Civility Watchdog: December 12, 2012, Edition

Below are some recent remarks and/or events highlighted for their relevance to civil, productive debate:

HOFFA: This is just the first round of a battle that will divide this state. We're going to have a civil war in this state
…
BALDWIN: [A]s you wage this civil war, what does this mean for unionized workers moving forward in Michigan?
HOFFA: Well, it means we have got to work hard, but basically we're going to challenge this in court. We have done this in other states, and we're going to basically get this on the ballot, eventually, within the year and basically vote this thing down again.

-- Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa, Jr., December 11, 2012, during interview with CNN anchor Brooke Baldwin.

Comment: Hoffa is indulging in violent rhetoric, though his response to Baldwin's question clarifies that he means it to be taken metaphorically.

***

REPORTER [unidentified]: Quick question on Michigan and the right-to-work debate, which has gotten a bit testy today on the House floor. There’s one Democrat, Doug Geiss, who said today that if this right-to-work initiative is signed into law, “there will be blood.” Since the President weighed in yesterday, and obviously made his feelings known, but has talked about changing the tone here in Washington and around the country, does the White House feel any obligation to tell fellow Democrats to debate this issue, but debate it in a peaceful and sort of --
CARNEY: The President believes in debate that’s civil. I haven’t seen those comments and I’m not sure that they mean what some would interpret them to mean. I just haven’t seen them. You heard the President talk about his views. He has always opposed the so-called right-to-work laws. As he said, those laws are generally political and not economic. They’re more about the right to earn less pay than they are helpful to our economy. And he presented those views yesterday in Michigan.

-- White House briefing with Press Secretary Jay Carney, December 11, 2012.

Comment: Carney seems to be suggesting that Geiss' words may have been meant metaphorically, not literally. Given Geiss' reference to the Battle of the Overpass -- a violent incident between members of the United Auto Workers union and Ford Motor Company security guards in the 1930's in Michigan -- is the literal interpretation of his violent, "there will be blood" rhetoric more appropriate? Notice that Carney ultimately refuses to denounce Geiss' remarks, which is consistent with the Obama administration's refusal to denounce allies for name-calling and uncivil rhetoric, and inconsistent with their claim to believe "in debate that's civil". The Obama administration tends only to denounce uncivil rhetoric from their opponents.

***

"[A]nd we're going to pass something that will undo a hundred years of labor relations. And there will be blood. There will be repercussions. We will relive the Battle of the Overpass".

-- State Rep. Douglas Geiss (D-Taylor and Romulus, MI), December 11, 2012, on the floor of the Michigan House of Representatives.

Comment: Geiss is indulging in violent rhetoric, and "war" rhetoric in particular. The Battle of the Overpass was a violent incident between members of the United Auto Workers union and Ford Motor Company security guards in the 1930's in Michigan.

***

"Confronting evil. That is the subject of this evening's Talking Points Memo. We are living in a country that is rapidly changing. Rules of civility are pretty much finished. While America has always embraced robust debate, now there are elements on both the left and the right which are using disgraceful tactics to demean those with whom they disagree. Some examples: The Supreme Court's now going to hear the gay marriage issue. Some of those who support expanding the definition of marriage are accusing those who oppose it of being human rights violators, bigots, homophobes. So if you hold the belief that traditional marriage should have a special place in society, you're a hater according to the haters. Likewise in criticizing President Obama. There are fanatical left-wingers who say those who disagree with Mr. Obama are doing so because he's black. It's a racial deal. That kind of tactic should be condemned by all Americans. Let me give you a very vivid recent situation that is simply unacceptable. … Sports writer Jason Whitlock … injected race into the Kansas City Chiefs murder-suicide. Whitlock said that unnamed forces in America want guns in the black communities so that people of color could destroy each other. Whitlock went on to call the NRA, quote, "the new KKK". … Hate speech now happening all the time. There comes a point when all good people must say "enough". That point has now been reached in America. … This stuff has got to stop."

-- TV pundit Bill O'Reilly, December 10, 2012, on The O'Reilly Factor.

Comment: First, O'Reilly seems to be implying that there used to be a time when civility prevailed and people didn't demean those with whom they disagreed. Is that true? When was it? Second, while O'Reilly is correct that, as a matter of defiance, we should confront and criticize incivility, O'Reilly leaves the impression that it's only one side that is engaging in it. He mentions, in the abstract, that both sides do it, but the examples of incivility that he cites are all from the "left". Part of the problem of incivility is that people only point it out specifically and denounce it when their opponents do it, not when it's coming from their own side. In other words, O'Reilly is engaging in the "only my opponent" caricature. Standing up for civil debate on an impartial basis is what will keep civility from being "finished".

***

"So the net end of this is, that while we apparently are in an improving economy with jobs being created -- so much that the unemployment rate is down to 7.7% -- we still have going to extend unemployment benefits for two million Americans who've already been on unemployment six months. They haven't gotten to their 99 weeks yet. This is a key. These people that we're talking about haven't hit their 99 weeks because the unemployment rate in the states they live in is under 9%.That's why they have to be extended. And since the Obama administration is about Santa Claus -- since the Obama administration is about buying loyalty and votes, since the Obama administration is about providing for people so that they don't have to work -- why does anybody think that's gonna stop after Obama wins (and, to boot, four days after Christmas)? … Mitt Romney was running around campaigning for the office of president of the United States, and among the things that he was saying was, "When I'm elected, I will put Americans back to work," and 51% of the people that voted said, "To hell with that!""

-- Radio pundit Rush Limbaugh, December 10, 2012.

Comment: Limbaugh is demonizing the people who voted for President Barack Obama. He is saying that the only explanation for people voting that way is that they're lazy, and they believe that Obama will enact government programs that will support them without having to do any work in return.

***

"However, the jobs picture really isn't improving. That's why we need to have extend unemployment, because there really aren't new jobs to be had. And the law says that state by state, as the unemployment rate goes below 9%, the extensions end. And for two million Americans, they end four days after Christmas. Did anybody think, again, that that news will be allowed to be made? That two million people lose their unemployment extension benefits four days after Christmas? That story will not be written. That headline will not appear. Now, the Democrats would love for it to. Just to confuse or complicate things a little bit here, the Democrats would love for that headline to be written. The truth is that if two million Americans lost their unemployment benefits and it could be blamed on the Republicans, the Democrats would sign onto that right now."

-- Radio pundit Rush Limbaugh, December 10, 2012.

Comment: Limbaugh is arguing that Democrats would root for failure.

***

"And by the way, what we shouldn’t do -- I just got to say this -- what we shouldn’t be doing is trying to take away your rights to bargain for better wages and working conditions. We shouldn’t be doing that. These so-called “right to work” laws, they don't have to do with economics; they have everything to do with politics. What they're really talking about is giving you the right to work for less money. … We don't want a race to the bottom. We want a race to the top. … So we’ve got to get past this whole situation where we manufacture crises because of politics. That actually leads to less certainty, more conflict, and we can't all focus on coming together to grow."

-- President Barack Obama, December 10, 2012, speaking at the Daimler Detroit Diesel Plant in Redford, MI.

Comment: Obama is indulging in "politicizing" rhetoric. How is it "just politics" to support so-called "right to work" laws? Are there no legitimate non-"political" reasons for supporting such laws? It's not at all plausible to support them on the basis that they increase employment, or because they give people the freedom to hold an occupation without having to join a union? Maybe Obama disagrees with these arguments, but are they bad arguments to the point that the position itself can only be supported by people who are engaging in a crass version of politics? Of course not, that's a caricature. Also, it's a platitude for Obama to say that we want a race "to the top" and not the bottom. Of course we all want that, what we disagree about is which policies will yield that result. Finally, Obama indulges in "unify the country" rhetoric by calling for us to come together. How are we supposed to do that? In particular, how are we supposed to unify when so many people -- Obama included -- are engaging in name-calling?

***

"What do you do to a school yard bully? You punch them in the face. Do you think any of these people on talk radio, if they’re punched in the face by a Republican nominee, do you think they would push back? No, they’re cowards. They're bullies. Punch them in the face, and they back off. Bullies do that. Mitt Romney -- and we said it non-stop for two years -- he would never stand up to these bullies. And so they framed his campaign and he got his tail whipped."

-- TV pundit Joe Scarborough, December 10, 2012, on MSNBC's Morning Joe.

Comment: Scarborough is criticizing talk radio (and other) pundits who say things that amount to name-calling. So, in a sense, he's advocating civility. However, he's resorting to violent rhetoric and (it seems) saying that people should resist these pundits by retaliating in kind. He is also faulting GOP presidential candidate former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA) for failing to police the speech of his supporters. This is a fair criticism, though it's a mistake -- of the "only my opponent" variety -- to think that only Romney was guilty of that failing (President Barack Obama also failed to police the rhetoric of his supporters, as well).

***

"In just a few weeks, when the calendar flips to 2013, millions of Americans will get their first taste of Obamacare -- a $2,500 cap on their flexible spending accounts. That’s down from the previous $5,000 cap -- and thus equivalent to a tax hike for any family that had been putting more into their FSAs to cover out-of-pocket healthcare expenses. But it’s also emblematic of a more troubling problem with Obamacare -- its undeclared war on consumer-directed health care. … The tragedy is that President Obama is forcing his centralized approach to health care on consumers just as they’re demanding more autonomy -- and as the tools that empower them to do so are coming online. As the federal government tries to appropriate ever-more of people’s healthcare decisions for itself under the auspices of Obamacare, perhaps patients will fight back."

-- Columnist Sally Pipes, December 10, 2012.

Comment: Pipes is indulging in "war" rhetoric.

***

"Instead of smallpox, plagues, drought and Conquistadors, the Republican decline will be traced to a stubborn refusal to adapt to a world where poor people and sick people and black people and brown people and female people and gay people count."

-- Columnist Maureen Dowd, December 9, 2012.

Comment: Dowd is demonizing Republicans, saying that they don't care about the poor or the sick, and that they are racists, misogynists, and homophobes.

***

"Personalities matter. This president has a chance as he did in ‘09 to come in and say 'I’m going to sit down and work with you. We’re going to be bipartisan, we’re going to put the country first', or he has a chance to do what he did in ’09, which is say, 'I’m going to write a stimulus package with only Democrats and ram it through unread'. He can continue down the road he’s on right now. He -- he guarantees a permanent war because everybody on the right at every level sooner or later is going to get sick of it."

-- Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R-GA), December 9, 2012, on NBC's "Meet the Press".

Comment: Gingrich is indulging in many kinds of rhetoric here: "bipartisan" rhetoric, patriotism rhetoric (how is Obama not putting the country first?), and "war" rhetoric.

***

"But if we’re serious about reducing our deficit while still investing in things like education and research that are important to growing our economy -- and if we’re serious about protecting middle-class families -- then we’re also going to have to ask the wealthiest Americans to pay higher tax rates. That’s one principle I won’t compromise on. After all, this was a central question in the election. A clear majority of Americans -- Democrats, Republicans and Independents -- agreed with a balanced approach that asks something from everyone, but a little more from those who can most afford it. It’s the only way to put our economy on a sustainable path without asking even more from the middle class. And it’s the only kind of plan I’m willing to sign."

-- President Barack Obama, December 8, 2012, during the president's weekly address.

Comment: Obama is claiming a mandate to raise tax rates on the wealthiest Americans on the basis of a "clear majority" of Americans supporting that proposal. Is a clear majority of support sufficient to justify a mandate on any matter?

***

"Over the last few weeks, there’s been a lot of talk about deadlines we’re facing on jobs and taxes and investments. But with so much noise and so many opinions flying around, it can be easy to lose sight of what this debate is really about. It’s not about which political party comes out on top, or who wins or loses in Washington. It’s about making smart decisions that will have a real impact on your lives and the lives of Americans all across the country."

-- President Barack Obama, December 8, 2012, during the president's weekly address.

Comment: This is a platitude. Of course, everyone understands that the debate about the so-called "fiscal cliff" concerns matters that will affect many or all Americans.

***

"You know, Penny, we're not going to save the country, we're not going to balance the budget until your side cuts it out, and if people like you, I think you're a reasonable person, but you feel a compulsion to come on this program and defend this. Treasonous, treacherous, let the bodies pile up on the beach."

-- Commentator Sean Hannity, December 7, 2012, speaking to Democratic strategist Penny Lee on his TV show. Hannity is referring to remarks made by former Special Advisor to the White House Van Jones on December 5, 2012.

Comment: Hannity is indulging in the "only my opponent" caricature. Certainly, Democrats, liberals, and progressives need to do more to maintain a standard of civil debate and to criticize those on their side who resort to name-calling and incivility. But so do Republicans and conservatives (and Hannity himself). Hannity is misrepresenting the situation to make it seem like only one side is at fault.

***

"Lt. Gov. Brian Calley repeatedly gaveled for order during the Senate debate as Democrats attacked the legislation to applause from protesters in the galley. At one point, a man shouted, "Heil Hitler! Heil Hitler! That's what you people are." He was quickly escorted out."

-- Tribune wire report, December 7, 2012, "Michigan GOP approves right to work amid union protests".

Comment: The man referred to by the report is demonizing Republicans, saying they are as bad as Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.

***

"A March Gallup poll found that Republicans were much less likely than Democrats or independents to say that they worried about global warming. Only 16 percent of Republicans said that they worried a great deal about it, while 42 percent of Democrats and 31 percent of independents did. This as the National Climatic Data Center reported that “the January-November period was the warmest first 11 months of any year on record for the contiguous United States, and for the entire year, 2012 will most likely surpass the current record (1998, 54.3°F) as the warmest year for the nation.” Surely some of this is because of party isolationism and extremism and what David Frum, the conservative columnist, called the “conservative entertainment complex.” But there is also willful ignorance at play in some quarters, and Republicans mustn’t simply brush it aside. They must beat it back."

-- Columnist Charles Blow, December 7, 2012.

Comment: Blow is indulging in "extremism" rhetoric. "Willful ignorance" amounts to accusing people of not caring about facts. Is this a fair appraisal of people who disagree with the claims of global warming and climate change?

***

"According to a June Gallup report, most Republicans (58 percent) believed that God created humans in their present form within the last 10,000 years. Most Democrats and independents did not agree. This anti-intellectualism is antediluvian. No wonder a 2009 Pew Research Center report found that only 6 percent of scientists identified as Republican and 9 percent identified as conservative. Furthermore, a 2005 study found that just 11 percent of college professors identified as Republican and 15 percent identified as conservative. Some argue that this simply represents a liberal bias in academia. But just as strong a case could be made that people who absorb facts easily don’t suffer fools gladly."

-- Columnist Charles Blow, December 7, 2012.

Comment: Blow is appealing to polling data to argue that Republicans are "anti-intellectual", which amounts to caricaturing them as "stupid" or perhaps as not caring about facts. Blow also considers a causal connection between political affiliation and scientific occupation, though isn't this a case of false causation?

***

"It’s easy to get confused about the fiscal thing, since everyone’s talking about the “fiscal cliff.” … The danger is that the deficit will come down too much, too fast. And the reasons that might happen are purely political; we may be about to slash spending and raise taxes not because markets demand it, but because Republicans have been using blackmail as a bargaining strategy, and the president seems ready to call their bluff."

-- Columnist Paul Krugman, December 6, 2012.

Comment: Krugman is indulging in "hostage-taking" rhetoric with his use of the term "blackmail". Also, he's claiming that Republicans are "politicizing" the issue of the so-called "fiscal cliff". How is that so? Republicans can't have any good policy reasons for the position they're taking?

***

"I think Senator DeMint clearly sees that the Tea Party is not a growth industry. I mean, he had an election that just passed that did not see the ranks of Tea Party members expand. The Senate candidates that he expected to be very likely to join him in the Senate were rejected in red states by the voters who simply know that extremism is just not the way that we need to go forward in getting our economy turned around, in reducing our deficit and creating jobs."

-- Chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, December 6, 2012.

Comment: Wasserman Schultz is indulging in "extremism" rhetoric.

***

"The good news first: the percentage of Republicans who think ACORN stole the election is down by three percent from 2009 when 52 percent thought ACORN prevented John McCain and Sarah Palin from winning the election. Here's the bad/hilarious news: ACORN ceased to exist years ago following a conspiracy of videotaped lies by Andrew Breitbart and James O'Keefe; a scam that was picked up by Republican leadership in Congress where the organization, which didn't break any laws, was stripped of federal funding. After it was too late, the U.S. Government Accountability Office determined that the Breitbart/O'Keefe videos were heavily edited and that no federal funds were misused and no laws were broken. But ACORN was killed by a conspiracy of lies and slander anyway. And now, years following its wrongful death sentence, ACORN is still being unjustly and inexplicably accused of stealing elections, and it's all because the base is entirely disconnected with facts and reality -- a disconnection that's reinforced in almost every sphere of right-wing influence. Anyone who thinks the Republicans are capable changing is just as delusional as the secessionists and conspiracy theorists who compose the GOP's base. The far-right entertainment complex is so deeply and inextricably woven into the life-support system of the Republican Party, it's nearly impossible to extract the crazy-cells without killing the host."

-- Columnist Bob Cesca, December 6, 2012.

Comment: The polling data Cesca cites from Public Policy Polling demonstrates that the opinion of some Republicans on a particular issue is based on false information. Does this prove that Republicans are somehow divorced from reality beyond redemption? If it is shown that the opinion of some Democrats on a particular issue is also based on false information, does that prove that Democrats as a party are somehow delusional beyond redemption?

***

"In the wake of the election, there's no doubt the Republican Party is capable of making some adjustments to rebrand itself. If nothing else, the party has demonstrated its proclivity for sloganeering and marketing and there are plenty of ways it can adjust its messaging. But it's obvious to anyone paying attention that the base simply won't allow the party to change in any meaningful way. The base is deeply encased within the twisted, alternate-reality looking glass that the GOP has been constructing throughout the last three decades: a realm of anger, racial resentment, distrust of government, hatred of immigrants and violently anti-choice misogynists and demagogues. The party has deliberately incited these tendencies via the conservative entertainment complex, as David Frum called it on Morning Joe -- AM talk radio, Fox News Channel and the like -- and augmented it with the generous contributions of wealthy financiers who bankroll everything from astroturf campaigns to the bulk-purchasing of every book-length screed by Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, Michelle Malkin and Glenn Beck. The problem this creates, of course, is that the Republican Party has been consumed by misinformed idiots with no substantial connection to the real world, and the first post-election PPP poll only serves to amplify this conclusion."

-- Columnist Bob Cesca, December 6, 2012.

Comment: Cesca is indulging in name-calling, against Republicans, demonizing them and saying that they are stupid, and that they are racists and bigots. Are there no moral considerations animating Republicans, only racism, misogyny, xenophobia, etc.? Cesca also indulges in "demagogue" rhetoric.

***

"Yet there is an even deeper problem with Boehner's arithmetic. The Republicans are fighting to extend all the Bush tax cuts to the wealthiest two percent along with everyone else -- but their alternative proposals are utterly inadequate to compensate for the $1.3 trillion in revenues lost by continuing those cuts for the rich. To "offer" $800 billion in new "revenues" obtained by eliminating deductions rather than raising rates simply doesn't work, as a matter of basic math. It isn't nearly enough money. If Republican leaders cannot do the arithmetic, then it is impossible to negotiate with them. If they can do the arithmetic but insist on falsifying the answers, then it is both unwise and impossible to negotiate with them. Unless and until the Republicans start talking about real numbers that can actually add up, there is nothing to be gained from pretending to negotiate. Nor should the president start negotiating with himself, as he has sometimes done in the past. Instead, he ought to make sure that the opposition understands what will happen when they fail to act responsibly. After Jan. 1, he will bring them an offer they cannot refuse to restore cuts for the 98 percent -- and they will be held accountable for any consequences caused in the meantime by their stalling."

-- Columnist Joe Conason, December 6, 2012.

Comment: Conason is indulging in name-calling, saying Republicans are too stupid to do basic math. There's a legitimate argument to be had about raising tax rates versus closing loopholes, but it's significantly an empirical one, not simply mathematical. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), for instance, estimates that $12 trillion in revenue can be raised over ten years by closing major loopholes. It may be unpopular or bad economic policy to close those loopholes, but it is not mathematically incoherent to expect that $800 billion could be raised by doing so.

***

"Senator Jim DeMint, the South Carolina Republican and chief torch-and-pitchfork-carrier for the Tea Party, is resigning only two years into his second term to cash in on his public service with a high-paying job at that quintessential bastion of Washington establishment, the Heritage Foundation. Does this represent the institutional co-opting of the Tea Party by the Republican base? Or are we watching the Tea Party snap up the last scraps of Republicanism that linger within any sort of proximity to the mainstream of American political thought? I’m hoping for Option A, as that would neutralize the highly damaging threat that the Tea Party poses to American civil discourse."

-- Editorial page editor and columnist Andrew Rosenthal, December 6, 2012.

Comment: How is the Tea Party movement particularly bad for civil discourse? Aren't other groups also a threat? Such as unions? Or even columnists for The New York Times? Rosenthal is singling out the Tea Party movement in a way that indulges in the "only my opponent" caricature.

***

"[Imagine that you are] at the beach and a tsunami or some disaster happens, and there are people who are drowning on that beach. People who are struggling. People who are barely hanging on. And you had a lifeguard trying to save them. Now, maybe not the best lifeguard in the world. Maybe a lifeguard that's made some mistakes. Maybe a lifeguard with big ears and a funny name, but a lifeguard that shows up and at least honestly is trying to help. And imagine you have another set of people who could help but won't. Who stand back and say, "No, no, don't throw a rope. In fact, when he throws a rope, cut the rope. Let the bodies pile up on the beach. Let the pain accumulate. Because our view is this -- if enough dead bodies pile up on this beach, they're going to fire the lifeguard and we can get the lifeguard's job." That was the strategy of the President's opponents from the very first day. Let the students drown in debt, don't help them. Let millions of Americans be thrown out in the street by banks that they just bailed out. Don't help them. Let 20 million Americans fall out of the middle-class into poverty on top of the existing poor, and don't do one thing to help them. Vote against our own bills. The President puts forward tax cuts for 98% of Americans, Republicans vote against tax cuts. The President puts forward tax cuts for small businesses, the Republican Party votes against tax cuts for small businesses. Let the bodies pile up on the beach. The president put forward help for veterans. The Republican Party votes against help for veterans. Let the bodies pile up on the beach. We don't care how much these kids suffered overseas. When they come home let them suffer, they'll vote against this president. Let the bodies pile up on the beach. And you were faced with the prospect of that kind of treachery, treasonous activity prevailing in America and we beat 'em. We beat 'em, we beat 'em, we stopped 'em. It did not work."

-- Former Special Advisor to the White House Van Jones, December 5, 2012, speaking at the 16th annual Mario Savio Memorial Lecture.

Comment: Jones is demonizing Republicans, saying that they don't care about human suffering. He argues that this must be true, as it's the only way to explain how Republicans changed position on issues such as tax cuts, so that they are now obstructing things that they previously supported. But whether Republicans have actually flip-flopped in their positions is debatable: it might be, for instance, that the tax cuts they previously supported are different from the ones proposed by Obama, or that the economic conditions in which they're being introduced are different. It's not hypocritical to support some tax cuts and not others, or to support a tax cut during some economic circumstances but not others. But, even if Republicans have flip-flopped, does the only possible explanation for that behavior have to be that they have malicious, sinister intentions? What about when President Barack Obama or Democrats flip-flop (as they certainly have in the past): is the only possible explanation for that sinister? Jones is also suggesting that Republicans are unpatriotic by calling their behavior "treasonous".

***

"Dot 1. Obama tells Joe the Plumber that we need to raise taxes not to decrease our deficit, but because we “need to spread the wealth around.” Dot 2. Obama admits to Charlie Gibson that raising capital gains may well result in reduced revenues to the government, but he wants those taxes to go up anyway “out of fairness.” In other words, It’s not “fair” that these people earn all that money on their investment income. Dot 3. Obama tells the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (evil capitalists) “at some point you have to admit you’ve made enough money.” Dot 4. Obama submits a “fiscal cliff” plan to the congress (and the media) that not only calls for tax increases on the rich, but also for more spending! Here he shows that he wants the higher taxes so that he’ll have more money to spend, not for deficit reduction. If you connect these dots you will see that Obama’s insistence on a tax increase on the rich has absolutely nothing in the world to do with reducing our deficit. His primary motive is that he believes the wealthy in this country do not deserve the money they have. That money is ill-gotten games --- earned by oppressing the middle class. And Obama is going to correct this problem by seizing the money from those evil exploitive rich people and spend it on his constituency. Remember … Obama also said that America is great because of government spending. Money spent by government is good. Money spent by rich people is bad. This is ALL class warfare. Every bit of it."

-- Radio pundit Neal Boortz, December 4, 2012.

Comment: Boortz is demonizing Obama, accusing him of believing that rich people are evil. Boortz is also indulging in "war" rhetoric by saying Obama is engaging in "class warfare".


(The list above is not intended to be a comprehensive record of all relevant examples. Click here for previous edition.)