Commentary: Candidates Should Take a Page From Bill And Grow a Backbone
Date: Monday, November 05, 2007
By: Joseph C. Phillips, BlackAmericaWeb.com
Kudos to Bill Clinton. At a recent fundraiser for his wife, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Bill confronted a couple of hecklers in the audience shouting that the terrorist attacks of 9/11 were an inside job. When the hecklers persisted the former president responded with a forceful, “Inside job? How dare you!” It was perhaps his finest hour.
Almost from the moment the twin towers fell, conspiracy theorists donned their tinfoil hats and began suggesting that our American government was complicit in the horrific murder of 3,000 of their countrymen. The charges have emerged from the loony left, including actor Charlie Sheen – who posited that the towers fell in a controlled demolition – to supposedly responsible members of Congress. Former Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) has suggested the Bush administration blew up the World Trade Center as a pretext for war in order to further enrich the president’s already enormously wealthy friends.
How dare they indeed!
Unfortunately as admirable as was the former president’s retort, Bill is not running for president. The leading Democratic candidates for that office have, alas, not followed his lead and instead have chosen to remain silent amid questions of the character and legitimacy of their government.
Mrs. Clinton’s response to charges of government coverups? Exactly zip. During a campaign stop, John Edwards responded to a question about the collapse of a third tower in the World Trade Center complex by asking the questioner to leave his contact information so he could get discuss the matter further. Barack Obama’s response to similar accusations of treason: “In my view, proof of government complicity is not necessary when making the argument that the U.S. should accept some responsibility for what happened on 9/11.” Hey, if that’s not battling cynicism I don’t know what is!
Ironically, this past April, all three candidates were hailed for their courage when they called for the firing of a rusty old radio DJ for making a lame racial joke. Of course, they blatantly ignored talk show host Rosie O’Donnell (who had a much larger audience than Imus) when she suggested the government conspired to blow up the World Trade Center and that in the fall of the second tower, “It’s the first time in history that fire has ever melted steel.”
Perhaps they are reluctant to speak out with conviction because these theories play into a leftist view of an America stained with white racism. Implicit in the idiotic rants of Rosie O’Donnell and the rest of the grassy knoll gang is the image of an America so consumed with hatred for people of color that they would murder 3,000 of their own citizens as a pretext to travel half way around the world in order to kill even more.
White racism provides the cover for Hillary Clinton to sojourn to Rutgers University and engage in a “sister girlfriend” show of solidarity while at the same time accepting money from hip-hop artists whose lyrics are worse than anything Imus said. It provides the cover for John Edwards to stand before an MTV audience and ignorantly repeat the myth that there are more black men in prison than in college and then chillingly warn of a time when all young black men will either be in prison or dead.
There is no shortage of righteous indignation except when it comes to defending their country from slander.
One might argue that claims of government coverups and conspiracy need not be dignified with a response. It is also true, however, that a non-response allows such theories to fester and become toxic eroding the public’s confidence in their government. A recent CNN poll revealed that 82 percent of Americans believe 9/11 was an inside job. Any nation guilty of murdering thousands of its own citizens for political or financial gain is illegitimate, and any people that believed its government capable of such duplicity would never give its consent to be governed and must therefore be ruled.
A philosopher once noted there is wisdom in knowing what to ignore. Treason, alas, does not fall into that category. Bill Clinton should be applauded for spanking those conspiracy theorists on their backsides and sending them packing. If only those who are fighting to fill his shoes would show as much backbone.
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