No More Nice Guys

A young DC reporter I know was trolled hideously for 24+ hours after posting his displeasure at Michelle Wolf's remarks at the White House Correspondents' Dinner.

Other journalists and talking heads are walking away from the comedian's most pointed lines.

I'm not a fan of that kind of Don Rickles/Kathy Griffin humor; I avoid roasts and dislike that uncomfortable feeling of not being willing to look around at the person in the room being skewered. It feels bad.

But stop. If you think we can counter Trumpism with hearts and flowers, you are clinically insane. If you believe we should turn the other cheek to people who are trying to destroy America, I no longer want to know you.

The #WHCD is supposed to celebrate the First Amendment, yet its president and many of its members seem to think that free speech means speech that is polite, deferential, and limited. They give evil doers screen time in exchange for ratings and dollars. They encourage the drawing of false equivalencies by using "balanced" panels. They are entirely complicit in the septic mess we're in, even as they tut tut about Congress's lack of courage.

You hired a known bad girl comic with an attitude and threw her under the bus when she did what you expected her to do. You dressed up and drank champagne in celebration of a principle you clearly don't support. Look in the mirror and give me a break with your faux indignation.   

Shadowing Trump, Channeling Nixon

If you're on social media and even slightly into politics in New York's 23rd Congressional District, you are no doubt being hounded by "Extreme Ithaca Liberal" posts by the Tom Reed Campaign. Reed used this to good effect back in 2014 when he ran against Martha Robertson. It did not matter to him, his campaign, or his Republican voters that Robertson was not from Ithaca but rather from sprawling, rural Dryden. Same county, very different vibe.

Not one to let a winning strategy die, Reed is currently using the same phrase to label candidates from Penn Yan, Jamestown, and Owego as well as the two candidates vying for the Democratic nomination who actually live in Ithaca. The Peter Max lettering on his web page is meant to remind us of the evil '60s and is particularly reminiscent of Jim Trelease's 1968 posters of Nixon's rivals that year.

In 1968, Tom Reed wasn't even born. So why is he channeling Nixon's fearmongering campaign of 50 years ago? It seems especially off-putting from a founding member of the so-called Problem Solvers Caucus, a group of U.S. Representatives who purport to work toward bipartisan solutions. If you believe in bipartisanship, how can you trash your own district's Democrats? If you are "fighting for jobs," how can you disdain the one county in your district where jobs are being created? 

Reed is nothing if not contradictory, however. Despite positioning himself early on as a moderate, Reed was one of the first NYS House Republicans to endorse Trump and even served on his troubled transition team. Despite professing to stand for New York, Reed supported a tax plan that will increase taxes for many New Yorkers as they lose their state and local deductions.

Donald Trump borrowed from Nixon's playbook to win in 2016, and Tom Reed is scuttling hard after both of them. Focusing on fear is a successful way to swing a progressive era backward. You don't even have to posit a real threat. Just mention "hippies" and let the voters' imaginations run wild. If Trump can draw false equivalencies between Nazis and anti-Nazi protesters, Reed can pretend that all Democrats have extreme views, and that no matter where they live, they come from Ithaca. The only danger of such oversimplification is that it starts from the assumption that your electorate is stupid.

It is possible to disagree with Tom Reed on the Second Amendment and not be extreme. It is possible to be a Democrat and be a former military officer. It is possible to be from Western New York and espouse progressive views. We are able to hold all these things in our heads at once. If Congressman Reed respected the people of his district, he'd credit them with the brains to see through his Extreme Ithaca Liberal hogwash. Unfortunately for us all, and for any hope of thoughtful debate, he doesn't.