Fashion Criticism Is Outrageous, but Threatening Violence Is OK?

Recently Rep. Kevin Cramer set off something of a firestorm of outrageous outrage when he insulted a group of Democratic women who wore white to to a joint session of Congress. Their intent was to imply that Trump is out to deny women the right to vote or something (the stunt was in solidarity with the suffragette movement), and Cramer said they looked “silly.”

He also suggested there might be some sort of “syndrome” or “disease” behind their costumes.

Not surprisingly, because a male Republican chastising female Democrats over dress fits the left’s #waronwomen narrative perfectly, the comments got national media attention which, in turn, sparked outrage on social media and lots of sanctimonious letters to the editor.

What’s interesting, though, is that uncouth remarks from another North Dakota politician much more serious than Cramer’s admittedly dumb gibe didn’t result in the same sort of outrage.

[mks_pullquote align=”right” width=”300″ size=”24″ bg_color=”#ffffff” txt_color=”#000000″]“It’s racist,” Senator Richard Marcellais (D-Belcourt), a former chairman of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa who worked in that tribe’s casino at one point in his career, told the Associated Press. “I feel like going over there and knocking him through the window.”[/mks_pullquote]

“It’s racist,” Senator Richard Marcellais (D-Belcourt), a former chairman of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa who worked in that tribe’s casino at one point in his career, told the Associated Press. “I feel like going over there and knocking him through the window.”

Marcellais was speaking about House Majority Leader Al Carlson’s (admittedly dumb) proposal to allow the State of North Dakota to operate a half-dozen casinos.

The frustration Marcellais expressed with Carlson is understandable. Not only is what Carlson proposing bad policy, but it’s a transparently mean-spirited attempt to put the screws to our state’s tribal communities after the #NoDAPL protest mess.

But does that justify threatening violence?

Where is the outrage from the self-appointed guardians political couth?

Missing in action, I’m afraid. Because Marcellais’ comments didn’t fit the right political narrative.

Not that I’m looking for an outraged response to Marcellais. He was frustrated. He said something intemperate. That happens.

But there is absolutely a double standard when it comes to the politics of outrage, and that’s worth illustrating.

The left can throw around accusations of bigotry – blithely writing of vast swaths of the country as backwards, racist rubes – and we’re not supposed to find such sweeping indictments outrageous.

That’s dumb.