saw quickly was that by declaring war on the cultural manifestations of liberalism—by levelling the charge of political correctness against its exponents—they could discredit the whole political project.”
The whole political correctness phenomenon seemed to have expired by the turn of the century, replaced by political shouting over Clinton’s impeachment hearings and then the historic Left-versus-Right fight over hanging chads in Florida and the 2000 presidential election. The terrorist attacks of 9/11 seemed to further bury political correctness when American flags popped up everywhere from the liberal neighborhoods of the East Village in heavily Democratic Manhattan to conservativeRepublican suburbs in Orange County, California. The threat to the nation made arguments over politically correct speech seem very dated. In addition, the increasing racial diversity of the country took the edge away from heated debates that tied affirmative action to politically correct policies. Attitudes on gay rights also shifted, even among conservatives, to the point that polls showed majorities of Democrats and even Republicans in support of ending the ban on gays openly serving in the military.
Harvey Fierstein, the gay playwright and actor, wrote a piece in the
New York Times
in 2007 that sounded like a farewell to political correctness. He asked Americans to keep their eyes open for “expressions of intolerance” and prejudice in everyday life. “Still, I’m gladdened because our no longer being deaf to them may signal their eventual eradication,” he wrote. He ended by cautioning readers that it is wrong to “harbor malice toward others and then cry foul when someone displays intolerance against you.”
But I’m not sure PC disappeared so much as it switched sides. Now it is largely the Left that decries limits on free speech such as those imposed by the Patriot Act after 9/11. And it was not just the law giving liberals rightful fits but also the conservative push to shut down debate about the terrorist attacks and halt criticism of the U.S. military response in Afghanistan and Iraq. The most famous instance occurred when Bill Maher on his late-night show, by then on ABC network television but appropriately still called
Politically Incorrect
, said with his usual fearlessness, “We [Americans] have been the cowards, lobbing cruise missiles from two thousand miles away. That’s cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hitsthe building, say what you want about it, it’s not cowardly.” Ironically, when he made these statements, Maher was
agreeing
with a conservative guest, Dinesh D’Souza, when he said that the 9/11 hijackers were not cowards because they stayed in the airplanes as they hit the buildings. If Maher had not affirmed D’Souza’s comment about the perverse bravery of the terrorists, nothing might have ever come of it. D’Souza, with his conservative street cred, wasn’t going to be lambasted as a traitor, was he? ABC was reportedly pressured to fire Maher after advertisers threatened to pull their sponsorship from his program, and Maher’s show was canceled the following year, in large part due to ratings and advertising troubles presumed to have resulted from the backlash against his comments. Bush White House press secretary Ari Fleischer criticized Maher and, in a controversial statement of his own, warned people from the lectern in the White House briefing room to be careful about what they say.
That was seen by the Left and much of the rest of the country as a chilling threat to First Amendment rights. The Far Left began hauling out analogies between the Bush White House and Joe McCarthy, the Wisconsin senator who smeared liberals in the 1950s with largely baseless charges of being communist sympathizers. Instead of being called insensitive or offensive for violating a speech code under the rules of politically correct behavior, conservatives attacked antiwar protesters as people who hated
The whole political correctness phenomenon seemed to have expired by the turn of the century, replaced by political shouting over Clinton’s impeachment hearings and then the historic Left-versus-Right fight over hanging chads in Florida and the 2000 presidential election. The terrorist attacks of 9/11 seemed to further bury political correctness when American flags popped up everywhere from the liberal neighborhoods of the East Village in heavily Democratic Manhattan to conservativeRepublican suburbs in Orange County, California. The threat to the nation made arguments over politically correct speech seem very dated. In addition, the increasing racial diversity of the country took the edge away from heated debates that tied affirmative action to politically correct policies. Attitudes on gay rights also shifted, even among conservatives, to the point that polls showed majorities of Democrats and even Republicans in support of ending the ban on gays openly serving in the military.
Harvey Fierstein, the gay playwright and actor, wrote a piece in the
New York Times
in 2007 that sounded like a farewell to political correctness. He asked Americans to keep their eyes open for “expressions of intolerance” and prejudice in everyday life. “Still, I’m gladdened because our no longer being deaf to them may signal their eventual eradication,” he wrote. He ended by cautioning readers that it is wrong to “harbor malice toward others and then cry foul when someone displays intolerance against you.”
But I’m not sure PC disappeared so much as it switched sides. Now it is largely the Left that decries limits on free speech such as those imposed by the Patriot Act after 9/11. And it was not just the law giving liberals rightful fits but also the conservative push to shut down debate about the terrorist attacks and halt criticism of the U.S. military response in Afghanistan and Iraq. The most famous instance occurred when Bill Maher on his late-night show, by then on ABC network television but appropriately still called
Politically Incorrect
, said with his usual fearlessness, “We [Americans] have been the cowards, lobbing cruise missiles from two thousand miles away. That’s cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hitsthe building, say what you want about it, it’s not cowardly.” Ironically, when he made these statements, Maher was
agreeing
with a conservative guest, Dinesh D’Souza, when he said that the 9/11 hijackers were not cowards because they stayed in the airplanes as they hit the buildings. If Maher had not affirmed D’Souza’s comment about the perverse bravery of the terrorists, nothing might have ever come of it. D’Souza, with his conservative street cred, wasn’t going to be lambasted as a traitor, was he? ABC was reportedly pressured to fire Maher after advertisers threatened to pull their sponsorship from his program, and Maher’s show was canceled the following year, in large part due to ratings and advertising troubles presumed to have resulted from the backlash against his comments. Bush White House press secretary Ari Fleischer criticized Maher and, in a controversial statement of his own, warned people from the lectern in the White House briefing room to be careful about what they say.
That was seen by the Left and much of the rest of the country as a chilling threat to First Amendment rights. The Far Left began hauling out analogies between the Bush White House and Joe McCarthy, the Wisconsin senator who smeared liberals in the 1950s with largely baseless charges of being communist sympathizers. Instead of being called insensitive or offensive for violating a speech code under the rules of politically correct behavior, conservatives attacked antiwar protesters as people who hated
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