NOT WELCOME: Miss America Backlash and Whom We Must Disown Among Us
“Out, damned spot! out, I say!” cries Lady Macbeth as she tries to rub off the imaginary blood stains she feels so ashamed to still be wearing in Shakespeare’s epic play.
Similar was my reaction to a particular man who took issue with me on Facebook the other day when I defended the choosing of the first Miss America of Indian heritage. In fact, he took very strong — and barely coherent — issue with me, stating, “…miss (sic) America is an Indian girl and your a racist is your confused about that? U liberal look.” …Huh?
Regardless that this same man, whom I will call “TR”, has liked previous conservative–themed postings of mine (mainly from Duh Progressive), our disagreement on this one issue sent him into a rage, chastising me as anything but Right-of-center. When I told him that Ms. Davuluri was born in New York, and that, by definition, made her an American (which Davuluri proudly proclaimed she considers herself to be first among any other identity on Fox and Friends Wednesday morning), the brilliantly articulate “TR” shot back: “So by that account josh Schneider can be BET man of the year, and Julio sanchez can win the jewish daily observer’s scholar athlete award”.
Now had Ms. Davuluri said she considered herself an Indian or Hindu before an American, then that would have been a problem. Mr. “TR” would have been right in condemning, and I with him. But she did not. And her family has seemingly assimilated and contributed to America just like our Founders wished immigrants would and should.
Although they paled in comparison to the number of congratulatory responses that did not mention her ethnicity or religion, the amount of messages tweeted after Nina Davuluri was crowned Miss America 2014 on September 15th condemning her as an “Arab,” a “Muslim,” and even a “terrorist” and her crowning being an insult to the victims of 9/11, must still be condemned and rejected by anyone who believes themselves a critically thinking conservative or anything Right-of-center . I doubt “TR”, who claims himself a conservative, had a problem with those Tweets. And at the same time I’m confident “TR” is crestfallen by how the Right is losing on America’s political battlefield. Irony at its best, ladies and gentlemen.
It was not that “TR” and those who posted such intellectually vapid tweets have a problem with the political correctness that probably swayed the judges to pick Ms. Davuluri (which if so I have a problem with, too). No, their problem is with Ms. Davuluri herself. And to those who feel the same, my message is this: NOT WELCOME. At least in my book, you are not welcome in my party or my side of the political aisle.
Anybody who does not possess basic knowledge or drive to learn basic knowledge of the differences between the nations and people of brown complexion that live east and south of Europe, and lumps them all together (roughly 3 billion people!) as “Muslims, Arabs and terrorists”, I disavow, as a conservative, or as Republican, or as libertarian, or what-have-you, but most of all …as an American. You are no more American than Nina Davuluri’s great-grandparents were. And you are NOT WELCOME. Out, out, damn spots!
Yes, I know the mainstream media is biased against conservatives. Yes, I know they never cut our side any slack. And if the equivalent of Tim Tebow had won the Miss America pageant last Sunday, I know the popular media would not have made a peep over the flood hateful Tweets she would have surely received from the Left.
But that is not the point. Just because the mainstream media is out to get us on the Right doesn’t mean it’s okay for us on the Right to give them anything to “get us” on. Prime example: Rep. Todd Akin’s (R-MO) “legitimate rape” comment last year, which helped cost him (and Romney) the election. The media pounced on Akin like Miley Cyrus on tastelessness. Their reporting was overblown, intentionally misleading; biased to the core. But all our pundits and talk show hosts did (as usual) was whine about “media bias” without hardly ever pausing to say, “Hey, the guy shouldn’t have said that!”
As I’ve stated before, I was raised devoutly liberal, yet will not vote Democrat today if my life depended on it. But when I was being groomed to be a loyal lil’ Lefty as a kid, it were people like “TR” and those who Tweeted things like “Congratulations Al-Qaeda. Our Miss America is one of you” in response to Ms. Davuluri’s crowning that I was pointed to as examples of what a conservative is; of what a Republican is. And it are these sorts of ignoramuses that today’s youth are told by the media, their teachers, professors, and liberal parents to behold as what everyone of us on the Right is like.
They are dead wrong in their -– many times purposeful -– misconceptions, but we are also dead wrong to allow fodder for those misconceptions to be handed to them on silver platters. The repugnance of those like “TR” inadvertently creates more liberals than they will ever succeed in converting or defeating. They may as well be walking, squawking liberal producing factories.
Some will call me weak, or phony, or pandering to the Left in my argument here. But the only thing I am pandering to is common sense, reality, and the rare, and many times painful, chore of self-critique. I am trying to save us, not hinder us.
So for those like the ignorant, logically dyslexic “TR” and the hateful Tweeters last Sunday, granted that most of them consider themselves “conservatives” and “patriots”, all I can ultimately say is: NOT WELCOME. Good luck in creating more liberals for us to deal with.
