When Republicans Attack - Open Letter to Donald Sensing

When I started blogging last summer, one conservative blog that I came across that I found to be quite sane and reasonable was Donald Sensing's One Hand Clapping. I have visited it off and on in the months since I first discovered it. Donald Sensing and I are not ready to collaborate on a book, but I think we're probably more alike than different and I have a great deal of respect for him.

The Terri Schiavo situation has revealed an ugly truth about The Right - that there is a core minority of extremists on the right who act without restraint or decency and their modus operandi is assault with no regard for social conventions or even the truth. This comes as no news to us on The Left - tales of of the Republican lunatic fringe are so commonplace for us that yet another one is likely to put us asleep.

Imagine the fury, however, when a sane and decent conservative like Donald Sensing voices a reasonable opinion about the Terri Schiavo tragedy that doesn't condemn Michael Schiavo as a murderer or call for the arrest of Judge Greer for the crime of Judicial Homicide. Like so many other thinking Republicans this week, Sensing discovered what the lunatic base of his constituency was all about. They turned on him and attacked - the voices of reason drowned out by the shrill voices of extremism, ignorance and, perhaps even hate.

As I said, Sensing isn't alone in this scenario. Right-wing bloggers who fail to tow the party line are often subjected to trial by fire. Similar tales are being told by numerous winger bloggers. (Click around if you care to read about any more of them).

Sensing has two fascinating posts up - one about his thoughts on the Schiavo case and another about the backlash he's received from his readership. Please read them. (I recommend reading the second one first...).

In the wake of the Schiavo tragedy, reasonable people on the right are suddenly becoming painfully aware of who they have been sleeping with.

My hope is that this will trigger a backlash by the reasonable people against the extremists - a purge of the Republican party. We can always hope.

I sent Sensing an email with my thoughts about his situation. I am reproducing it here:

Hello Donald:

I'm a liberal blogger - http://www.liberalavenger.com . I am familiar with you and your site having visited off and on since last summer. I think, perhaps, I came to your site through comments on Michelle Malkin's blog, but I don't remember exactly. What I do remember and am quite sure of is that I have a great deal of respect for you and your views.

I'm writing to you about the irony of the backlash you are seeing as a result of your perfectly reasonable comments regarding the Terri Schiavo tragedy.

These attacks from this segment of "the right" are nothing new. They happen every day, all day without fail. The only thing that has changed is the target of the attacks - in this case you have become the target. These people, unfortunately on your team, effectively make use of the same hate, hyperbole, lies and rhetoric against "liberals," "blue staters," "socialists," and "Democrats" all of the time. It is understandable if this escapes your notice. That doesn't make the attacks any less real.

I am a UC Berkeley educated parent of a teenagers and I am a husband to an immigrant to our country who doesn't share my race. I live in Massachusetts and I usually (but not always) vote Democrat. I strongly opposed the war in Iraq. I run my own business. I volunteer my time with the school system and various community organizations. I have a set of spiritual beliefs that is important to me and I live by a very strong moral code. I love my family and my friends. In short, I am a whole human being but I do not follow the model that Rush Limbaugh or Jerry Fallwell would condone.

In spite of all of this, I am under attack by the same people who are attacking you now. This same power-hungry core of people believes that they have a monopoly on morality and reason and you can see that if you don't fit into their idea of it, get out of the way. This assault doesn't take place in a tolerant fashion, either. It is in your face and it is a fight to the finish.

The attacks against "us" are happening everywhere - not just in my email inbox (where I deal with the same vitriol every day) but on the bookshelves via Ann Coulter and Hannity and Malkin and Regnery. There is nothing wrong with Republicans seeking to consolidate and expand their political power, and they are most certainly doing so... The attacks do, however, come from that direction. See Tom DeLay's very un-congressional remarks about Michael Schiavo this past week. David Horowitz is leading a conservative-supported effort to scour liberalism from our nations' universities. All of this is really happening. When you consider the circus that is happening now, the left's most embarrassing icon, Michael Moore, doesn't really seem as outrageously terrible, does he?

I'm not crass enough to blame YOU. I wish to point out, however, that reasonable, sane, thinking conservatives have opened Pandora's Box by pandering to these lunatic extremists. You've had to court them to get what you've wanted, and now they are in a position to push for what they want. I think that many of us on both sides have been in denial about what they really want...

Do you remember the Bill Moyers piece from a couple of months ago where he talked about The Rapture and how there was a group of people who didn't care about the environment because it won't matter once Christ comes again? Moyers was excoriated and ridiculed for suggesting that. Looking at what is happening with Schiavo and the reaction you have received from your comments, can we be so sure?

What about Gay Marriage? Until now apologists would tell us that conservatives are reasonable people - they don't really have a problem with gay marriage - they just don't want it rammed down their throat. I'm not so sure anymore. The Right is embarrassed by Reverend Phelps and his "God Hates Fags" sign and has tried to distance itself from him, but it's no longer going to be that easy.

So what needs to be done?

I think that honest-to-goodness old-school conservatives like yourself need to stop apologizing for these people and need to step up and admonish them when they are wrong. Silence is tacit approval. The insanity worked to your side's advantage last year during the election so too many of you stood by and let it happen. It is precisely the same people who destroyed John Kerry over whether or not he shot himself in the foot or was in Cambodia on Christmas Eve who are the shock troops in the attacks against Michael Schiavo and people like you.

Reign these people in before it's too late.

LA

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