PrintOctober 18, 2008
Thugocracy attacks Joe the Plumber's Audacity
Thugocracy describes what's been happening to an average, 35-year old American citizen named Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, who lives in Holland, Ohio. The media labeled him "Joe the Plumber." He's become the first citizen-victim of liberal thugocracy.
Michael Barone coined a word in his National Review article, dated October 11, 2008, entitled "The Coming Obama Thugocracy," and subtitled "Attempts to shut down political speech have become routine for liberals." Thugocracy: the rule of thugs.
Mr. Wurzelbacher was minding his own business when he had the audacity -- Barack Obama's favorite word after "taxes" -- to question Senator Obama's intention to "spread the wealth around." Wurzelbacher, an average Joe, had the further audacity to object to Obama's wealth-sharing intentions and voice his own dream of someday owning a small plumbing company. One of the babblers on the TV talk show "The View" said "Joe the Plumber" has a "fantasy" of owning a small company. (Like Orville and Wilbur once had a fantasy of flying.)
Mr. Wurzelbacher's audacity was all the big liberal media needed to go after him, digging through his life, looking for dirt. This they're good at, when it suits their agenda.
As though it was breaking news of the utmost importance, ABC News' Charlie Gibson announced that Joe the Plumber owes $1,200 in back property taxes. (But it's no big deal if Congressman Charlie Rangel, Chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee, owes a lot more taxes due to unreported income.) Another columnist made an article out of revealing that "Joseph" was Mr. Wurzelbacher's middle, not his first, name. What a coup of investigative reporting! Another hound dog discovered Mr. Wurzelbacker is divorced. And on it goes.
We could discount all this as journalistic silliness, but we would be wise to take it seriously, very seriously. We're seeing here an example of thugocracy, and the lead thugs today are the big old liberal media. They're out to destroy a simple American citizen who was made into a public figure by the people now out to smear him. Here's the truth in all this:
Charlie Gibson is a journalistic thug, as are all those who are like running dogs on the hunt, trying to destroy a guy named Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher - a private citizen guilty of exercising his Constitutional right to Free Speech.
This episode should have a chilling effect on all Americans. In an Obama presidency, anyone who is audacious enough to question his policies and positions will risk becoming a target of the big liberal media, whose self-assigned mission is to promote the political philosophy of Barack Obama.
