Isn’t Anybody Listening To Themselves?

Most of my friends know that I, while conservative in my views, am rabidly against the blind idol worship of Donald Trump and its logical next step of rioting and other acts of violence undertaken against anyone who would dare to question the “facts” perpetrated by the exalted leader and his sycophants.

Now, sadly, I see exactly the same response from the left.

Recently, the network CNN’s Briana Keiler dared to question whether it was appropriate for President Biden to have members of the military at an openly political event ‘Genuinely surprised the White House had made what appeared to me and many others to be an obvious visual error for such a high-profile prime-time address, I tweeted:
“Whatever you think of this speech the military is supposed to be apolitical. Positioning Marines in uniform behind President Biden for a political speech flies in the face of that. It’s wrong when Democrats do it. It’s wrong when Republicans do it.” ’

This was echoed by fellow CNN reporter Jeff Zeleney “There’s nothing unusual or wrong with a President delivering a political speech — it’s inherent in the job description — but doing it against a backdrop of two Marines standing at attention and the Marine Band is a break with White House traditions,”

I confess that I was unaware of this tradition excluding the military from even the appearance of supporting political speeches. However, when I read these, it made sense to me and I approve of that tradition of military separation from the purely political. And I thought that the observations of the two reporters above were measured and reasonable-not an attack on the President himself or his remarks.

The immediate reaction from liberal journalists was the opposite. Just to quote a few of the many:

Washington Post columnist Jen Rubin “Excuse me. This is not an RNC convention at the WH … if this is the new CNN, count me out.”
Economist David Rothschild “@CNN going chasing MAGA ratings (again) is scary for US (also an insane business decision).”

Others went with the defense of “Trump did it” which, I suppose, means that anything Trump did would immediately give license for anyone else to adopt similar tactics and behaviors.

Editorial cartoonist Pat Bagley “Here’s Trump giving GOP convention speech using the ENTIRE WHITE HOUSE AS A STAGE PROP!!!”
Soledad O’Brien “This reporter should read up on ‘past breaks with White House traditions’ to not sound so silly,”

I don’t know about you, but when I tried that “everybody else does it” excuse for my own youthful foibles, it didn’t work so well with my parents. For most of us as adults, that defense will not work with our supervisors, our bank, or the IRS.

So as far as I can tell, we are now at the extremely dangerous national posture of believing that no criticism, however benign, can be levelled at our party’s leader. Far be it that someone point out that Mr. Trump has lied repeatedly in office and out, or that President Biden may have erred in having the Marine band and two Marines as backdrops for a political speech.

I wonder where I missed the part about our leaders walking on water. Obviously the proponents of each side did not miss that event, or the subsequent ascension to heaven.