In an op-ed piece published on August 10 in USA Today , House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer write that “drowning out opposing views is simply un-American.” In a speech delivered in Virginia on August 7, President Barack Obama said this : “I don’t want the folks who created the mess to do a lot of talking. I want them to get out of the way so we can clean up the mess. I don’t mind cleaning up after them, but don’t do a lot of talking.”
So, if it is un-American to drown out opposing views, as Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Hoyer correctly maintain, then does it not follow that it is un-American for the nation’s chief executive to falsely brand those who hold opposing views as “the folks who created this mess” while demanding that they remain largely silent? Is not the President trying to “drown out” opposing views, albeit passive aggressively?
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