RealClearPolitics via Instapundit:
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., for example, when asked on “Face the Nation” to respond to Rush Limbaugh’s and Newt Gingrich’s comments about Sotomayor, said, “That’s an absolutely terrible thing to throw around. Based on that statement — that one word ‘better than’ (sic) — to call someone a racist is just terrible and I would hope that Republicans would not do this.
I had to stop laughing before I could post this. Since when do leftists consider it terrible to accuse some of being racist, sexist, homophobic, etc. based on the flimsiest evidence?
Leftists casually accuse people who disagree with them of having the vilest motivations imaginable.
Support the liberation of Iraq? You want to murder Iraqis for oil company profits. Don’t like socialized medicine? You don’t care if children die in the streets. Advocate merit selection in jobs and education? You’re in favor of segregation. Support Social Security privatization? You want to starve old people to death. Don’t think weather-dependent energy sources will work? You want to destroy the entire ecosystem of the Earth.
I’m not talking about overheated bloggers who make these kinds of accusations but mainstream politicians, writers and academics. In any debate on any subject, leftists start their argument by casting aspersions on the morality of the non-leftists who disagree with them. Leftists simply refuse to believe that anyone disagrees with them about how the world works. Instead, leftists believe that everyone shares their world view but that non-leftists refuse to adopt the obviously humane solutions owing to the non-leftists’ personal moral failings.
Conversely, if you ever suggest that a leftist ever acts out of a selfish motives they go completely ballistic. They will do so even if they just spent half an hour accusing you of every crime short of puppy rape. One of my key political concepts is that leftism is a vehicle for advancing the economic and social interest of articulate intellectuals. This idea sends leftists into massive indignant fits. How dare I suggest they are merely human and act out of self-interest!
I have no doubt that Feinstein really believes that Sotomayor is being treated unfairly. I also have no doubt that if Sotomayor were a Republican, Feinstein wouldn’t even blink if anyone accused her of being a racist. Worse, Feinstein will not even be aware that she has two entirely different standards.