Remember what an important issue the "Ground Zero Mosque" was?
You know, the Islamic cultural center originally known as Cordoba House (now named Park 51) that was going to be built, well... not actually at ground zero of the 9/11 World Trade Center attack, but kind of close? The one that was going to occupy the sacred turf in an old Burlington Coat Factory building, near some liquor stores and an off-track betting parlor, and which was the worst possible affront to the memory of the 9/11 victims and to their families?
Come on, you remember!
This was the issue that had Senator John McCain weighing in; former Alaska half-term governor Sarah Palin decrying the project and inventing a new word in the course of her opposition; potential 2012 Republican presidential candidate and serial panderer Tim Pawlenty chipping in his two cents; and one-time Speaker of the House and repeat traditional marriage enthusiast Newt Gingrich urging Americans to rise to the level of tolerance currently enjoyed in Saudi Arabia.
Really? Still nothing?
But it was the hit of the pre-election season! And innumerable polls were conducted about public sentiment against Cordoba House. GOP candidates pounced on the topic, issuing lowest common denominator statements like this one from Elliott Maynard, a Republican attempting to unseat West Virginia Democrat Nick Rahall:
Ground zero is hallowed ground to Americans. Do you think the Muslims would allow a Jewish temple or Christian church to be built in Mecca?No? Nada? Zip?
Huh.
It's so weird that you seem to think it was just politicians and the media catering to the worst elements of politics and society through divisiveness and fear-mongering. After all, it's not like this crucial, vital, terribly, awfully important issue materialized out of thin air to play a major role in the 2010 mid-term election campaign, and then simply disappeared not to be acted upon or discussed since...
RIGHT?
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| Google Time Line showing stories reporting on the "Ground Zero Mosque" |
3 comments:
Also funny.
How a political party can't be blamed for the act of one deranged individual but a whole religion can be blamed for the act of 19 individuals.
Funny that
Also funny that the politicians who pandered to armed Tea Party thugs at townhall meetings during the most recent election cycle calling for "second amendment remedies" if they didn't get their way in the election, and putting their political rivals under crosshairs, have so radically disowned Jared Lee Loughner when in fact he is the incarnation of those "second amendment remedies" that they so bravely touted.
Also...the same people who can't trust our government against tyranny are the same people who were astonished and outraged that foreign people resisted us bringing our brand of government to them.
Total fucking losers.
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