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Politics

Cliches Conservatives Say

By Clarence Page, Tribune Media Services on

And, surely, Goldberg is not serious in his pot shots at this old gem: "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter." Sure, he writes, "if the other man is an idiot." But, so what? An idiot can kill you just as dead as a sane man can. And even the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was viewed as a terrorist by those whose segregated way of life he set out to upset.

In fact, I would argue that one person's cliche is another person's wisdom.

To illustrate and offer a bit of balance to what Goldberg has initiated, here are a few of the most annoying cliches, in my view, that I often hear from the political right:

"We don't solve problems by throwing money at them." Sure. But you don't solve many problems by sucking money out of them, either.

"Poor people need to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps." Easier said than done, my friend. I tried to pull myself up by my own bootstraps and almost tumbled over on my head.

"Keep the government's hands off of my Medicare." Not easy. You'll have better luck with your bootstraps.

"Liberals love free speech as long as it supports the left." Unlike conservatives, who love free speech as long as it is does not come from the Quran or the Dixie Chicks?

 

"America: Love It Or Leave It." Funny, but, I haven't heard that one much since President Barack Obama's election. Can we bring it back?

"Why are all the news media slanted to the left -- except Fox News?" Maybe Stephen Colbert got it right. He said, "Reality has a liberal bias."

That was a joke. It's not a cliche yet. But give it time.

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E-mail Clarence Page at cpage(at)tribune.com.


(c) 2012 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.

 

 

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