Democrats and their little media friends are beside themselves that right-wingers aren’t in mourning over the very strange — shut up, don’t ask! — attack on Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband. They’ve all seemed to have forgotten how they treated everyone over the past three years.
To recap, 82-year-old Paul Pelosi was hospitalized last week after a man in his house attacked him with a hammer. At this point, that is literally the only thing that everyone agrees happened, since the story keeps changing. To wit, NBC’s “Today” aired a segment Friday morning billed as an “exclusive” with “new details” about the assault. And then NBC deleted the segment from its website and from its Twitter account, claiming that, “The piece should not have aired because it did not meet NBC News reporting standards.”
Setting aside the ever-changing kinky details of the affair, it’s been interesting to watch liberals in the days since whine about Republicans and conservative media being insufficiently concerned with Pelosi’s wellbeing, even accusing them of spreading “conspiracy theories” about the attack.
Jamelle Bouie captured it all at the top of his column in Friday’s New York Times: “[I]t has been shocking to watch Republican politicians and conservative media personalities respond to the brutal attack on Paul Pelosi … with lies, conspiracy mongering and gleeful disregard for the victim.”
Let’s talk about compassion for the victims of deadly encounters. For three years now, Democrats and the corrupt national media have blamed every single infection, hospitalization, and death of an airborne virus on people who were guilty of nothing more than minding their own business.
Herman Cain, the former businessman who ran for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012, attended a Trump campaign rally in June 2020. He died a month later from Covid-related complications. Here’s how the media reacted to that story:
“Herman Cain, ex-presidential candidate who refused to wear mask, dies after COVID-19 diagnosis.”— Reuters
“Cain, who co-chaired Black Voices for Trump, was photographed maskless and not socially distancing at the event.”— The Washington Post
“He was photographed there inside the arena without a mask sitting with a group of other Trump campaign surrogates.”— ABC News
“A photo taken at the rally showed Cain, without a mask, sitting closely to other people who also were not wearing any face coverings.”— Associated Press
No less than the president of the United States contracted an infection that is, by every indication, unstoppable. The New York Times captured the history by observing that, “Even if Mr. Trump does not become seriously ill, the positive test could prove devastating to his political fortunes,” because he had “scorned the advice of scientists,” and “refused to wear a mask in public.”
Nancy Pelosi herself said of Trump that “Going into crowds unmasked and all the rest was sort of a brazen invitation for something like this to happen.” (Perhaps living in a sanctuary city like San Francisco that might allow an illegal immigrant to roam the streets on the hunt for criminal activity would be “sort of a brazen invitation” for something like the attack on Pelosi. But we won’t say that.)
When the president recovered from his severe illness, advising the public in an innocuous tweet to live without fear, CNN’s Jake Tapper lifted his droopy eyelids in disgust. “It’s OK to be afraid of Covid, and it’s OK that it’s dominating your life,” he whined. He also called Trump’s tweet “so disrespectful.”
After that — months and months of being blamed for the spread of an uncontrollable virus –right-wingers are expected to film themselves praying for the Pelosis? No thanks! (Though we will say a prayer, maybe two, in private.)
They can get lost. Bouie’s Times piece went on about how important “virtue” is in a healthy republic. True, but the responsibility of saying, “Well, let’s put politics aside for now” isn’t going to be for one side only. Other than 9/11, there was never a more important time in the past half-century to “put politics aside” than in March of 2020, when the nation was told that a mysterious and deadly pathogen was sweeping across the globe.
Instead of giving “the resistance” a rest, Democrats and the media thought to themselves, Now’s our chance! They blamed Republicans for getting people sick. They blamed Republicans for getting themselves sick. If a Republican got infected, it was his own fault for not getting vaccinated. If a Democrat fell ill, it was a Republican’s fault for not wearing a mask. Miraculously, Democrats were never held responsible for any disease spread, despite virtually every party leader being photographed without masks and gathering with others.
It’s too bad. Four years ago, everyone would be deeply concerned about the spouse of a political leader having his head battered with a hammer. Yes, even if the circumstances seemed a little lewd and indecent. (Shhh!)
It is sad. But conjuring up the energy for much compassion, after what they’ve put us through, is just too difficult. Best of luck to the Pelosis, though.
