Dem candidate says GOP worse than ISIS
Hot on the heels of DNC chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz intimiating that Wisconsin's Republican Governor Scott Walker beats women, comes a Democratic congressional candidate from Alabama's 3rd district who claims the House GOP is worse than ISIS.
Jesse T. Smith, a Democrat who is running for Congress in Alabama, believes that the sins of the Middle East's most prolific active jihadist group are insignificant compared to those of Republicans in Congress. On Monday, perhaps thinking the best way to gain traction for his campaign in the Yellowhammer State's deep red 3rd Congressional District would be to position himself as a radical alternative, he Tweeted: "The greatest country on earth is being bullied from within. Actions of Republicans in Congress are worse than #ISIL," using a variant name for the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS.)
Yes, who could forget the time John Boehner sawed Nancy Pelosi’s head off and documented the whole thing on YouTube? Or when that group of conservatives led by Paul Ryan stormed into Massachusetts and mass-executed all the healthcare-loving libtards?
Needless to say, one irrelevant congressional candidate does not represent the party. But so often, when discussing the polarization of American politics, the left is quick to counter that to say “extremism exists on both sides” is a false equivalence: There is no liberal counterpoint, they argue, for the Tea Party. There is no way MSNBC’s partisanship, by any reasonable measure, is comparable to that of Fox News. Et cetera. But what does it say about the across-the-board radicalization of party politics that a candidate could be under the impression that comparing Republicans to a terrorist organization Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel called “as sophisticated and well funded as any group that we have seen ... beyond anything we have seen,” is in any way reasonable?
Smith deleted the offending Tweet, and then issued an apology:
I apologize for inappropriately comparing Republicans in congress to terror group ISIL. I condemn my words & humbly accept responsibility.
— JT Smith (@jt4congress2014) September 3, 2014
Later, Smith tweeted
Republicans in congress desperately want to Repeal #ACA. They clearly see the most vulnerable among us #Seniors #women & #Children as prey.
— JT Smith (@jt4congress2014) September 1, 2014
So I guess his "humility" only goes so far.
Gross exaggeration and hyperbole have been a part of politics for 235 years. Accusing John Adams of wanting to create a monarchy, or Jefferson of being in the pay of the French were accusations at the time given credence by friendly newspaper editors like Philip Freneau, whose scathing denunciations of Adams and Hamilton became legend.
It hasn't gotten much better over the years, has it.