Freedom Line Blog

My former boss, Bob Livingston, sent the letter below to the New York Times on Oct. 31. The Times hasn’t published it, so I will. It speaks for itself:

Dear Editor,

Last night, I attended a very nice gathering of roughly 1000 Egyptians and Americans hosted by some wonderful people seeking to enhance commercial and educational relations between Egypt and the US.  For the most part, all of the speakers including your own illustrious Tom Friedman provided positive and uplifting messages of hope and cooperation.

I say for the most part, because there was one notable exception so unexpected and out of context that it was breathtaking.  By that I refer to Mr. Friedman’s categorical and unsupported declaration in his closing remarks that 80% of those who politically oppose the Obama administration’s policies are racially motivated.

As a staunch conservative Republican with multiple friends and business partners not of my own race, I was so shocked by his declaration that I practically fell off my chair.  None of the other speakers found any reason to discuss race relations in either country, so Mr. Friedman’s statement was gratuitous, contextually odd, and completely erroneous.

When the program was over, I approached him and told him exactly what I thought…in words and phrases of my old sailor days.  To his credit, he did not retreat from his position, convincing me that he is either far less intelligent than I thought, or else he saw this gathering as a chance to spread hateful bigotry to an international audience without contradiction.

Sincerely,

Robert L. Livingston

Member of Congress (Retired)

At The American Spectator, I defend Newt Gingrich from scurrilous leftist charges that he is appealing to racist sentiments. Yet even though it is already a long post (please do read it), there is more to be said.

It is this: Have you ever noticed how seldom it is that conservatives ever actually say anything connecting food stamps or welfare with blacks — but how often it is that any time liberals hear those words, they immediately think that it is blacks who are being referred to?

At best, this is liberal paternalism in action. Worse, it could be the same thing that motivates racial preferences and other, similar liberal nostrums: namely, the assumption by the left that black Americans can’t be expected to be successes unless government helps them. It is an assumption that seems only to be applied to black people. It is a flat-out wrong assumption. But it almost always comes from the left, not the right.

In reality, there is no racial component to food stamps. It is shameful to think there is. The shame should be borne by those who do: namely, American liberals.

The political left, as illustrated by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), continues its Captain Ahab-like obsession to portray Tea Partiers as irredeemably and inherently “racist.”

So here’s a puzzle for them as they, in the words of The Wall Street Journal’s Jason Riley, “monitor Sarah Palin rallies for Confederate flags”:  If Tea Partiers are so innately racist, why have they so swiftly come to the defense of Juan Williams, who is both African-American and politically liberal to boot?  Such leading Tea Party figures as Senator Jim DeMint (R – SC), Sarah Palin and Congressman Eric Cantor (R – VA) immediately voiced support for Williams, and attacked National Public Radio (NPR) for summarily terminating him.   How to explain this inconvenient turn of events?

Perhaps the NAACP or the hysterical anchors over at MSNBC will reply that the Tea Party’s defense of Williams is all part of its sinister scheme to deceive the American electorate just one week before the November 2 elections.  Of course, that would undermine their other meme that Tea Partiers are simply a horde of ignorant yahoos.  Decisions, decisions…