Why It's "Un-American" to Call Your Opponents "Un-American" ...

Dear Readers: 

The following video is an interview from Chris Matthew's Hardball on Friday. 

Some on the Left criticize Matthews because he is more centrist than some of the other pundits on MSNBC. I actually like him. He has a good heart, good mind and gets mad at some of the same craziness that I do. 

As I started watching this interview, I started to get agitated, as he wasn't calling this woman on some of the misinformation she was spewing. However, as the interview progressed, I realized he was too focused on giving her rope to bother with contradicting her. 

By the end of the interview, she had plenty of rope with which to hang herself. It's an interesting, albeit troubling look at what happens when you leave the echo-chamber and forget where you are:

   

Labeling people "un-American" because they disagree with you runs against everything that our constitution and that we as Americans stand for. Furthermore, it is divisive and not worthy of a member of the US Congress to do so. This nation is based on principles that include the freedom to express your beliefs without being attacked. On March 23, 1775, Patrick Henry began his famous speech, which inspired Virginia to join in the American Revolution with words reflecting this tradition:

"No man thinks more highly than I do of the patriotism, as well as abilities, of the very worthy gentlemen who have just addressed the House. But different men often see the same subject in different lights; and, therefore, I hope that it will not be thought disrespectful to those gentlemen, if, entertaining as I do opinions of a character very opposite to theirs, I shall speak forth my sentiments freely and without reserve."

It is the very act of engaging in such a dialogue that distinguishes us from many other societies…not just because we are "free" to (there are many over the course of the years since 1776 who could attest to the fact that "freely expressed" ideas led to their persecution, and sometimes even death)…but rather because we are a people who consider it a responsibility to stand up for our ideas and ideals. 

Representative Bachmann seems to desire a resurrection of the HUAC. Didn't we learn many years ago that there are few things as "un-American" as the notion that someone should be investigated as "un-American" because they have differing political views? Those are just my thoughts. I'm a registered voter and proud American.