American Thinker
Paul Gottfried
June 2, 2018
Recently, I overheard Laura Ingraham bewailing how the American left is now suppressing the public discussion of sensitive issues. Laura's case in point is Kevin Williamson, a commentator whom Jeff Goldberg at the Atlantic sacked for an opinion that Williamson had posted on the internet in September 2014. Back then, Williamson asserted that he would be tempted to hang women who choose to abort their unborn children. Williamson's fate at the the Atlantic is supposedly proof positive that we're standing on the precipice, about to be pushed into a totalitarian society. Although I too am concerned about our diminishing freedom, Laura's horror story seems small potatoes compared to other more alarming situations that she might have brought up, including situations I myself have been involved in.
The case of Williamson tells us little about our present cultural climate and lots about the mindset of Conservatism, Inc. When it comes to defending its own, this establishment will pull out all stops. Since I'm not of its denomination, I'll try to be more dispassionate. Jeff Goldberg had a perfectly good right to fire an employee who took positions he found abhorrent, just as he had a right to hire Kevin Williamson for dumping on the white working class that supported Trump. Neoconservative publications have the same right to publish Williamson when he mocks the singing of the National Anthem at NFL football games and continues to attack Trump as a clown. What we're talking about is editorial staffs and donors extending or withdrawing support from controversialists who profit from being insulting. (That seems to be Williamson's calling.)
More... https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/06/by_right_do_you_judge.html
Employers have the right to fire employees like Williamson for a good reason, a bad reason, or no reason whatsoever.
But we're being a little disingenuous here. Williamson, for all his controversial statements and positions, was the most provocative writer at NR. This writer is dismissing his importance because Williamson (like many other conservative pundits/writers) can't stand Trump.
That, KW's dislike of Trump, is beside the point. There is a dearth of conservative writers at many erstwhile liberal mags. Williamson's articles would have lent a little balance to The Atlantic.
But NR is a bit hypocritical about firings getting rid of John Derbyshire and Mark Steyn for not toeing the p.c. line on race and homosexuality.
The upshot is that nobody is perfect.
Many people on this forum have no problem with Limbaugh, Hannity, and a few other "conservative" mouthpieces who said we should never nominate non-conservatives. And they both admitted Trump was not a conservative.
But they claimed he was what the country needed.
They are both huge hypocrites.
Many evangelicals strongly support Trump, a man who is about as immoral sex-wise as any president ever.
But if Trump supporters (like my wife) want to keep Trump as their hero, that is their prerogative.
But don't pretend all sides don't have their share of hypocrisy....including the Trump congregation.
