When Republican officials aren’t relying on denial when explaining away the “war on women,” they rely on an old standby: questioning their opponents’ patriotism.
“I find it offensive that the Democratic National Committee is using a term like that to describe policy differences,” said Sean Spicer, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee. “It’s not only bad, but it’s downright pathetic they would use a term like ‘war’ when there are millions of Americans who actually have engaged in a real war. To use a term like that borders on unpatriotic.”
Now, if Spicer wants to argue that “war” is an overused metaphor, reasonable people can at least have a conversation about it. Some on the left may even agree with him.
But the RNC spokesperson is just pushing his luck when he says the “war” metaphor itself is offensive, bordering on “unpatriotic.” As Rachel noted on the show the other day, this is the same Republican National Committee that’s complained about Democrats waging a “war on Appalachia,” a “war on coal,” and launching a “trade war with Mexico.”
But we can go a little further with this. Poking around Mitt Romney’s campaign website, for example, we see the likely Republican nominee expressing concern about Obama waging a “war on the entire coal industry,” a “war on carbon dioxide,” and a “war on the Catholic Church.” Romney has also said the Obama administration has launched a “war on free enterprise” and a “war on religion.” I’m curious, does the Republican National Committee believe this is “downright pathetic,” too? Or has Sean Spicer concluded that only one party’s patriotism deserves to be questioned, even when Republicans are using the identical metaphor?
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