© St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Tad Armstrong

The weak at heart might be well advised to duck down Alice’s rabbit hole and hibernate until the votes are counted in November, 2012. The rhetoric of the last few weeks indicates the battle for the White House and Congress is going to make Obamacare-sausage-making look like a Norman Rockwell 4^th of July picnic.

One person offered the following: “Compromise has always been the back bone of our political process. The Founders would have been appalled at the notion that compromise was un-American.” In spite of years of Congressional compromise taking us to the brink of bankruptcy, this was meant to slam the Tea Party folks as being “historically challenged,” but my history books tell me the Founders would have been appalled at our culture, our diminished freedoms, our shredded Constitution and our second-rate standing in the world. I guess we had different history instructors.

And, then, there were at least three incidents of what some would call “politically incorrect speech”:

• Republican presidential candidate Governor Rick Perry offered his opinion that printing more money “to play politics at this particular time in American history” (if Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke were to do so) “is almost treacherous – or treasonous.”
• Congressman Andre Carson (D-IN), a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, said: “Some of these folks in Congress right now would love to see us as second-class citizens. Some of them…with this tea party movement would love to see you and me…hanging from a tree.”
• Congressman Maxine Waters (D-CA) said: “The tea party can go straight to Hell.”

All of us have said something we regret and did not believe. For those moments of buffoonery, Americans will typically grant a pass in return for an apology. None of these folks are apologizing, so we can safely conclude their tongues did not lie.

As for Gov. Perry, the left leaning media and some mentally challenged Republicans jumped all over his comments. Tony Fratto, a former official in George W. Bush’s administration, said: “Governor Perry’s comments…are inappropriate and unpresidential.” Really?

Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary defines treason as “the betrayal of a trust” and provides a synonym – “treachery.” No rational human being could possibly believe Perry was referring to Article III treason, the only defined crime in the Constitution.

He was clearly using the term to describe an unpatriotic act. But, even if we dare go with the meaning in the dictionary (gasp), surely no one with a brain could deny that printing money “to play politics” would be “almost treacherous” – “almost treasonous.” It would, in fact, be treacherous, treasonous, a betrayal of trust and unpatriotic.

This election cycle will challenge citizens’ intellects like none other. Don’t let the “left” or the “right” pull wool over your eyes. Investigate, think and, above all, resist falling prey to ignorance. To suggest that telling the truth is inappropriate or unpresidential is hogwash. Please bring back Harry Truman so we can have someone at the helm who tells it like it is.

As for Rep. Carson, he may well be a first-class citizen, but his remarks indicate he had “no class” in this instance. Race-baiting is treacherous, treasonous and unpatriotic.

As for Rep. Waters, she surely has not stopped to contemplate what it means to direct a fellow human being, much less a fellow American citizen, to go straight to Hell. This lady is the best her district can do? She is an embarrassment to herself, her district and her country, yet I hope she winds up in Heaven.

Some would couch then-presidential candidate Obama’s 2008 stump speech in North Dakota as politically incorrect when he said: “The problem is…the way Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children…number 43 added $4 trillion dollars by his lonesome…$30,000 for every man, woman and child. That’s irresponsible. It’s unpatriotic.”

If an upstart, inexperienced candidate can call his president unpatriotic, so can I. President Obama, you are unpatriotic times two, for you have increased the national debt on a par with President Bush in less than half the time.

Why would anyone seek an apology or a retraction for any of these so-called “politically incorrect” statements? Each statement was intended speech that tells us exactly where these leaders stand so that we can judge them by their beliefs, not by their coached, slippery, politician-speak.

Everything I have said is politically correct. I meant every word.