In his Impromtus column, Jay Nordlinger has an extended take on, among the things, the griping from some corners on the "tone" of the Republican Party. Here is Jay:
Over the last couple of weeks, there has been great concern, whether sincere or fake, over the Republican “tone.” I find all this kind of dumb.
Is there a great tuner in the sky, with a bass control, a treble control, and so on? Does some unseen, all-determining Republican hand twist these knobs?
The Republican party is composed of millions of people and hundreds or thousands of politicians. These are all human beings. They could not possibly have the same tone. We are individuals, speaking in our individual ways, though we have common beliefs and aims.
Take the governors: Susana Martinez, Chris Christie, Mike Pence, Rick Perry . . . Each is an individual, and each has his own “tone.”
Or many tones! Do you have just one tone? Of course you don’t. A person has as many tones as a pipe organ. I’m liable to use different tones in the same paragraph — or in the same sentence. Anybody with a speck of artistry in him does, even a speck of humanness.
The Left likes to say that Rush Limbaugh screeches and bellows and huffs. Sometimes he does. He has other tones too: playful, thoughtful, sarcastic, sentimental, ebullient. He is a performer, and a man in full.
The Republican party should not be conformist or monotonal. It should be its diverse and star-spangled self.
Have you noticed that it’s the Republicans’ “tone” that is always spoken of? Never the Democrats’? Shall we have a discussion of their “tone”?
I think one of the worst things about Obama and Biden is their “tone.” Think of Obama’s angry, accusatory “you didn’t build that” speech. Think of Biden’s “They’re gonna put y’all back in chains!” Think of Harry Reid, charging that Mitt Romney had refused to pay his income taxes.
Think of Stephanie Cutter, suggesting that Romney is a felon. Think of Obama’s claim that Romney delighted in stripping Americans of their jobs, and shipping those jobs overseas. Think of Biden’s comportment in the entire 2012 vice-presidential debate. Think of Obama’s cry of “Romnesia!” Think of his ad proclaiming, “Mitt Romney. Not one of us.”
Oh, what lovely tones those Democrats produce!
How about those angry, bellowing, semi-mad men on MSNBC? I see clips of them, once in a while. Why doesn’t anyone ever talk about the Democratic or Left tone?
If I were the Republican party — there’s a funny concept! — I wouldn’t take this tone bait. Don’t fall into the tone trap. What I think Republicans should do, and people should do, is say what they think, in the best way they can. And let the chips fall where they may.
What else can you do? It is certainly unreasonable to ask millions of human beings to speak in the same tone. Undesirable, too.
And I thought Democrats were champions of diversity.
Jay on the faux patriotism expressed by those who say that they are "proud of their country" after the re-election of Barack Obama:
I’m so proud of my country.” How many times have you heard that since Election Day? When people say, “I’m so proud of my country,” they mean they’re proud of it for reelecting Obama.
This is Michelle Obama territory. You remember what she said, more than once, when her husband was picking up steam in the 2008 Democratic primaries: “For the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country . . ."
And if a relative handful of votes, in this great big country, had gone the other way on November 6? These people saying how “proud” they are would be singing a different tune: They’d be condemning America as racist.
The conditionality of their pride is a little unsettling to me. Obama wins, we’re innocent — and they’re proud. Obama loses, we’re guilty — and they pin the scarlet R on us, for “Racist.”
Well, nuts to that.
Jay really is a national treasure. Seriously.
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