Frog and Scorpion

When it comes to this Climate of Hate stuff, I am reminded of the story of the Frog and Scorpion.  It took me a long circuitous route in order to get to this conclusion and it requires some explanation.

This charge being made of "vitriolic" rhetoric that is somehow connected to the shootings in Arizona appears to me to very dishonest.  It is the kind of dishonesty that you find in liberals.  Surely they are not so dumb as to believe that a few words is going to cause bad things to happen, for if they really believed that, they would tone down their own language.  Liberals are not necessarily stupid, despite their appearances sometimes.  They just have this problem with basic concepts like integrity, honesty and honor.  Use those words around a liberal, and you'll get a sneering response.  It is so old fashioned to them.

It reminds me of what Leo Durocher used to say:  "Nice guys finish last."  Politics is a tough competitive occupation, not unlike competitive sports.  Knocking the other guy silly in order to get an edge is okay if you can get away with it.  In fact, it ought to be expected.  Hence you get the response that the Mahablog had, in which I referenced in an earlier post.  Any complaints about the rough tactics are attributed to weakness on the protestors part.  Never mind the fact that it is the very same thing that the critics are saying themselves.  The critics want their adversaries to tone it down, but that won't be reciprocated.  Even more, not only will it not be reciprocated, but any complaints will be characterized as crybabying.

But their is no honor no integrity in the charge.  Never mind that, they'll say.  Nice guys finish last.

It may be a little starry eyed of me, but I do think that conservatives do care more about honor and integrity than the liberals.  I'll buttress that opinion with a few facts which can't be denied.  When a conservative breaks a promise, like George H.W. Bush's "read my lips" promise not to raise taxes, the betrayal is taken very seriously.  But if a liberal, like Clinton says he "didn't have sex with that woman", and it turns out to be a lie, nobody seems to be shocked.  The two sides are judged by different standards.  Or to put it more accurately, one side gets judged by its own standards and the other doesn't get judged because it has no standards to begin with.

When I think of liberals, I think of them as the Al Capone types.  That may seem a bit harsh, but let me explain.  In his book "Success Through a Positive Mental Atttitude", Napoleon Hill discusses his interview with the notorious gangster.  When Hill asked Capone why he did the things he did, Capone said "I had to."  He felt it was necessary for him to be dishonest.  But Hill points out that necessity has nothing to do with the choice of being dishonest.  Dishonesty is a choice, nobody forces anybody to be dishonest.  Nobody forced Capone to be a gangster.  That was his choice.  Yet Capone no doubt believed that he was being forced into becoming a gangster.  People can rationalize any behavior if it suits them in some way.  If it suits the liberals to lie about the conservatives, in particular about a certain tragic event, why they'll just say that they have to.  And they'll feel perfectly justified in doing so.

So that brings me back to the Frog and Scorpion parable.  It is in the Scorpions' nature to sting the Frog while the Frog is carrying the Scorpion to safety even though it will kill the both of them.  The Scorpion can't help itself.  It would prefer death to them both than to have his enemies succeed or survive.  The Scorpion isn't motivated by good will, but by enmity.  Therefore, you can't believe what the "Scorpions" say.  If you do, and you trust them, you go down the drink with them.

Update:

This is being reposted from almost two years ago after the Gifford shooting in Arizona.  It is about the "Climate of Hate" charge leveled at the right and how the left was attempting to say that this climate caused the shooting.

It is especially important now with what is happening in the election.  They may charge the same climate of hate is what is bringing Obama down, if that is indeed what is happening ( Obama going down).

The gold standard is the truth.  Obama didn't trust us with the truth.  His excuse will be the same as Capone's.