When she isn’t claiming that lesbian constituents have kidnapped her in a bathroom, Michele Bachmann is calling for investigations of congressmembers to see if they hold anti-American views. What kind of anti-American views? Pretty much, anyone who is critical of any aspect of American policy is an anti-American in Michele Bachmann’s mind. Here’s how she put it on Chris Matthew’s Hardball program:
MR. MATTHEWS: Well, he’s a United States senator from Illinois. He’s one of the people you suspect as being anti-American. How many people in the Congress of the United States do you think are anti- American? You’ve already suspected Barack Obama. Is he alone, or are there others? How many do you suspect of your colleagues as being anti-American?
REP. BACHMANN: What I would say — what I would say is that the news media should do a penetrating expose and take a look. I wish they would. I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out, are they pro-America or anti-America? I think people would love to see an expose like that.
Most reasonable people interpreted these remarks to be the ravings of a right-wing idiot. But Reid Wilson of The Hill thinks that Democrats that are critical of the Senate GOP’s refusal to save the auto industry are the moral equivalents of Michele Bachmann.
Democrats across the country are blasting Republicans who voted against a bailout for American automakers last night, in some cases using rhetoric ordinarily reserved for only the most heated debates.
“It is unacceptable for this un-American, frankly, behavior of these U.S. senators to cause this country to go from a recession into a depression,” Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm said during a radio interview Friday morning. “It is such an unbelievable stab at workers across the country.”
…The harsh language, especially from Granholm, is reminiscent of certain Republican attacks on Democrats. Most recently, Minnesota Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann found herself in hot water when she suggested that then-presidential candidate Barack Obama had “anti-American views.”
One obvious difference between the remarks of Granholm and Bachmann is that Granholm is criticizing the actions and statements of specific members of Congress, not the actions or statements of their acquaintances. Gov. Granholm is alleging that policies that deliberately put millions of people out of work are unpatriotic. You can critique that, if you want, but it is a much different assertion than Bachmann was making.
Reid Wilson isn’t interested in making any distinctions of this type. In fact, he wants you to know that the majority of the people in this country are in the so-called ‘anti-American’ camp. This means, I assume, that Granholm’s charges cannot be true.
Still, Republicans who voted against the bailout measure are in line with the majority of Americans, according to a new Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll. The survey shows 58 percent of Americans disapprove of an automaker bailout, including 52 percent of Democrats and 64 percent of Republicans. Just 37 percent approve of the bailout.
Just over one in three respondents told pollsters they believed American car companies would survive only if they received a loan. Thirty-one percent predicted the auto companies would be able to survive on their own, while one in four said the companies were doomed regardless of whether they received the bailout.
Half of voters say it is not likely that automakers will eventually pay back the money they borrow, while 48 percent say payback is likely.
What this tells us is that the American people are either ‘anti-American’ or the Democrat’s criticisms are false. Wilson sets up a false dichotomy and never considers the possibility that the majority of Americans might simply be wrong, misled, or liable to change their minds when they see the repercussions of a collapse of the auto industry.
