The media think they caught Senator-Elect Tuberville speaking idiocy, but the real idiots are in the media.
When a politician misspeaks or says something that appears to be egregiously wrong, one of two things happens, and for two distinct reasons:
One. The remarks are mostly ignored and downplayed. The media recognize that the politician misspoke, or got something wrong, but don’t think his remarks are indicative of some larger and more important truth about the politician.
Everyone, after all, misspeaks and gets things wrong from time to time—even (and perhaps especially?) President-Elect Biden! It’s no big deal; there’s nothing to see here. Let’s move on.
Two. However, if the media believes that the misspoken or erroneous remarks reflect some larger truth about the politician—i.e., that he is ignorant and stupid—then his remarks are publicized and played up.
So it is that the media have castigated Senator-Elect Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) for making remarks that they believe are obviously ignorant and boneheaded during a recent interview with the Alabama Daily News.
As the New York Times reports, Tuberville
misidentified the three branches of the federal government, claimed erroneously that World War II was a battle against socialism, and wrongly asserted that former Vice President Al Gore was president-elect for 30 days.
Tuberville is a former football coach at Auburn University. He defeated former Republican Senator and Trump Administration Attorney General Jeff Sessions during the GOP primary.
Conservatives warned Alabama voters about Tuberville. He is “amazingly ignorant on national issues,” reported Quin Hillyer in the Washington Examiner.
“The national media,” he added, “will have a field day with Coach Tuberville.”
So this is no doubt the first of many Tuberville comments that the media will hold up as an example of Republican ignorance and stupidity.
Unfair enough. Despite the glaring double standard, if Tuberville or any other politician makes a boneheaded comment, they should be flagged and called out.
Of course, it would be nice for a change if Democratic politicians also were flagged and called out when they misspeak or say something stupid.
Errors. Be that as it may, Tuberville obviously erred when he referred to the House, the Senate, and the executive branch as the three branches of the federal government.
In fact, the three branches of the federal government are the executive branch or the presidency, the legislative branch (Senate and House), and the judiciary, which includes the Supreme Court.
The separation of powers, moreover, was designed to keep any one branch of government from having too much power; it was not designed to prevent any one political party from monopolizing the three branches of government.
And no, Al Gore was not President-Elect for 30 days before the Supreme Court intervened to stop a partial and selective recount ordered by the Florida Supreme Court.
Still, Tuberville’s larger-scale point about allowing the political and legal processes to exhaust themselves before declaring a winner in the 2020 presidential election is perfectly sound and legitimate.
World War II. As for his claim that World War II was a fight against socialism, well, that, too, is not exactly right. There were many self-avowed socialists, after all, who were passionately anti-fascist, and who eagerly took up arms against Hitler.
It would be more precise to say that World War II (in Europe) was a fight against German Nazi imperialism, genocide, and tyranny.
With that obvious acknowledgment or caveat, let it also be said: Tuberville is not completely wrong. He makes a legitimate point.
The Nazis, after all, called themselves the National Socialist German Workers’ Party for a reason: As Jonah Goldberg observes, “they were socialists.“
National Socialists or Nazis. Goldberg knows of what he speaks. He has written the definitive book, Liberal Fascism, on the collectivist or socialist roots of American progressivism, Russian communism, Italian Fascism, and German Nazism.
As the Amazon writeup for Liberal Fascism explains:
Contrary to what most people think, the Nazis were ardent socialists (hence the term “National socialism”).
They believed in free health care and guaranteed jobs. They confiscated inherited wealth and spent vast sums on public education.
They purged the church from public policy, promoted a new form of pagan spirituality, and inserted the authority of the state into every nook and cranny of daily life.
The Nazis declared war on smoking, supported abortion, euthanasia, and gun control.
They loathed the free market, provided generous pensions for the elderly, and maintained a strict racial quota system in their universities—where campus speech codes were all the rage.
These are indisputable political and historical facts. So yes, in a very real sense, Tuberville is absolutely right:
His dad did, indeed, fight in World War II to free Europe of socialism—a particularly virulent and genocidal strain or variant of socialism, to be sure, but socialism nonetheless.
Media Ignorance. Yet, this hasn’t stopped clueless media types from smugly berating Tuberville for his supposed ignorance about World War II.
But in truth, it is they who are ignorant, not Tuberville. They are ignorant of the collectivist or socialist nature of German fascism or Nazism.
Conclusion. It is perfectly fine to criticize Tuberville if or when he makes genuinely stupid and erroneous remarks; however, people in glass houses really should not throw stones.
The truth is that many journalists and wordsmiths are guilty of the same sins—political and historical ignorance and a gross lack of understanding—for which they so smugly castigate Tuberville.
They could use—we all could use—a little more humility, introspection, and learning before casting stones.
Feature photo credit: Senator-Elect Tommy Tuberville, courtesy of Al.com.
