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Why Nothing From the Left About Fred Phelps? 

In looking at this offering from Little Green Footballs [1], as regards the Gathering Of Eagles stumbling across the Fred Phelps Nutballs, I’m reminded of something I thought of a couple of months ago, and for some reason didn’t write down at the time.  I want to capture the thought now…

A great deal of the arguments surrounding the political push of the evangelical movement in this country seems to be bent on neglecting the idea that the evangelicals themselves, and therefore the evangelical movement as a whole, is not as monolithic as some would make it out to be. Certainly, if there is a group that is running in the opposite direction from the commonly perceived position of the evangelical movement in America, it is Fred Phelps and company.

I note with some interest that the political left has, as a rule, said as little as possible about them. You would think, that has a rule, a group that is willing to jump into any kind of protracted argument, as regards homosexual rights, and so on, as the left has always been, would be all over Fred Phelps and his minions like a wet tee shirt.  Yet, they hold their silence.

On observing this, one could come to the first obvious conclusion which is that the left is figuring anything that is a thorn in the side of the right can’t be all bad.  Particularly, those involved with the actual prosecution of the Iraq war.

But, frankly, I think in the end that it comes down to more a case of abject fear of these people.  Not so much in terms of getting into an argument with the demonstrably demented ; but rather, fear of having their traditional liberal biases argued against in a manner that they cannot control.  (Hillary Clinton, has given us, twice in the last two days, indications that the left needs to control the conversation, or they won’t partake of it.  )

Certainly, you’re not under these conditions, going to see the left answer Phelps and company, the way the right did, this weekend:

vetssalutewbc.jpg [2]
That, in my view, is telling.