Depending upon where you’re coming from, you can react to the same video clip of a political confrontation in a totally opposite way. For the very same viral clip, Internet users often conclude that A schooled/owned B or B schooled/owned A. Among other things, this is a form of confirmation bias.
In the video below from the House Judiciary Committee hearing yesterday, the Rev. Al Sharpton, the founder of the National Action Network, seemed to exhibit a selective memory about his history of offensive comments.
From the Conservative Treehouse:
“Representative Matt Gaetz delivered a thorough evisceration of Al Sharpton today that will long be remembered. Keep in mind that every Democrat candidate for President has kissed the ring of Sharpton in recent months. Oh, the backfire in this hearing was over-the-top. Chairman Nadler was so stressed out he couldn’t function. The Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee went absolutely bonkers and lost their minds as Gaetz continued to expose Sharpton’s history of bigotry and antisemitism. A whole new generation of younger viewers were treated to the history of Sharpton.”
Relying on Joe
U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) cleverly based his line of questioning on former Congressman (and current MSNBC Trump hater) “Morning Joe” Scarborough’s 2000 House Resolution called “Condemning the racist and anti-Semitic views of the Reverend Al Sharpton.”
Scarborough and Sharpton are colleagues on the conspiracy network.
“Sharpton had to admit many of the statements, or claim not to have recalled them or to be responsible for them. He noted, in his defense, that he and Scarborough work together well…Gaetz represents the same district, FL-01, that Scarborough once represented in the western Florida panhandle,” Breitbart News explained.
Whether Sharpton schooled Gaetz or vice versa, which no doubt is a subject of social media disagreement, is less significant. Chairman Nadler did allow Gaetz to continue, which he should get some credit for, but he did nothing about Sharpton’s filibustering to run out the clock.
Perhaps the real message in this exchange is that whether you like him or not, Donald Trump, a former Democrat and independent, has taught the GOP — whether you like them or not — how to fight back and even to adopt the aggressive techniques that Democrats have unleashed on Republican committee witnesses.
The wave of Republican retirements in the House may turn to be a good thing if they are replaced by generally pro-Trump, high-energy lawmakers.
The sickly looking Nadler probably felt revitalized when Paul RINO Ryan failed to lift a finger to keep the House in GOP hands in 2018. However, it is obvious that Nadler is not up to the job, and maybe Nadler himself has realized that gaining the gavel isn’t turning out as spectacularly as he anticipated.
It is also obvious that the way Corey Lewandowski trolled the committee a few days ago is still in the Democrats’ heads.
The Trump Effect
Historian Victor Davis Hanson describes how the the ever defiant Trump has enraged his hysterical foes in and out of the media ecosystem or more precisely, the echo system because he is functioning as a soldier of one against the social justice warriors:
“For most of his time in office, Trump, his family, his friends and his businesses have been investigated, probed, dissected and constantly attacked… Certainly, Trump’s agenda of closing the border, using tariffs to overturn a half-century of Chinese mercantilism and pulling back from optional overseas military interventions variously offends both Democrats and establishment Republicans…To make things worse for critics, Trump’s economy is booming: near-record-low unemployment, a record number of Americans working, increases in workers’ wages and family incomes, low inflation, steady GDP growth and a strong stock market. Yet the real source of Trump derangement syndrome is his desire to wage a multifront pushback — politically, socially, economically and culturally — against what might be called the elite postmodern progressive world. The media can no longer afford to be nonpartisan and impartial in its effort to rid America of a reactionary such as Trump, given his danger to the progressive future…
“A new America supposedly is marching forward under the banner of ending fossil fuels, curbing the Second Amendment, redistributing income, promoting identity politics and open borders and providing free college, free health care and abortion on demand. An insomniac Trump fights all of the above nonstop and everywhere. In the past, Republican presidents sought to slow the progressive transformation of America but despaired of ever stopping it… For all the acrimony and chaos — and prognostications of Trump’s certain failure — a bloodied Trump wins more than he loses. NATO members may hate Trump, but more are finally paying their promised defense contributions. In retrospect, many Americans concede that the Iran deal was flawed and that the Paris climate accord mere virtue signaling. China was long due for a reckoning. Special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation proved fruitless.
“Trump has so enraged his Democratic adversaries that the candidates to replace him have moved farther to the left than any primary field in memory. They loathe Trump, but in their abject hatred he has goaded the various candidates into revealing their support for the crazy Green New Deal, reparations for slavery, relaxed immigration policies and trillions of dollars in new free stuff.’
‘In a way, the left-wing Democratic presidential candidates understand Trump best. If he wins his one-man crusade to stop the progressive project, they are finished, and their own party will make the necessary adjustments and then sheepishly drift back toward the center.’
[Featured image credit: David Shankbone, Wikimedia Commons, (CC BY-SA 3.0 license)
