Why No Republican Rebuke?

Representative Allen West (Republican from Florida) publically stated recently that 76 Congressional Democrats (perhaps as many as 81) are actual members of the Communist Party.
by Charlie Leck

It was extraordinarily dumb of Representative West to say it, but he did. Amazingly, he said it with a straight face and then reiterated that he meant it. Though we’ve come to expect our members of Congress to say utterly stupid things from time to time, there is a difference here. Here's what it is: the Republican Party of America has not stood up to rebuke the Congressman and to declare that he misspoke – or spoke stupidly – or lied – or didn’t know what he was talking about.

Marxists in the Congress?
When the question was asked of Representative West, some in the crowd guffawed, but West shook the naysayers off and assured the audience that “…it’s a good question.”

He told his audience that there were members of the Democratic Party who were also members of the Communist Party. He said he was talking about the Congressional Progressive Caucus (76 Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives).

This is all laughable, I suppose – unless, of course, Representative West was talking about you. I’m sure those members of Congress didn’t think it was funny.

It took me back to times in America when we were talking about the Radical Right. Remember the John Birch Society? It still exists, by the way, and you can read about some of their fear mongering here – at the John Birch Society web site.

The point I want to make – as strongly as I possibly can – is about the silence of the Republican Party following Representative West’s utterly obnoxious statement. The Tea Party is dragging us back to the time when the John Birch Society actually had a significant following. Both build their strength through fear and untruths.

It is only right that such ugliness and lies should be rebuked – we’re not talking about distortions here – or debatable facts – or foggy interpretations. We are talking about out-and-out lies and the Grand Old Party should speak up and out about such attacks.

We’ve returned to a time when a political party is willing to build upon fear rather than upon truth. Oh, my! Oh, my!

You can read the Washington Post story about Mr. West here (you can also view a video of his statement).

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