How many ways can Sarah Palin be Wrong in One Speech?

Every time I write anything about Sarah Palin I promise myself it will be the last time, that I'm just going to ignore her until she fades away into the dustbin of history, but I saw this excerpt a few days ago and it just stuck in my head like a bad song.

 Speaking about Thomas Jefferson, Palin said:

“He would recognize those who would want to try to ignore that Jesus is the reason for the season, those who would want to try to abort Christ from Christmas,” she said. “He would recognize that, for the most part, these are angry atheists armed with an attorney. They are not the majority of Americans.”…

“Why is it they get to claim some offense taken when they see a plastic Jewish family on somebody’s lawn – a nativity scene, that’s basically what it is right?” she said. “Oh, they take such offense, though. They say that it physically even can hurt them and mentally it distresses them so they sue, right?”

Wow! So many kinds of wrongness!  First of all. Why do people get to claim offense? Because of the First Amendment, genius! You know, in that Constitution you pretend to revere so.

Okay, that's not exactly wrong, just stunningly ignorant.  But your next line? Nobody has ever claimed to be offended by a nativity scene on someone's lawn. EVER. People are often offended by nativity scenes on GOVERNMENT property, because the government is not supposed to promote any religion. Not sure if you're lying or actually that stupid, but either way, WRONG!

 And when people do claim offense, they absolutely do not claim that a Nativity scene physically hurts them. Even you aren't stupid enough to not know that that's wrong.

Also wrong? The "plastic Jewish Family" line. Not that it's factually wrong, it's just wrong that you think you're being clever and you just are not. You really thought "I'll subtly imply that there's some anti-Semitic basis to people's objections to Nativity Scenes. . .Zing! Nailed 'em! Oh, Sarah, you've done it again, you rhetorical genius!" It's not clever. It's no more clever than you're "aborting Christ" line. You think if you imply that there's something violent about secularism, you're going to. . .what, exactly? What point do you think you're even making?

“But heaven forbid we claim any type of offense when we say, ‘Wait, you’re stripping Jesus from the reason, as the reason for the season,’ but heaven forbid we claim any type of offense,” Palin said. “So that double standard, I think Thomas Jefferson would certainly recognize it and stand up and he wouldn’t let anybody tell him to sit down and shut up.”

Thomas Jefferson?

This Thomas Jefferson?



The man who took a scalpel and excised any mention of the supernatural from his Bible?  You think that guy would be on your side in the imaginary Christmas Wars? Really? The man who said this:

 If you think that Thomas Jefferson would be upset about the secularization of Christmas, you are

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also, you're stupid and a bad person.