April 1, 2006
Political Correctness: Stepping Things Up Posted by Joshua Zeitz at 07:00 PM EST I’m afraid John Steele Gordon has missed my point entirely. In each of the examples I presented—and these were diverse examples, drawn from three mainstream publications and outlets—conservatives dropped the term “politically correct” vaguely and indiscriminately, but in contexts that clearly associated “political correctness” with general gripes about racial, sexual, gender, and religious pluralism. In attempting to analyze the main arguments behind the articles and on-air commentaries I cited, Mr. Gordon has cleverly sidestepped the common strain they share—a tendency to lament (or ridicule) a world where women, African-Americans, immigrants, and gays and lesbians have full citizenship rights, and a twin tendency to invoke the term “politically correct” in the same breath. But I give Mr. Gordon credit. He can match me polemic for polemic. Nothing—neither facts, nor taste—deters him from his defense of conservatism, warts and all. Mr. Gordon admits to having never watched an episode of Sesame Street but “suppose[s]” it is “politically correct.” (Thank you, John, for proving by direct example my point about the inanity of conservative rhetoric. I’ll send you some back episodes on DVD next Chanukah. Happy holidays.) Mr. Gordon also characterizes a crude, racially charged editorial as “transparently satire” and claims I’ve proved, above all, that liberals have no sense of humor. (Point taken, John. Who doesn’t like a good slavery joke now and then?) He also suggests at several points along the way that because he has never heard of the conservative pundits I quoted, they must be obscure. (Can’t argue with that logic.) All of which brings me back to an earlier point. Several posts ago, Mr. Gordon threw one of his barbed javelins at me (it missed by a few yards, as per usual). He mocked my use of the term “popular democracy,” asking, “what other kind is there, come to think of it?” I wouldn’t know a thing about the topic, of course. But it seems to me that the antithesis of popular democracy would be a system in which a majority of adults were not permitted to vote (as was the case in America prior to 1920); a system in which women and African-Americans were denied full protection of the laws; a system in which all citizens paid taxes but only some benefited from government housing, education, and agricultural subsidies. Ours has not always been a popular democracy. I wish I didn’t have to explain that to John Steele Gordon.
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