Improbable Cause
A writer at The Corner has published a piece arguing that Irish Americans are uniquely victimized by a supposed racial slur that the left frequently uses. When liberals complain about McCarthyism, the blog post argues, they aren’t just invoking odious behavior by a long discredited political figure — they’re actually trafficking in bigoted, “reptilian” hate speech that transgresses against an entire ethnic group.
McCarthy is an ethnically identifiable Irish Catholic name, yet it describes despicable political behavior that transcends ethnic and religious backgrounds. No other American ethnic, religious, or racial group has been so stigmatized for so long, with so little public outcry, by a word that is acceptable in polite society.
“McCarthyism” is the second favorite epithet (after “fascism”) of liberals who would sooner donate money to Palin for President than utter a word that would violate political correctness (which, in Edmund Burke’s phrase, “feels a stain like a wound”). And yet this same sensitive, compassionate group still uses an Irish Catholic name as a term of abuse to describe political practices that are not unique to the Irish, to Catholics, or even to the late senator…
The fact that Irish Catholics did not immediately complain when the word was coined in 1950 by Herb Block, the hard-left cartoonist of the Washington Post, is a mystery to me. In any event, acceptance of the term “McCarthyism” by Irish Catholics over the decades is not proof that the word is legitimate; it only serves to demonstrate the truism that if you don’t get what you like in politics, you start liking what you get.
Is this a deadpan attempt at parody? I can scarcely believe that National Review is now publishing explicit calls for political correctness by an aggrieved representative of an ethnic group whose own members aren’t even offended by the speech in question.
In my lifetime, I doubt I’ve run across a single person who hears the word “McCarthyism” and thinks that the Irish people are thereby stigmatized, so it is no surprise that there is little public outcry, or that the word is accepted in polite society — it plainly alludes to the singularly odious behavior of an infamous man. When I complain that the conservative movement is too accepting of Rush Limbaugh’s race-baiting, or that its members are too eager to attach the racist label to folks like Sonja Sotomayor, or that it’s weird when Andrew Breitbart darkly refers to the mostly Caucasian staff at Media Matters for America, I am told that I am overreacting. It is supposed to be understood that when folks on the right invoke race they are doing so ironically and strategically, turning the tables on leftists who’ve long used race as a cudgel. This misses the fact that it is always odious to use race or ethnicity as a tool to score political points, and underestimates how easily people segue from irony into cynicism when employing indefensible means for any end, even a noble one.
I’m unsure whether this nonsense about Irish American stigmatization is motivated by a misplaced, frankly absurd sense of ethnic grievance, or a desire to beat up liberals by calling them bigoted, or both. But I am sure that it is unhealthy for the conservative movement to keep channeling its inner liberal arts college activist. There is a perfectly heated debate to be had about McCarthyism, its history, and its contemporary resonance. It isn’t a debate that has anything to do with race. Given its poor performance among minority voters, is the conservative movement really well served by a flagship magazine that typically ignores identity issues, excoriates most instances of political correctness, and then chooses as a rare exception liberal bigotry against Irish Americans? It is defensible to do two of those things, but absurd and counterproductive to do all three.
Not to be self-referential, but if this isn’t a dry parody (it has to be, right?), then it’s exactly a part of the phenomenon I was talking about in my piece for Wunderkammer.
— Freddie · Mar 18, 01:38 PM · #
That has to be a parody (and a pretty good one, at that). If they’re serious, then I really fear for their souls.
— JS Bangs · Mar 18, 03:12 PM · #
If it’s a parody…what is it parodying? If it’s supposed to be about political correctness, isn’t it at least 15 or so years late to the party?
Mike
— MBunge · Mar 18, 03:31 PM · #
I’m afraid he’s serious. McCarthy is such a generic American name, no one would associate it singularly with the Irish. This type of political correctness is apparently contagious. I hope I never become notorious and start a backlash among the agricultural special interests.
— mike farmer · Mar 18, 03:42 PM · #
It’s a parody, of Lindsay Lohan.
— James · Mar 18, 04:17 PM · #
Post at NR’s blog count as “published” now? Tenure-seeking academics take note!
— Peter · Mar 18, 04:30 PM · #
How is it not obvious that “McCarthyism” is an an anti-Irish slur? Just like we all recognize “Stalinist” is an anti-Russian slur and “Quisling” is an anti-Norwegian slur…
/sarcasm. OK, this is a fun game. Who can come up with more examples of last-names turned into bywords?
— Chris Hallquist · Mar 18, 07:03 PM · #
Translation: we don’t have a single argument that anyone, even us, takes seriously, but if we ever start walking back, our whole movement might go down in flames, so we’ll just double down one more time…
— John Spragge · Mar 18, 08:18 PM · #
最糟糕的方式错过人是坐在他们身边的权利知道你不能让他们
— gucci shoes · Mar 19, 08:42 AM · #
Isn’t that the NR’s new beat, though? Proudly standing up against any perceived racism that even just inconveniences a white person?
— Chet · Mar 19, 05:46 PM · #
thanx admin For adding my post
— Sesli Chat · Mar 19, 11:07 PM · #
Chet,
“Proudly standing up against any perceived racism that even just inconveniences a white person…”
…lol even if the inconvenience is entirely imaginary.
Anyhoo, it’s par for the course with a movement that thinks the ADA, the FDA, the FCC, taxes, and public schools are the tools of fascism in America!
— Ray Butlers · Mar 21, 01:55 AM · #
Chris,
Wouldn’t Stalinist be technically an Anti Georgian smear?
— Eric K · Mar 22, 03:18 AM · #
Wow..that’s pretty sad. I think the left will soon find itself out-victimed by the right. Who woulda thought it.
— luko · Mar 22, 08:20 PM · #
Soon? The right has been the number-one purveyor of victim-based, identity politics since the 90’s. What else is the “liberal media” charge if not an attempt to set up eternal conservative victimhood?
— Chet · Mar 23, 03:55 PM · #
thank you..
— sesli sohbet · Mar 24, 02:14 AM · #