Gary DeLong Denies Being a Climate Denier, but Embraces His Inner McCarthyite

Two bad Gary DeLong stories are out today — one tip from our alert reader Josh and one from Martin Wisckol.  (And a note to early voters: I still have to do that coverage of the Bill Clinton endorsement, so DO NOT vote against Alan Lowenthal until you see that story!)  Meanwhile, there’s this.

(1) DeLong Denies Documented Climate Denial (Apparently Hurricane Sandy Makes It Inconvenient)

According to the Long Beach Press-Telegram, which had “endorsed him on the belief that he was a moderate who would not toe the GOP’s conventional positions on social issues and the environment” GaryDeLong is attempting to worm out of having asserted his opinion that the science of human-caused climate change was “questionable.”

He did about as lousy job of it as you’d imagine, too.  The P-T quotes him thusly:

“Recently there have been articles regarding comments I made on climate change. Although originally my comments were edited and taken out of context, I must take some responsibility — I could’ve answered the question more clearly.

My top priority is growing our economy and creating long-term job growth and prosperity for Americans. I’m concerned that placing additional regulations on struggling companies will stifle our recovery.

Second, there is a vast amount of information on climate change and not all scientists agree. However, I think it’s clear that humans can adversely affect the environment.”

In other words, Mr. Don’t Video Me says that his comments were taken out of context — although not in a way that suggests that they were meant in any way other than people interpreted them — but he bravely takes responsibility for not presenting them as clearly as possible.  And then … he says that he doesn’t like the sorts of regulation that are necessary to combat climate change and that he apparently doesn’t believe that the science is clear (because there’s so dang much of it and scientists aren’t unanimous!), but he agrees that humans can harm the environment.  (This appears to be a major concession for him.)  So, basically — “guilty as charged, but please don’t unendorse me!”

The rest of the blather includes:

• protecting the environment is important
• government can do this is ways that don’t involve doing much about it
• he has solar panels, a hybrid, and he composts and recycles
• Alan Lowenthal says he’s more environmentally friendly, but he didn’t solve all of the problems, so ha!
• Gary DeLong is brave enough to take credit for cleaning the environment
• Alan Lowenthal has tried to pass environmental legislation, but it kept getting vetoed by Gov. Schwarzenegger, so how good could it have been?

DeLong ends up with this statement:

“I have a proven record of working across party lines to build consensus and get things done. In Congress, I commit to working with all members of Congress to enact meaningful reform and solve the problems facing California. I am committed to the No Labels philosophy of “Stop Fighting and Start Fixing”, and will get to work on reducing the gridlock on Day 1. “

And  that brings us to our second story.

(2) Gary “No Labels, Stop Fighting!” DeLong Red-Baits Alan Lowenthal to Seek Vietnamese Votes

If you were concerned that Gary DeLong might lower the mean average awfulness of OC’s Republican Members of Congress — which is otherwise in good shape despite the loss of Gary Miller and Ken Calvert, thanks to the arrival of Darrell Issa — you can relax now.  He’s just shown that he fits in comfortably in the Royce/Rohrabacher standard of awfulness.  He’s red-baiting Alan Lowenthal.

The best way to win votes in the Vietnamese community, as Phu Nguyen found to his detriment in 2010, is not necessarily to be Vietnamese but rather to hate communism.  And Gary DeLong wants them to know that he hates communism more than Alan Lowenthal does.

How can you tell?  Because Lowenthal doesn’t like witch hunts!

Defending civil liberties is often unpopular (until one’s own are under attack, especially if it involves gun ownership) with the public, especially in places like Orange County, so what Alan Lowenthal did in 2008 is a bit of a surprise: he sponsored a bill that would have, among other things, stopped the state from firing employees for Communist Party membership.  As Wisckol puts it:

DeLong decided to make that an issue among Vietnamese American voters, many of whom fled communist Vietnam or are descendents of those who did. DeLong’s mailer specifically decried the effort to block screening for Communist Party ties of teachers and their families.

Lowenthal’s bill would “allow the members of the Communist Party to become professors or teachers without the Board of Education being allowed to check their family history,” the mailer said. “The bill SB1322 would open up the way for members of the Communist Party and their children/grandchildren to become teachers to generations of future Vietnamese Americans.”

Not only could people who had joined the Communist Party teach in community college under Lowenthal’s bill — but so could their children and grandchildren?  Has he, in the end, no decency?

Well, yes he does.  Here’s Lowenthal’s explanation:

“This is a slippery slope – who is next on DeLong’s list? Muslims? Homosexuals? Democrats?  I don’t agree with the tenets of communism but believe in the freedom of speech and the free discussion of ideas. I oppose discrimination of any kind, including political background checks for teachers or any member of our society.”

Lowenthal later adds that his bill “still bans teachers from openly advocating communism in the classroom, but says teachers cannot be fired simply for belonging to a political party.”

It may occur to discerning readers that not a whole lot of people belong to the Communist Party in the U.S. in the first place — can’t answer for their parents and grandparents, of course! — so this is sort of a solution in search of a problem to begin with.  The problem, as Lowenthal notes, is that when you allow witch hunts, there’s no reason that it won’t necessarily extend to Muslims, gays, lesbians, and Democrats.  (Remember, we live in a country where a large proportion of the population believes that Barack Obama, savior of capitalism and gooser of the stock market, is a socialist.)  If you’re reading this wondering what the problem is, it could also extend to Tea Partiers, Second-Amendment advocates, and libertarians.  This is why we protect civil liberties, get it?

DeLong’s argument about why we can’t allow communists in community college is a lot like the argument that I’ve heard some right-wing fundamentalist preachers give about why we must shun homosexuality: Once we start down that path, we’ll never want to stop!   Wisckol quotes him as saying:

“According to the Communist Party of the United States website, members of the U.S. Communist Party believe that capitalism should be replaced with socialism.  The Communist Party calls for the nationalization of the banks, railroads, and industries like steel and auto.  I am adamantly opposed to Communism and do not want a teacher attempting to convince my children that communism is better than our system.”

Ah, here we get to the crux of the problem: DeLong has so little faith in capitalism that he’s afraid that even hearing teachers questioning it could bring it crashing down.  After all, capitalism was questioned in the 1930s and in the 1960s, and in both cases it was permanent eliminated from the country.  Wait — no, that didn’t happen.  So … huh?

The fact is that capitalism these days is threatened by things like (1) climate change and (2) capitalists like Mitt Romney who don’t act like capitalists but instead act like con men and try to capture all of their gains while shunting their losses onto the rest of country.  (Maybe we should cancel business school classes.)

By going after the votes of Vietnamese, who still have great sensitivities to their treatment by the (quite capitalist these days) communist regime in their home country, by claiming that his opponent is soft on communism because he’s strong in civil liberties, Gary DeLong reveals himself to be just another thug, trying to con people by stoking their fears so that he can pick their pockets.

He’ll probably get some Vietnamese votes from this filthy and contemptuous gambit.  But for anyone who’s undecided and can still work up a healthy sense of disgust at these McCarthyite tactics, this should settle the matter — and fix one’s resolve to reject this sort of despicable red-baiting and vote for Alan Lowenthal.

This is especially true for those who believe in principles like “No Labels!” and “Stop Fighting!”  Hmmm — maybe DeLong himself should vote for Lowenthal!