WASHINGTON — As many as 80 House Democrats are communists, according to Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.). West warned constituents at a Tuesday town hall event that he’s “heard” that dozens of his Democratic colleagues in the House are members of the Communist Party, the Palm Beach Post reported. West wouldn’t elaborate beyond that, however, and didn’t offer up any names. There are currently 190 House Democrats.
I spent a fair amount of time trying to figure out how to address this subject with the seriousness it deserves…and then I remembered this is Allen West we’re talking about. There’s nothing about what he says or does that’s even remotely deserving of serious consideration. To call West a fool wouldn’t begin to do justice to the depths of his hyper-partisan lunacy. Anyone who could claim with a straight face and no hint of irony that up to 42% of House Democrats are Communists is in serious need of having his medication adjusted. (Then again, the fact that West was even elected to Congress probably says more about the intellectual vacuity of his constituents than it does about him.)
I have to begin with wondering if West could even define “Communism,” or whether it’s just an all-purpose pejorative he uses because of the visceral reaction he knows it generates among “low information” voters…like his constituents in Floriduh, f’rinstance. When your constituents are far more fluent in reaction and rage than sober reflection, referring to your ideological adversaries as “communists” probably seems like a pretty safe move.
What I find even more amusing is West’s demands that President Obama debate him on their considerable policy differences.
During the same event, which took place at Florida Atlantic University, the freshman Republican said President Barack Obama wouldn’t have a public debate with him over their policy differences because he was “scared.”…. “I really wish that, standing here before you, was Allen West and President Obama,” West said, according to the Palm Beach Post. “We could have a simple discussion. But that ain’t ever gonna happen.”
Yeah, right; what possible incentive could the President possibly have for debating West? And why would the President want to participate in West’s delusions of grandeur? West is certainly within his rights to demand a debate, just as the President is within his rights to refuse to acknowledge him. Perhaps if West had something positive to add to the public discourse. Perhaps if he was more than bluster, innuendo, and character assassination. Perhaps if he had more to offer than warmed-over McCarthyism and cheap, unsupported insults.
Yeah, like that’s going to happen….
By the way, a representative of the Communist Party USA has publicly dissed West, stating that there are no Communists in Congress. Quelle surprise, non?
