Everyone clings to something, and we now know what liberals cling to. <\/a><\/p>\nBut what do liberals cling to? Recent events have revealed two things. Gun control and abortion. <\/p>\n
******<\/p>\n
By now, many details of the accusations against Dr. Gosnell have
\nbecome known. One will suffice. The Philadelphia grand-jury report,
\nwhich is a hard read, says: "The way he ensured fetal demise [Dr.
\nGosnell's phrase] was by sticking scissors into the back of the baby's
\nneck and cutting the spinal cord. He called that 'snipping.' Over the
\nyears, there were hundreds of 'snippings.'" Most were third-trimester
\nbabies. Eight of his clinic staff have pleaded guilty.<\/p>\n
In these times of a media that need to fill a bottomless electronic
\nnews hole, a story as sensational as the Gosnell abortion trial should
\nbe everywhere. But as conservative bloggers and a few liberal writers
\nsuch as Kirsten Powers have established in recent weeks, most major
\nnewspapers and TV networks have produced little or cursory coverage of
\nthis trial. The two exceptions are the Associated Press and Fox News. <\/p>\n
The basic conservative criticism here is that the media have
\nunderplayed the Gosnell story because its details might undermine
\nsupport for the abortion status quo, or at least cause people to ask
\nwhat exactly that status quo is these days. Rather than risk that, the
\nGosnell story was demoted.<\/p>\n
In response, some have said the conservative bloggers are wrongly
\nseeing a conspiracy of silence where there is only a difference over
\nnews judgment. By now, this response is implausible. It is hardly a
\nrevelation anymore that the media play the news in subtle but tilted
\nways to protect what they think is a settled social good, such as access
\nto abortion, no matter what. <\/p>\n
******<\/p>\n
Mr. Obama's remark about rural Pennsylvanians clinging to guns and
\nreligion is the coin of the realm in his crowd. But let's put their
\nshared consensus another way: Somehow it became a conventional view in
\ncontemporary American politics that it is non-urban conservatives who in
\nevery case have to accommodate their beliefs to a national culture
\ncreated by people who live somewhere else. "They" must adjust on
\nabortion, guns, school prayer, sexual mores and all the rest of it.
\nLiberals, meanwhile, not only feel no need to concede anything but use
\nthe commanding heights of the press and academia to define anyone who
\ndissents from their ever-evolving national culture as a political fringe
\nobsessed with people, one might say, who aren't like them.<\/p>\n
******<\/p>\n
Political correctness\u2014the silent code that decides whose side of the
\nstory gets elevated and whose side gets buried\u2014has been a blunt but
\neffective weapon, which the dominant liberal culture has used to achieve
\na lot of victories over "them" the past 40 years. But the wins have
\ncome at a price. That price is the return of an unmistakable, growing
\nand potentially destabilizing bitterness in American politics. <\/p>\n
The whole column is worth a read.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Daniel Henninger's weekly column – the Gosnell murder case Everyone clings to something, and we now know what liberals cling to. But what do liberals cling to? Recent events have revealed two things. Gun control and abortion. ****** By now, many details of the accusations against Dr. Gosnell have become known. One will suffice. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2750"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8494,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2750\/revisions\/8494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}