Bette Midler Says People Should 'Be More Grateful for the Neighbor' Who Assaulted Rand Paul
Remind us again: Who are the tolerant people in American politics?
Singer, actress and offensively outspoken liberal Bette Midler brought a new urgency to that question with a tweet Wednesday that openly praised the man who assaulted Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul in a neighborhood dispute in 2017.
From her post — which was published Wednesday night but apparently deleted Thursday morning — Midler obviously disagrees with Paul’s take on President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. forces from northern Syria, which opened the door for a Turkish military incursion against Kurdish groups that had fought with the United States against the Islamic State group.
Paul supports Trump, and in a podcast on Wednesday, he even called the Kurds “ingrates” for their treatment of U.S. troops after Trump’s decision was announced, according to ABC News.
Reasonable people can disagree with Trump’s decision, which stunned many of even Trump’s biggest backers.
Some leaders in the conservative movement, like author and talk show host Mark Levin, were outraged. Some Trump supporters on Capitol Hill, like Sen. Lindsey Graham, were opposed but have been changing course.
But for liberals like Midler, a political dispute is reason enough to praise a man who physically attacked a United States senator.
Midler’s tweet was apparently deleted while this article was being written, but here’s a screen shot of it from the website Twitchy.com.
Just to be clear, Midler was calling on Americans to be “grateful” for a man who tackled Paul from behind, breaking six of his ribs and causing injuries so bad that doctors had to surgically remove part of a lung.
But liberals are the ones who need to be protected from conservatives?
Plenty of social media users pointed out the hypocrisy that was obvious in Midler’s own words.
Well, being grateful for violence can be said to promote violence, but whatever…..
— Craig Walenta (@cwalenta) October 24, 2019
Claims not to promote violence…then goes on to promote violence. Do you ever tire of your own brand of unaware hypocrisy, or nah?
— Mindy Robinson ?? (@iheartmindy) October 24, 2019
Even some liberals couldn’t take it.
I can’t stand Rand Paul, but we are no better than Trump if we applaud violence like this. Paul didn’t deserve to be beat up by a neighbor; Scalise didn’t deserve to be shot. Speak out and vote them out, but don’t encourage violence.
— Kim (@InaraMar21) October 24, 2019
But this one summed it up perfectly:
So much love and tolerance from our friends on the left. Thank you for demonstrating yet again why you can never be trusted with power.
— Erich Hawbaker (@GrayChevyVan) October 24, 2019
Liberals like Midler can talk all day about tolerance and freedom of speech, but any honest look at American politics over the past few years will show that the most intolerant voices are coming from the left.
The movement to squelch free speech on social media is coming from the left.
Most of the violence against Americans with different political beliefs is coming from the left.
But it’s the increasingly leftist Democratic Party that wants Americans to hand over the powers of the executive branch in the 2020 presidential elections?
While the attack on Paul was apparently unrelated to politics, it’s pretty clear that for liberals like Midler, political violence is perfectly acceptable, even as they claim not to “promote” it.
Midler’s post was a great reminder of where the really dangerous intolerance is in American politics. And that’s exactly what Americans need to remember when they head to the polls next year.
She can delete it, but that doesn’t mean it will be forgotten.
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