Let me preface this post by saying that I believe that Irvine City Councilman Steven Choi’s decision to display a picture depicting Speaker Nancy Pelosi as Soviet dictator Josef Stalin was a tad ridiculous and in bad taste. As an elected representitive of the people of Irvine he should show a certain level of decorum. With that being said I find the level of outrage being shown by certain folks in the blogosphere to be a bit over the top and in many cases quite disingenuous and very selective.
In particular the pontifications of Chris Prevatt seem to take the cake and it appears that Prevatt chose to “jump the shark” in an attempt to breathe life into the blog that he has driven into the ground. Prevatt is trying to equate Choi’s foolish actions with the racist and insensitive email sent out by former Los Alamitos Mayor Dean Grose.
In a comment posted on the Orange County Register website on December 7th Prevatt wrote, “This is a bad as Dean Grose in Los Alamitos last February”. He followed that intellectual nugget up with a complete blog post on the Liberal OC entitled “Steven Choi – The Dean Grose of Irvine”. In the post Prevatt opined that Choi should resign from office.
While I do think that Choi comparing Pelosi to a muderous dictator was quite overreaching and a very poor political analogy I do not believe it even comes close to comparison in relationship to Grose’s overtly racist email. Prevatt’s attempt to link the two clearly shows a disconnect on his part in regards to the hateful nature of Grose’s email and the pain that it causes the African-American community.
In the lead up to George W. Bush’s war in Iraq I participated in many anti-war protests from San Francisco to Orange County and all points in between. At every event I attended there were posters and signs depicting Bush, Dick Cheney and others as Adolf Hitler and other Nazi leaders. I regret to say that even I routinely referred to them and depicted them as Nazi’s. I doubt that Prevatt and the others ever chastised anyone for doing this.
Prevatt’s fellow blogger at Blue County, Claudio Gallegos, routinely depicts Allan Mansoor and his allies as Nazi’s and death camp operators. Is that okay with Chris? Has he ever uttered a peep about this? The answer is that Prevatt has selective outrage. While I find Mansoor’s policies and platform despicable I find Gallegos portrayal of them to be equally reprehensible. You will never read a word of criticism about Gallegos from Prevatt.
Finally the most disturbing thing I saw from Prevatt was another comment that I read on the OC Register website. On December 8th he wrote, “Choi picks the Harry S Truman Dinner to protest Pelosi. Choi is Korean. If it wasn’t for Truman, Choi wouldn’t be able to speak at all. He probably wouldn’t even be in this country”. Do I sense a tinge of anti-immigrant sentiment in that comment, perhaps even some racism? Perhaps Chris is the Dean Grose of the Orange County blogosphere.
What Choi did was pretty silly and beneath someone who represents the people of Irvine, but the selective outrage from folks like Prevatt is equally silly. With all the attention they have paid to Choi’s antics they have raised his public stature in the eyes of the right-wing fringe. He is now the Orange County version of the dimwitted Congressman Joe Wilson that yelled out “you lie” to President Obama. These guys have done more to help Choi get elected to the State Assembly than Choi could have done for himself. Good job guys!
Sean,
Well said. Prevatt’s efforts have made Choi a national star in his party. He just might end up in the State Assembly now. Well done Prevatt!
And Prevatt himself has portrayed Chris Norby as the murderous Emperor from Star Wars. Perhaps he forgot he did that?
I was all ready to argue that, yes, even though making stoopid negro/watermelon jokes isn’t as trendy or PC as comparing moderate Democratic leaders to murderous 20th-century tyrants, it is somewhat in the same ball park. But then I clicked on “read more” and was reminded by Sean of how we used to sometimes compare Bush to Hitler during our anti-war fury, and I decided to keep my peace.
But then I was thinking: Not just that Bush’s warmongering was a lot closer to Hitler and Stalin than Nancy’s pursuit of a public option in healthcare is; more to the point, none of us war protesters were mayors or city councilmen so we weren’t exactly embarrassing thousands of constituents with our hyperbole.
Still I’ll agree, Dr. Choi’s dumb sign doesn’t seem offensive enough to lose his Council seat over – that WOULD be an affront to his freedom of speech. Let’s just remember what a dope he is as he attempts to upgrade to an Assembly seat.
“none of us war protesters were mayors or city councilmen so we weren’t exactly embarrassing thousands of constituents with our hyperbole”
Vern,
At many of these protests I saw plenty of elected officials, but more to the point, if it was wrong for Dr. Choi to do this it was equally wrong for folks like you and I to engage in the same type of behavior.
I do believe that Bush was a tyrant and is responsible for the deaths of so many innocent Iraqi and Afghani citizens, he is not comparable to Hitler or Stalin. It was a cheap shot by us to do that, just as it is a cheap shot by Dr. Choi.
Wrong is wrong no matter who does it. Just because someone is a Dem or a Reep should not excuse them from acting correctly.
Knew I should have made that sentence clearer. “None of us who were yelling or holding signs saying ‘Bush is Hitler!’ during the protests were elected officials,” I think I’m pretty safe saying that.
Other points taken.
As I rectal Mr. Sean, most of Gallegos depictions of Allan Mansoor and his allies as Nazi’s and death camp operators were published here at OJ…. and you Mr. Sean and you Mr. Art have supported Gallegos’ garbage with the great enthusiasm.
Do not forget that!
This may be so, but I think I speak for the entire community when I ask you not to “rectal Mr. Sean.”
Vern,
I second that! It sounds rather painful…
#5,
We give our writers a lot of freedom – and somethimes they put up wacky stuff. The point Sean is making is that Prevatt and company have resorted to crazy analogies too. And they actually bought Claudio’s most recent dead blog, Sunny D!
Their hysterical attempts to defame Mr. Choi have only served to make him a national star in his party.
“and you Mr. Sean and you Mr. Art have supported Gallegos’ garbage with the great enthusiasm.”
#5,
I never supported Gallegos wild and over the top comparisons of Mansoor and company to Nazi death camp operators. That is a complete fallacy on your part. In fact I expressed my distaste for such actions.
However my point is that if Prevatt wants to call out folks for over the top comparisons such as the one demonstrated by Dr. Choi he needn’t look any further than his fellow Blue County blogger Gallegos.
His multi part dissertations on the evils of Mansoor and Millard were some of the most unreadable garbage ever spewed in the blogosphere. Whether they were done here on the OJ or elsewhere they were reprehensible.
“Their hysterical attempts to defame Mr. Choi have only served to make him a national star in his party.”
Mr. Art/Sean, you have both made more than hysterical attempts to defame ample “Chois” and I would say… attempted assassin their character too, only to make clown out of yourself.
As far as I can see, you have not changed.
Let us not forget, similar antics elected our current Governor. Smash Up Derby’s and crazy stunts.
People just don’t get it.