[The Tea Party Convention] gave a platform to ranters Tom Tancredo, a former Republican congressman, and Joe Farah, editor of a right-wing website, both of whom predictably delivered cringe-inducing screeds.
Okay, Point One: What’s with “screed”? That’s a word right out of the left-liberal vocabulary, one of the little stock they use to emphasize their moral superiority over us child-poisoning wife-beaters on the Right. They, in their lofty dedication to the public good, write columns and give speeches: We produce screeds (”a : a lengthy discourse : diatribe b : a piece of writing: as (1) : a friendly letter . . . (2) : an informal essay, story, or dissertation” — Webster’s Third). In fact, if you’re going to use “screed” for the noun, why not reach into the Left vocabulary for a verb, too? “Spout” and “spew” are their favorites. But really: We should not touch this lefty Newspeak with a ten-foot pole. It’s just yielding up ground to the buggers. (No time here to deal with “ranters,” but similar objections apply.)
Point Two: Tom Tancredo doesn’t think people should be allowed to vote if they can’t speak English. Do you think they should be so allowed?
Point Three: Tom called the president a “socialist ideologue.” That’s debatable. Obama’s actions and appointments since taking office indicate more openness than the accusation implies. On the other hand, the accusation is not unfounded. Obama’s entire experience of the private sector was a few months in 1983, which he described in his autobiography as being “like a spy behind enemy lines.” Tom’s descriptor needs a lot of qualifying, but it’s not preposterous.
Point Four: I’ll agree with you on the “cringe-making.” Tom’s a lousy speaker, and always has been. Not everyone has the gift of oratory. On the other hand, Tom stood up for our national sovereignty, for the integrity of our borders and the enforcement of our laws, when most Republican politicians were weaseling on those issues (as too many still are). I’ll honor him for that. If he’s to be read out of the conservative movement, it should be for something worse than mild offenses against political correctness.
Or is it just the Republican party out of which Tom’s being read?
