In National Review, Conservative Author Says Most Liberals Are “Traitors”

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/05/01/nro-buzz-traitor/

In National Review, Conservative Author Says Most Liberals Are “Traitors”


National Review Online (NRO) features an interview today with author and retired Air Force Lt. Colonel Robert “Buzz” Patterson, who accuses “Democrat politicians, big media, academia, popular culture, and nongovernmental organizations” of forming “a Fifth Column” that is “facilitating defeat against Islamo-fascism.”

Patterson, the author of an upcoming book with the title, “War Crimes: The Left’s Campaign to Destroy Our Military and Lose the War on Terror,” is a right-wing radio host with ties to various conservative organizations.

In the interview and his book, “Buzz” Patterson isn’t afraid to accuse people he disagrees with of treason:

Kathryn Jean Lopez: Your upcoming book begins with a quote from Cicero about how a nation “cannot survive treason from within.” Surely you’re not calling Democrats traitors. Or are you?

“Buzz” Patterson: I am. They certainly are if their behavior during our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is held up to the light of the U.S. Constitution. Article III, Section 3 defines treason against the United States as “adhering to (our) enemies, giving them aid and comfort. Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Dick Durbin, and John Murtha, amongst others, are guilty of exactly that. <…}[br />
It’s not just the Democrats though but many on the Left — its faculties and administrations on college campuses, big media, Hollywood, and left-wing organizations such as the Ford Foundation, Moveon.org, United for Peace and Justice, etc. What is particularly disturbing to me is that these Americans are doing it while their fellow citizens are fighting and dying in combat. The best ally that al Qaeda has these days is the Democrat Party leadership. It’s reprehensible.

Patterson’s comments were approvingly linked by NRO contributor and Townhall columnist W. Thomas Smith Jr. later in the day.

Accusations of treason have become an all-too-common tactic used by conservatives against critics of the Iraq war. Just last week, disgraced former Rep. Tom DeLay accused House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) of “getting very, very close to treason.”

Previously, this kind of attack was mainly found in the fever swamps of talk radio or the conservative blogosphere, but the National Review is the largest conservative magazine in the country. It’s columnists regularly appear on major media outlets like NBC’s Meet The Press. They should have higher standards than aiding and abetting such derogatory attacks on the patriotism of literally millions of Americans.

[villager]

1. Real Traitors are always the first with these kinds of charges

No Democrat should take them lying down, or with a shred of politeness.

[AJ9000]

17. It's called projection. nm

[kimmerspixelated]

2. This crap has got to stop!

Step #1. Go after the sponsors! Refuse to buy their products and boycott them immediately, if they continue to print this shit! Not sure what step # 2 is...

[TwilightGardener]

3. The Air Force comprises the biggest kool-aid drinkers of all the services.

If an Air Force officer says it, you can pretty much discount it. And I am married to one! (He is not a kool-aid drinker.)

[fasttense]

4. “Buzz” Patterson is a traitor

That and 5 bucks will get you a cup of coffee.

[illinoisprogressive]

5. yeah yeah yeah. I am a traitor. what else in new..

[leftofthedial]

6. these fascist vermin have more contempt for America

than any enemy we've ever faced

[closeupready]

7. Yawn. That rhetoric is so 2002.

n/t

[Cha]

8. TREASONOUS WHORE.

buz patterson can say anything he damn well pleases but the proof is in the pudding, asshole.

[BlueStater]

9. Fuck this McCarthy wannabe

He can shove his worthless opinion back up his ass.

[Arugula Latte]

10. Real Traitors Start and Support Wars Based on Lies. nt

[Doctor_J]

11. Gee, how original

I guess I should stop paying attention to the National Review

:eyes:

[MasonJar]

12. All I can say, "Buzzy," is that I am no traitor, but W and Dickie are.

And I will add, "You are no Dwight Eisenhower," who easily saw the danger posed by the military-industrial complex and whose fears have been realized in spades.

[librechik]

13. loose talk from Desperation Row--they dishonor themselves by not supporting fellow Americans

these dinosaurs need to be turned into petrol

[Skittles]

14. it disgusts me that a military person could say such things

he is supposed to defend freedom but has no clue as to what that actually means :puke:

[Crunchy Frog]

15. The Republic party has jumped the shark.

They're getting more and more desperate.

[Ikonoklast]

16. And he knows NOTHING about Cicero

The people Marcus Tullius Cicero was warning about in that quote about 'treason from within' were the military madmen willing to use the political and economic calamity of wartime to upset the democratically elected Roman Senate, and usurp power and wealth for those politically connected families who would ally themselves with the military dictatorship in order to steal from the treasury.

Cicero stood firmly on the side of Democracy, until his postion was untenable, and he bowed to the inevitable dictatorship of Julius Caeser.


Sounds kind of familiar, doesn't it?

People just like "Buzz" AKA 'The Traitor' Patterson.