A Word Or Two On "The French Mistake"

(To begin, I have an observation that is really “inside baseball” I know, but I have to say it. What I’ve done in the past was write longer-form posts at times over on the Wordpress site where I can tag and categorize my content more effectively than I typically do here at Blogger, and I usually just link to WP from my Blogger posts. However, Wordpress has done such an effective job of totally shitting up their UI and overall functionality that I may just say the hell with writing new posts there altogether and do everything here. That explains a bit what I’m about to say next.)

There was a time at this site when I did my best to critique/pick apart what I considered to be wingnut propaganda on a variety of fronts, and my hope was that I could “get the word out” (as much as my admittedly limited reach allowed) before the spin on the topic in question became enshrined to the point where it pretty much morphed into the dreaded “conventional wisdom” within our corporate media. This applied to a number of topics, such as Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction during the sorry Bush reign, the whole “birther” nonsense under Obama and, in the present moment, our alleged “open border” with Mexico (propagated by Our Treasonous Orange Pustule of a Former “President,” among others). To that end, I often spent more time than I would like otherwise at National Review, The Weekly Standard, AEI, Townhall.com, the Wall Street Journal and other right-wing propaganda outlets and would fill up posts critiquing, among others, Bret Stephens, Kurt Schlichter, Andrew Malcolm...the list went on an on.

I eventually ended up abandoning this exercise for at least two reasons: 1) I needed to preserve my sanity, and 2) I ran out of bandwidth to do that on a regular basis. Well, I’d like to return briefly to that here to take issue somewhat with a recent New York Times column by David French, formerly of The National Review (because, as the Times would no doubt tell us if they were directly asked, you can never have enough conservative columnists).

I have to admit that French these days is in the “never Trump” camp (see Rick Wilson, Steve Schmidt, Michael Steele, Nicolle Wallace, etc.) so he’s a little more enlightened than the typical Trumpist sycophant. It should be noted also that he served our country, which is commendable. However, that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t need to be called out on occasion, and I think his most recent piece in the Times is the opportunity to do exactly that (the subject is the “national divorce” insanity proposed by Repug U.S. House Rep Marjorie Trailer Park Greene, among others):

(Greene’s “national divorce” idea) is not a new concern for me. In 2020, I published a book arguing that political polarization had grown so extreme that it was time to be concerned about our national union. The second sentence stated the thesis: “At this moment in history, there is not a single important cultural, religious, political or social force that is pulling Americans together more than it is pushing us apart.”

That statement was true then, and it is true now. If anything, partisan anger has only grown. I finished the book before the spring riots that ripped through American cities in 2020 and before the insurrection of Jan. 6. Those wounds have not fully healed.

Did you catch that? French equated the protests in the wake of the death of George Floyd with the 1/6 insurrection against our government and the legal, lawful result of the 2020 presidential election.

One of these things is not like the other...

Well then, with this in mind, I think it’s only appropriate to revisit the following from French:

French once defended Kevin Williamson, who said those who’d received abortions should be hanged (here).

He also claimed that lifting the ban on transgender military service will result in “thought control” (here).

And in case anybody out there is still wondering how we could have arrived at a place in our political discourse where we’ve declared open season pretty much on LGBTQ individuals (to say nothing of women needing an abortion or related medical care), I give you a screed from French 8 years ago where he went on record saying that homosexuality is “sinful” here (I realize that’s pretty much straight from the Catholic playbook sadly, but that definitely helped to speed our intolerant path towards jackbooted authority and the ultimate death of democracy IMO...I mean, I hope to God that doesn't happen, but we'll see).

I realize the Times is going to allow French a platform to inject his doctrinaire musings into what passes for informed political dialogue in this country regardless of what I say or do, but as far as I’m concerned, that doesn’t mean that he should be allowed to do so with impunity. And I intend to call out French and his ilk for exactly that as long as I’m able to do it.

We didn’t get to this sorry state in this country by accident. A lot of people who knew better either contributed to our political and ideological misunderstandings by active participation or other than benign neglect, and continue in that exercise. And French is definitely responsible too. And I don’t care how comfortable a living he manages to eke out for doing so.

Update 3/26/23: More here.

Update 5/8/23: More here also.