The Quiet Conservative October 18, 2008
Swift-boating Joe the Plumber
Do you know what “Swift-boating” means? It probably doesn't mean what you think. The national
press and hard left politicians have coined the term to describe “borking.” Wait- do you know what
“borking” means? It is a term that has almost disappeared from the popular consciousness. So
maybe it is important to explain the two terms before we can describe how the fascists are swift-
boating Joe the Plumber. Is “fascist” sounding a little harsh? Perhaps we should describe “fascist”
also. That way we can all be on the same page when we examine how the powerful are trying to
hurt an Ohio working man who made the mistake of ‘speaking truth to power’ in his driveway when
the man who would change the world arrived for a photo op.
SWIFT-BOATING: Let’s start with “Swift-boating.” The left uses it to describe smearing a
politician with lies and attacks to discredit him. This usually refers to “Right Wing” or “Republican”
or “Evangelicals” doing the smears. You can hear it used by the pundits on the news programs. They
say someone is engaged in “Swift-boat type attacks.” The term originated during the 2004 elections
when John Kerry was running for president. The only problem is the term is exactly the opposite of
reality.
The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth were a mixed bunch politically. They weren't Republican
operatives. They comprised almost the entire division who served with John Kerry in Vietnam. The
Swift Boat Veterans weren't trying to stop a Democrat from becoming the president. What they
opposed was the man, John Kerry.
The veterans were incensed that a man who had inflated his service record, and told tall tales of
derring-do, who had come back from the war only to engage in the anti-war movement for political
gain, was running for president citing his war record.
Nothing offended these actual warriors more than the thought of a faker who lied about his service
now becoming commander in chief of the military. So, they banded together and decided to hold a
press conference. They foolishly thought telling the truth mattered. They thought facts counted.
After all, these men had served with Kerry in Vietnam. They were there! But they were naive. No
one came. No one reported their story. The press buried the facts instead. Soon the vets were the
focus of the press’s interest, not their statements. Facts do not matter to the national press. They
had an agenda to pursue.
The press wasn't interested in Kerry’s Christmas in Cambodia. They weren't interested in why
Kerry’s medals had to be reissued. They weren't interested to see if he was originally discharged
under less than honorable conditions. They weren't interested to see if his original records matched
his war stories. They weren't interested as to why Kerry wouldn't release his original military
records. They weren't interested in his anti-war activities or his involvement with Vietnam Veterans
against the War. They weren't interested in that groups meetings with North Vietnam officials in
Paris the same time Kerry was there. The press wasn't interested in facts at all. They were
incurious to all of it. At least as it pertained to John Kerry.
What they were interested in was attacking the group that dared to ask the questions or make the
statements. These were the men who actually served with Kerry and had been present in the war
with him. You would think this gave them at least the same credibility as Kerry when talking about
the war. They were attacked viciously by the press and by the cultural elite of Hollywood. It seems
‘speaking truth to power’ was a truly Orwellian concept of attack the messenger to destroy the
message. It didn't matter if what they were saying was true or not. With this in mind the definition
of “Swift-boating” becomes:
Swift Boating: Attack anyone who questions a powerful political figure on the left. Destroy their
lives both personally and in the press. If a person dares to question a progressive candidate they
should be smeared, discredited, and ruined if possible.
Now when a national pundit or reporter uses the term, you can understand what it truly means.
Borking: Now to define “borking.” This is what “Swift-boating” actually means when the press
uses ‘swift-boating' the way they use it. Instead what they should use is the term "borking." Get it? If
not, stick with it. It gets clearer.
When Judge Robert Bork was nominated to the Supreme Court of the United States by Ronald
Reagan, the left went nuts. Judge Bork was a strict constructionist judge. That meant he ruled on
cases with the actual meaning of the Constitution in mind. No agenda activist penumbras of the
Constitution for him! Therefore the left went crazy. They set out to destroy the nomination and the
man if they could. Since he was so well qualified, they went after him personally with any smear
they could. They even dug up his video rental records to see what movies he rented.
In the end he was defeated by the Senate. Where ‘advise and consent’ had always meant the
Senate checked qualifications, it now meant a litmus test on ideology. The Senate confirmation
process now meant ‘conform to what we want and our progressive ideology or you will be
disqualified and destroyed both personally and professionally.’
They have tried to ‘bork’ Justice Thomas and almost every conservative justice since. To the left
and the press, personal and professional attacks and smears are moral and appropriate because they
have ‘the greater good’ in mind. The left has used "Swift Boat" where the people told the truth to
mean "borking" which means unsubstantiated smears of a candidate or public person.
Finally, in our defining the definitions before we can talk about destroying Joe the Plumber, we
should define how we use the word “fascist.” It should be noted that like defining the "Bush
Doctrine," "fascist" has more than one meaning. Historically it means the nationalistic form of
socialism originating in Italy under Mussolini. But it also means the state controls the economy with
a dash of controlling everything else, like health care.
Here we will use it as the culture of the left enforcing compliance with socialism or attempting to
hurt those who will not comply. It would be fair to categorize American Fascism as a reverse form of
National Socialism. The progressives like socialism, but hate the U.S. They will use any resources
of the state to crush anyone who promotes the success of the state in its present form, which is a free
and democratic society. In this inverse nationalism anything this country does is bad, and all other
countries can be excused for just about anything. Twisted, isn't it?
Now to Joe the Plumber, who this editorial is actually about. This is the shortest part now that we
have the correct definitions because Joe's story is simple. Joe had the misfortune to be a working
guy in his own driveway when the chosen one came for his photo op. Joe voiced concern about the
socialism promoted by the Democratic nominee. This was caught on tape and replayed on You
Tube. This damages the ascendancy of the chosen one. Therefore Joe has to be destroyed.
The Toledo Blade and other press sleuths report that Joe’s real name is Samuel Joe Wurzelbacher.
We now know he is 34, made $40,000 in 2006, has a tax lien against him, once lived in Alaska, is
divorced, works for Newell Plumbing and Heating, is hated by the Unions, isn't a licensed plumber
but works for one, his employment is being looked into by Ohio officials, and Tom Troy of the
Blade writes about him with the same insight, sympathy, and admiration he would use for a
pedophile serial killer with acne. Joe is the butt of late night talk show jokes. Joe is held up as a
Republican plant, a neo Nazi, a white supremacist, a racist, and too stupid to know he will get a tax
break from Senator Obama’s plan.
The poor fool has made additional statements saying he didn't think success should be penalized, it
wasn't and isn't fair to soak the rich, socialism isn't the American way, and he liked Governor Palin.
It wouldn't be a stretch to think if Joe doesn't shut up soon, he will end up out of a job and audited
by the IRS. Joe is getting ‘Swift-boated’ the same way the Swift Boat veterans got ‘Swift-boated.’
Meanwhile, we could fill volumes in what we don’t know about the person who, by current polls at
least, is the likely winner of November 4th’s election. We don’t know how Senator Obama rated a
six figure advance for his first book. As an unknown he should have gotten zip like everyone else,
having never written a significant anything. We don’t know who paid his way through school. We
don’t know the true level of connections with William Ayers. We don’t know his true involvement
with Reverend White and how the hard core racism of his twenty years in the pews affected him.
We don’t know his connection to the New Direction Party and whether Senator Obama is just a
socialist like his colleague Senator Bernie Sanders, or is an out and out full fledged communist like
William Ayers (communist with a small ‘c’) or his youth mentor, Frank Marshall Davis. We don't
know his connection with Acorn. We don't know the truth about his birth location. We don't know
how he managed to get appointed to the board of the Chicago Annenburg Challenge. We don't know
if he will gut the military like he mentioned early in the primaries. We don't know if he will snatch
defeat from victory in the Middle East.
The only thing we absolutely know for sure is that Senator-President- Obama, is in little danger of
getting "borked" while anyone who dares oppose him is well on their way to getting "swift-boated."