-sighted by our fear? A mosque near ground zero – to me, at least – directly pimp slaps the bigoted notion that Islam and terrorism are bed buddies. Our country has a history – arguably a shameful history – of selectively drawing out people who ‘fit the description.’ Whether it’s Japanese-Americans during WWII, Arab-Americans after 9/11, Latino Americans in Arizona, or black people…well…everyday, small groups of people have been singled out for no reason other than being apart of a much bigger puzzle. A puzzle that doesn’t neatly fit the “everyday American” model Palin suggests.
I suppose what’s unnerving about this is that she’s not alone. Not by a long shot. She is jumping in popularity over the rest of her Republican bretheren by leaps and bounds. Along for the ride are millions of followers. These people vote. They often do so blinded by ideology, fear, a lack of knowledge about history, and with a myopic view of what this country needs to be. That to me is a cause for alarm.
It’s becoming readily apparently to me that we haven’t learned one damn thing since that day in September.
– ACL
Ah, these idiots on the right are at it again. Somebody must’ve forgotten to tell these loons that the mosque is more than that, that it’s a community center with an auditorium, a daycare, swimming pool, and restaurants. It would be housed in an existing 13-story building that’s two blocks away from Ground Zero and has no view of the area. So I ask a very simple question: what’s the problem again?
I guess Muslims worshiping in a mosque is not apart of the “real America” Palin wants to have and enjoy.
I get increasingly amazed at how much stupidity can be crammed into 140 characters. Maybe Twitter should reduce it to 50.
Who needs to read Willy Shakespeare, when we’ve got Hillbilly Shakespeare?
It’s funny to me how liberals will still be preaching tolerance after 3000 lives are taken in a sick terrorist act and we have to nerve to build a shrine. If the world was left for liberals to run, there would BE no more country.
Tolerate THAT!
If you want to make that argument, fine. But ask yourself one question: would you have any problem with a church being built in this location? If not, then adherence to the core American principles of equality and religious tolerance means you should have no problem with a mosque (or a synagogue, or any other place of worship) being built there. It really is that simple.
So what, exactly, would be a more suitable place for a mosque? Broadway? Grand? Canal? Away from Manhattan? Queens? Brooklyn? Or is that two blocks is too close? How about three blocks? Six blocks? Ten blocks?
Don’t bother asking logical questions. Conservatives are nuts.
A few. As in three or more uptown. Still close enough to serve the local community but far enough away not to be so in your face for tourists paying their respects or the people who have lived and/or worked in that neighborhood for years and some for decades. Just not in the immediate vicinity. I’m no right wing fox news junky either. I’m a liberal democrat that believes this is just too close and inappropriate, thoughtless and callous.
Again, if two blocks is “in the immediate vicinity”, then what is NOT? This isn’t about space or distance. The real issue here – the one people are skirting – is building a mosque anywhere in New York. That kind of plain-viewed bigotry is exactly what’s feeding terrorists.
The conversation of a typical Republican:
“Contrary to what you might think, we don’t hate minorities.
So what we believe every single Muslim should get bunched in with 19 nuts and that they should stop practicing their hateful and violent religion. We like you, really.
So what we think Latinos should be required to provide proof of citizenship on demand and speak OUR language. We like you, really.
So what we think Black people should stop whining about slavery, institutional racism, and the benefits of being white in America. We like you, really.
With all this good feeling going around, why don’t those people support us? They must be prejudiced against us.”
Bill Maher is right about one thing, all religions are trash. But it’s pretty un-American to ban the building of a particular one (especially as there are a lot of Musilms in the country whether Republicans like it or not). New York is a cultural melting pot, get over it. Palin and Gingrich’s opposition just show that freedom of religiion is OK, as long as it’s theirs. What a joke.
I’m a conservative woman so let me tell you all that we all DON’T think alike!
As a person who lives in NYC and who was there during 9/11 (though I was nowhere near Manhattan…thank God), I don’t want a mosque at Ground Zero or anywhere near it. I don’t believe all Muslims are terrorists and I know terrorists can come in any shape, size, race, or culture. But I still have personal hangups with a mosque being there. However, as a person who believes in our first ammendment rights, as long as the group building the mosque doesn’t promote or fund terrorism, they should be allowed to build.
The mosque idea is a bad one on it’s face because of the placement. Build a mosque wherever else you want – it’s America. But to put it at Ground Zero is the height of disrespect because of how Ground Zero happened. It’s like putting a Japanese history museum at Pearl Harbor. True, not all Muslims condone 9/11. That’s pretty clear. But the 9/11 terrorists DID commit their crime in the name of Islam. Build your mosque somewhere else.
Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. Do me a favor: replace the “Robb” in your name with “Dum.” Figure it out.
RobbBass,
Can you not see the difference between 9/11 and Pearl Harbor? Pearl Harbor was an invasion by an ENTIRE country while 9/11 was the product of 19 bumbleheads. Besides that, where is the reprisal for the Christian church or hate groups that included Timothy McVeigh? Silence, huh? It’s pretty golden sometimes.
And Sarah: I can make up words. You can’t.
I guess we should add white people to the terrorist watch list: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/21/MNMN1EHB37.DTL
Holy Cow Dre, My head almost exploded.
What a great day it must be. We’ve gotten to the point where Sarah Palin is the best villian you can come up with and this is an example of America xenophobia. I’m going to be a little rough with this one… so feel free to respond in kind. (you know it’s just for the sake of debate, and your the man.)
1) Your reduced to ripping on her for a “F” instead of a “P” ??? That makes it a “made up word”? Then what exactly are “like-mided people”? Geeez Dre, everyone mispells… even you.
2)”folksy” (translation: moronic)” Now “folksy” means “moronic”? Why is it that everything that isn’t progressive becomes “moronic”? Are you turning into one of those people that believe everyone south of the Mason-Dixon line is an idiot? If you don’t live in a city your a “hick”? I guess I should tell my dear old mom to stop making quilts, canning, and sewing her own clothes. I wouldn’t want her confused with a moron.
3)”From the day the towers fell, to the launch of the wars in Iraq/Afghanistan, to the day President Barack Hussein Obama was inaugurated – AND beyond – there has been a carefully structured plan to associate Islam with violence and terrorism.”
You right about that one. Thankfully we’ve now shifted gears to only making those assumptions about good old american white males, gun owners, Tea Partiers and militias.
Now, on to your main point;
I have to reject the anology made by Professor Juan Cole. There is very little to compare between 9/11 and the examples that he made. No one is saying that Muslims can’t build Mosques, or can’t serve as chaplins, or any thing else remotely close to that. In fact, the are dozens, if not hundreds of Mosques all over the U.S. What they are saying is, you can’t build it right near the site of a historic tragedy. A better comparison would be building an Anglican Church on the site of the burned down White House in 1814. Then I would understand his point. Btw, there have been more Episcopalians as president than by any other religion, I believe that’s because we still see ourselves as somewhat birthed by the Brits. Another reason that Professor Cole’s argument is hard to compare or understand.
Secondly, to compare a zoning issue (which is what this really is) to “Japanese-Americans during WWII” is really belittling their plight.
Finally, I have some advice for Sarah to get you and other haters (you have to admit, with Sarah, you fit the discription) off her back.
Dear Sarah, here’s how to stop all the hating against you;
1) Divorce Todd. He’s an un acceptable old fashioned Man (read; Hick, Moron, Idiot not an intelligent acceptable Metro-male) Marry a Liberal black man. Not Juan Williams or any other “Uncle Tom”, a REAL black man. I suggest Snoop Dogg. Or:
2)Divorce Todd and become a Lesbian. Or:
3)Divorce Todd and marry a Liberal Democrat. A REAL Liberal Democrat like Michael Moore, not some Pro-life Dem. It worked for Mary Matalin and you never hear anything bad said about her even though her views make you look Liberal.
Do any of the above and you’ll never hear another hate-filled diatribe by Dems again. I promise you.
HipCon,
The “refudiate” thing I was willing to let go of as a gaffe. But rather than just own up and fix it (maybe even try to find self-deprecating humor in it), she try to use it as some kind of creativity or something. Something planned. Then her loyal legion of followers clapped. That celebration of anti-intellectualism has ALWAYS been a problem for me…especially if it wouldn’t have been so welcomed if Palin was black. Replace “folksy” with “ghetto”, “refudiate” with “conversate”, Palin’s small town Alaska with some black woman’s small town Alabama, and we wouldn’t be defending her. She wouldn’t have NEARLY the support of one, Sarah Palin. If you think otherwise, I can’t help you with that one.
To the next point about the location of the mosque…
To reiterate what Saved Sinner said: if two blocks is too close (though, have you seen the size of a New York city block? It’s huge!), then what isn’t too close? If we’re talking about building a mosque ON ground zero, sure. That space should be preserved for commemorating an event close to us ALL, not to build an edifice designed for a certain group (just like we shouldn’t put a Christian church there, a sports complex, a Wal-Mart, or a movie theatre). It’s NOT going at ground zero, just near it. And if you think that’s inappropriate, you’re contributing to the lumping of Muslim Americans that Palin and her ilk seem to be doing. It’s reasons like THAT that the left doesn’t like her. Marrying Snoop won’t change that, sorry to say. Bigotry is bigotry. Fa shizzle.
Hey Dre,
My point, although always slightly camouflaged, is that the hatred of Sarah Palin by the left, the MSM and even some Midwest bloggers, always strikes me as a form of xenophobia. It’s like I’m hearing, (Doing my best cowboy voice), “I don’t know Clem, she don’t look like us, or talk like us, and she ain’t from around here. I don’t think I like her kind.” The attacks always seem to have some reference to her speech patterns, her culture, which is often referred to as “folksy/moronic” or back-woodsy or some other verbage that is intended to lead me to believe that someone who doesn’t use phrases like “Fa Shizzle” is somehow a disconnected idiot. I’m not defending her intelligence, but it seems your problem with her, which reflects those attacks I see coming from the left, seems to be rooted in “she’s not like us.” If you would stick to her policies and not throw in those kind of references, I wouldn’t feel that way. I didn’t know that they wanted to build it 2 blocks away, that wasn’t in your origional post and I didn’t read SS’s comment. I guess that would make a difference to me. After all, there has to be some distance that is “far enough”. Is that the true debate? If so, this wasn’t framed very well. I have no desire to be “contributing to the lumping of Muslim Americans that Palin and her ilk seem to be doing.” You should know that about me by now. If you only get one message from me, let it be this, “I’m against stereotyping ANYBODY. And I don’t make exceptions to suit my agenda or my ideology.” As far as, “Marrying Snoop won’t change that”, I’ll just have to agree to disagree. How do you explain Mary Matalin then? (who I’m willing to bet no one here even knew who she was before I brought her up.) Without James Carville, the MSM would rip her to shreds for her association with the Bushes and right-wingers. It’s a club and they’re told by their members who it’s OK to attack.
HipCon,
(1) In politics, intellectualism is not supposed to be the enemy, especially with a person who was so close to being President. Even though all presidents (including smarter cats like Clinton and Obama) have been known to say stupid things, there is still an expectation of enlightment, cultural understanding, and intellectual curiosity. Not only does she seemingly NOT have those qualities, it’s almost like she’s proud of not having them. Worse yet, people are proud of her FOR it. I’m sorry, dude: but being stuck in a small town mindset in front of a NATIONAL audience is plain dumb. Tryin to use ‘folksy’ charm in favor of intellectualism is stupid (especially since black people wouldn’t be able to get away with using ebonics or any other ‘ghetto’ behaviors). Exclusively holding a white ethnocentric view in a multiethnic nation is plain dumb…a perhaps even bigoted.
(2) This was never about building a mosque ON ground zero. It’s being built around it. Some stories have hinted that it was being built ON the space, which is a lie. It’s being built NEAR the space. So, yes: the question of “how far away is appropriate” should be up for discussion. Opponents of a mosque being built NEAR ground zero should explicitly indicate what’s far enough.
(3) Mary Matalin – as far as I can tell – hasn’t been “ripped to shreds” because she hasn’t been as out of pocket (at least, not openly) as most Republicans that come to mind quicker. If she pulled some Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, Bill Kristol kind of stuff, I’m pretty sure the liberal media (how “mainstream” became the descriptor remains a mystery to me) would’ve had a field day.
Last comment, Dre. I promise.
“especially since black people wouldn’t be able to get away with using ebonics or any other ‘ghetto’ behaviors”
Come on! Haven’t you heard of Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, or Kwame Kilpatrick (The Hip-hop Mayor) to name just a few? The political field is FULL of people who use ebonics and “ghetto” behavior. I fact, even Hillary used it in her “I ain’t in no ways tired.” speech. Using street lingo gives black politicians street creds. The only reason they tame it down is if they’re trying to get more white votes in a white crowd. You’ve actually touched on the perfect metaphor.
One thing you have to give her, though. She knows how to work up a crowd. People love this woman. Why? I don’t have a clue.
It’s true that Palin brings a lot of stupid to the science of politics. But she’s a smart cookie where it counts: when it comes to playing the GAME of politics. Distance yourself from your own screw ups (her time as Governor, the trainwreck of a Presidential campaign, and just about every stupid thing ever said or done), deflect attention to the shortfalls of others while posturing oneself (i.e. play the role of the Armchair Quarterback against the current administration), and continue garnering sympathy by making yourself the victim of liberal elites, intellectual ‘snobs’, and the media.
This is your best, most spot-on blog post to date. Bravo.
-n
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