"The narrative about it's open season on young black men and police are responsible is preposterous. … I'll tell you if there is a narrative here, if there is a pattern, it's what's happening on the streets in regard to police. … If there is a pattern here, it's the war on police. I don't see a war on young black men."-- Pundit Charles Krauthammer, reported December 29, 2014.
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In the fall of 2014 Christ Church in Oxford, England, cancelled a debate about abortion. The pro-choice and pro-life arguments were to be presented by men. This caused furious feministic Oxford students to set up a Facebook page with demands for the debate to be called off on the grounds that the protesters were deeply offended. Only women had a legitimate right to discuss the issue, the implication being that only Nazis have a right to debate Nazism, and only Communists are entitled to talk about Communism. Christ Church caved in.-- Pundit Flemming Rose, December 23, 2014, in an article entitled, "The Worldwide War Against Free Speech".
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First the Pakistani Taliban bombed or burned over 1,000 schools. Then they shot Malala Yousafzai, the teenage advocate for girls’ rights. But on Tuesday, the Taliban took their war on education to a ruthless new low with an assault on a crowded school in Peshawar that killed 145 people — 132 of them uniformed schoolchildren — in the deadliest single attack in the group’s history.-- The New York Times, December 16, 2014, "Taliban Besiege Pakistan School, Leaving 145 Dead".
Comment: This looks like an appropriate, non-metaphorical use of "war" rhetoric.
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Lena Dunham's Assault on Humanity-- The title of an article by pundit Heather Wilhelm, December 11, 2014. It's not clear if Wilhelm or an editor wrote the title.
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In Canada, a week is not complete without another denunciation of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s so-called war on science. But what about the progressives’ war on science? That war actually kills people. As Hank Campbell, co-author of the book Science Left Behind, writes, “If some crank school district tries to deny evolution, no one is going to die and it just makes them look backward and stupid. Denying food, medicine and energy science, like progressives do, is costing lives.” In Canada, the progressive war on science is aimed squarely at the energy industry. A large number of Canadians believe that anything connected to fossil fuels is inherently suspect.-- Pundit Margaret Wente, November 29, 2014.
Comment: This is both "war" rhetoric and demonizing people as being anti-science.
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The war over science is heating up on Capitol Hill. … Opponents in the scientific world and their political allies believe that, at its heart, the GOP assault isn’t about bringing greater accountability to the EPA or NSF, but rather a larger lack of trust in science that could soon spur efforts to micromanage NIH, the Department of Defense and other agencies that, all told, spend tens of billions on scientific research every year.-- Politico reporter Maggie Severns, November 27, 2014.
Comment: This is both "war" rhetoric and demonizing people as being anti-science.
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When Republicans won a commanding midterm victory in 2010, President Obama decided, for multiple reasons, to accept the outcome as a blow to his own legitimacy. He conciliated Republican leaders. … In substantive terms, this decision was disastrous. … as foolhardy as Obama’s 2011 strategy seems in hindsight, he and the Democrats recovered and won a satisfying victory in 2012. None of that logic holds today. The past six years have given Obama no reason to believe Republicans are good faith bargaining partners. But even if they had, his political salvation, and the best interest of his supporters in Congress isn’t in cutting conservative-leaning deals with the fully Republican Congress. It’s in the kind of partisan governing and campaigning he embraced after Republicans nearly sabotaged the economy in July 2011.-- Pundit Brian Beutler, November 5, 2014, from an article entitled, "Obama Just Lost the Battle for the Senate. It's Time He Waged War for Real."
Comment: This is both "war" rhetoric and "get tough and hit back" rhetoric.
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A warning to the women of America: If Republicans win control of the House and Senate in the midterm elections this fall, it will be a powerful victory for the war on women, with consequences that will be severe and long-term. A large majority of women know this. The question is, will they will vote in November? … The polls look dark for Democrats. The war on women is winning. But could the GOP peak too soon? Could predictions of a Republican wave scare the daylights out of Democrats and motivate them to vote? Yes. It could happen with black, Hispanic, young and especially women voters.-- Pundit Brent Budowsky, September 10, 2014.
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President Obama's main political priority is social justice. That's where his energies lie. That's what Obamacare is all about. The president engages in class warfare but not real warfare.-- Pundit Bill O'Reilly, posted September 5, 2014.
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ANDERSON COOPER: So what do you say to those largely white Americans who see what is happening here and maybe don't understand what is happening here or disagree with what is happening here? You know what many people said to me just today, look, this isn't just about Michael Brown, this is about generations of issues that have gone on in this community and continued to go on in this community. Is that how you see it?-- Film director Spike Lee, during an interview with Anderson Cooper on CNN, posted August 19, 2014.
SPIKE LEE: I see it. This is about Trayvon Martin. This is about Jordan Davis, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Ezell [Ford], who was shot a couple days ago, today in St. Louis a couple blocks away another African-American man who was shot and killed today. They said he had a knife. I just think there is a war on the black male and it's tearing the country apart in my opinion.
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What on earth? In the middle of a war this country’s president publicly says is justified owing to the relentlessness of the rocket fire against civilian populations, U.S. officials proudly tell the Wall Street Journal, they are holding up weapons transfers to Israel …-- Pundit John Podhoretz, August 14, 2014, in an article entitled, "Obama Administration Makes War on Israel". It's not clear if Podhoretz or an editor wrote the title.
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This is a part of the war on whites that’s being launched by the Democratic Party. And the way in which they’re launching this war is by claiming that whites hate everybody else. It's part of the strategy that Barack Obama implemented in 2008, continued in 2012, where he divides us all on race, on sex, greed, envy, class warfare, all those kinds of things. … So the Democrats, they have to demagogue on this and try and turn it into a racial issue, which is an emotional issue, rather than a thoughtful issue.-- Rep. Mo Brooks, (R-LA), posted August 4, 2014.
Comment: This is an example of "war" rhetoric, "divisive" rhetoric, and "demagogue" rhetoric.
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"The problem with the Ryan Budget is that it is so vulgar, so obscene, so out of touch with what the American people want and need that it is literally hard to believe. It is hard to believe. The richest people in this country are doing phenomenally well. The Ryan Budget substantially lowers taxes for millionaires and billionaires. Working families and low income people are struggling. The Ryan Budget makes savage cuts in nutrition programs, in education, and in health care. It does exactly the opposite of what the American people need and what the American people want, and as you indicated, this is a continuation of the war against the middle class and working families that the Republican party has been mounting and work for for a number of years now."-- Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), posted April 10, 2014.
Comment: This is an example of "Americans want" rhetoric and "war" rhetoric.
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