Dems demand 'civility,' but when have they practiced it?
President Donald Trump, in a series of tweets, offered four freshman
Democratic congresswomen a suggestion.
Given their complaints about America and about Israel, tweeted
Trump, the four, aka
"the Squad" should "go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came."
Of the four, only Rep.
Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., is foreign-born. How dare Trump, critics cried, tell these American-born citizens, all of whom are "people of color," to go back to where they came from! Racism! Never mind that in 2015, one of the four, then-citizen and now Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., angrily tweeted about candidate Trump's criticism of immigration from Muslim countries. She wrote: "Deport this a-hole!" Did Tlaib tell an American, born in New York, to go back home?
Still, Trump's "racist" tweets provided Democrats their latest opportunity to pronounce Trump "racist" and to again urge a "restoration of civility." After all, Democrats and "civility" go hand in hand:
The GOP has a "white boy attitude, (which means) 'I must exclude, denigrate and leave behind.' They don't see it or think about it. It's a culture." -- Donna Brazile, Al Gore's presidential campaign manager, 1999.
"We are in danger. The extreme right wing has seized the government . ... So look out . ... The right-wing media, the FBI -- they are targeting our leadership." -- Rev. Jesse Jackson, 2001.
"George (W.) Bush is our Bull Connor." -- Rep. Rangel, referring to the Birmingham, Alabama, Democrat segregationist superintendent of public safety who sicced dogs and turned firehouses on civil rights workers, 2005.
"Every day, (those in George W. Bush's administration) unleash squadrons of digital brownshirts to harass and hector any journalist who is critical of the President." -- Al Gore, 2005.
Democrats vs. Republicans is "a struggle between good and evil. And we're the good." -- Gov. Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, 2005.
George W. Bush has "improve(d) on the techniques used by the Nazi and communist propaganda machines." -- George Soros, 2006.
George W. Bush's administration engaged in "ethnic cleansing by inaction . ... So by simply not doing anything to alleviate this ... they let the hurricane do the ethnic cleansing, and their hands are clean." -- Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., about Bush's allegedly sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina's destruction in New Orleans, 2006.
"The Republican Party would have the American flag and the swastika flying side by side." -- Julian Bond, NAACP, 2006.
"The House of Representatives ... has been run like a plantation." -- Hillary Clinton, 2006.
The GOP is "the white party." -- Howard Dean, DNC chair, 2008.
"Republicans ... want to literally drag us all the way back to Jim Crow laws." -- Debbie Wasserman Schultz, DNC chair, 2011.
Mitt Romney's "gonna put y'all back in chains." -Vice President Joe Biden to a predominately black audience, 2012.
"Some (Republicans) believe that slavery isn't over, and they think they won the Civil War." -- Rep. Rangel, 2014.
So, as to Democrats' demand for a restoration of "civility," a simple question: When have they practiced it?
Larry Elder is a bestselling author and nationally syndicated radio talk show host. To find out more about Larry Elder, or become an "Elderado," visit www.LarryElder.com. Follow Larry on Twitter @ LarryElder. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.