Colin Powell was interviewed by Christiane Amanpour, CBE, on Sunday on ABC.
(Did anyone know she was a Commander of the British Empire? Or that Britain still had an empire? Or boasted about it? A closet imperialism lover?)
The fair and balanced pro-Left journalista asked Colin Powell about the tone in Washington.
He rightly laid much of the bad tone at the feet of the media, but interestingly, none of it at the political parties, either of them. Instead he waxed poetic about the ability of the Founders to compromise “to build a country”…(“Hey, listen up, y’all, what we’re trying to do here is erect yore basic standard issue free country”…I can see John Adams saying those very words.”)
Indeed, they compromised on slavery, but also, according to Powell, on the headier issues of deeper philosophical content such as minimum age requirements, the composition of the upper and lower houses, you know, the real make-or-break stuff of country-building…
…proving Powell’s never read, nor contemplated, the deep insights the Founders brought to bear in the Federalist about matters for which there is no compromise .
Powell’s overview on compromise was almost Durbin-esque in both depthlessness and insincerity. For a minute, I thought he might even mention his coming Asian holiday to Hawaii.
Which brings me to the tea parties (or, as Gen Powell said, “the Tea Party”, as if there was only only one, and it is a registered brand).
It was a throwaway comment, I think, to make him appear fair and balanced, since he was railing about a sensationalist media (but not a biased one) to a member of that media.
But again his shallowness got the best of him. General Powell proved he has no idea why America exists in the first place.
The hundreds and hundreds of tea parties around the country, who to date have no slate of candidates, but do have a slate of ideals, are simply a continuation of those very same ideals of the Founding, through the final purging of slavery in this country (where there also was no compromise) to the first civil rights movement, (where again, no compromise) to this day.
The tea parties (not The Tea Party) is the 21st Century civil rights movement, General Powell. Sorry you missed it. And yes, there is still no compromise.
Commentators would be wise in the future, when speaking ill of the tea parties, to first state just what they think they are, and then two, list all the things tea parties refuse to compromise about the commentators believes they should be more disposed to compromise.
This is called “establishing a benchmark,” which at one time was the duty of every journalist to establish, just so the viewer/reader could know where the speaker is coming from.
This is the one follow-up question the ever-fair and balanced Amanpour (CBE) will never ask.
