Conservative writers, the enraging, infuriating, unfair and dishonest ones, are like children. Figures like Michelle Malkin, Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity make a living ignoring logic and rationality in favor of closing their eyes, stomping their feet and throwing tantrums. Instead of ‘Mommy I want an electronic talking Optimus Prime’ they say, ‘Mommy look! The liberals blame America first!’

Normally I would behave like any parent and simply ignore the complaints of petulant conservative children to avoid entering a debate that would be an exercise in futility. But I thought of a clever response to their claim of liberals blaming America first and couldn’t resist.

Those who accuse liberals of ‘blaming America first’ are in direct need of some perspective. As they make these wild claims, they often trot out their other favorite whipping-boy responsible for all of the nation’s ills: America’s decadent, immoral, (gay) culture.

Huh?

Did they just divorce America out of American popular culture? Yes. Yes they did, and shame on the hypocrites.

Believe it or not, ‘blame America first’ is a modern revival of an old, dirty, conservative trick. Long before Coulter, Malkin, Hannity and O’Reilly came of age, Ronald Reagan paved the way for mudslinging when his adviser, Jeane Kirkpatrick, gave a riveting speech to the 1984 Republican National Convention in which, according to the an Associated Press transcript, she said this:

‘They said that saving Grenada from terror and totalitarianism was the wrong thing to do – they didn’t blame Cuba or the communists for threatening American students and murdering Grenadians – they blamed the United States instead. But then, somehow, they always blame America first.’

She had me at ‘Grenadians.’ Change some of the nouns and it sounds remarkably like modern rhetoric surrounding counter-criticism to Iraq war dissenters.

The hypocrisy is no better embodied than in the arguments of conservative pundit Dinesh D’Souza. To promote his book, D’Souza wrote a column for USA Today titled ‘The America the terrorists never see,’ in which he asserts that radical Islamic terrorism would disappear if only America ceased broadcasting its culture. Culture that is bad because it represents sexual liberation and free thinking, tenets he, of course, associates with liberalism.

Personally I see that association as a compliment, but I can’t help but be annoyed when I defend my American ideals of freedom: expression, press and religion. Somehow, conservative talking heads believe that advocating for freedom and effective democracy at home is un-American and un-patriotic.

Anyone who thinks that liberals ‘blame America first’ needs to look in the mirror. Odds are they blame American culture first.

Ben Peskin is a featured columnist whose columns appear Thursdays in The Daily Orange. Email him at [email protected].

Published on February 21, 2007 at 12:00 pm