Liberal journalists aren’t good at subtlety when objecting to conservative and Republican goals. Philly.com columnist Will Bunch on Sunday argued that the GOP tax cut bill is the worst since... the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Seriously? Cutting taxes across the board is the same as requiring states return fleeing slaves to the horror they escaped from.
He ridiculously argued, “There’s a reason the tax bill is so unpopular. It’s a terrible idea – arguably, if approved, the worst law to be enacted on Capitol Hill since the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which allowed the return of captured escaped slaves up North to their whip-cracking masters down South.”
Bunch’s techical wording — “enacted on Capitol Hill” — may allow him to ignore Franklin Roosevelt’s executive order allowing him to intern Japanese. But the tax cuts bill is worse than the Alien and Sedition Acts, which allowed for jailing journalists and made it hard for new immigrants to vote?
Bunch continued:
I’d argue that it’s worse, for example, than the Gulf of Tonkin resolution that escalated the Vietnam War in 1964 – because at least then senators honestly trusted a White House that was bamboozling them about the underlying facts. Here, House and Senate Republicans know exactly what they’re doing.
It’s worse than the Indian Removal Act? A law that led to the deaths of thousands of Native Americans and the Trail of Tears?
But journalists aren’t exactly sober in 2017 when it comes to making comparisons. MSNBC host Joy Reid in September said the Trump era is “the worst time to be a human.” No. Perhaps slavery might have been a bit worse?
