Ilhan Omar Posts Video That Proclaims the US Is 'Not Very Good at Anything' Except War
A former refugee shouldn’t be so rude.
But Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar put her crassness on display early Monday when she posted an obscenity-riddled stand-up comedy bit from the late, legendary comedian George Carlin.
Omar, of course, wasn’t looking for laughs — she even captioned the video “It’s no laughing matter.”
What the Democrat was obviously, doing, though, was giving a platform to the liberal canard that the greatest country the world has ever seen is running out of the energy that made it great.
But as a refugee whose family found safety and a future in a country she takes for granted, Omar was missing the point.
The video was from an appearance Carlin made in 1992 at the formerly named Paramount Theater at New York’s Madison Square Garden (now The Theatre at Madison Square Garden).
“This country’s only 200 years old and already, we’ve had 10 major wars,” Carlin told his audience, according to a transcript of the show. “We average a major war every 20 years in this country, so we’re good at it! And it’s a good thing we are; we’re not very good at anything else anymore!”
While its blistering description of the United States is as offensive in some ways as the obscenity it contained, the bit was basically a rehash of the “counter-cultural” comedy Carlin built a career on, from mocking the Vietnam War right up to the second Bush presidency.
But that relentlessly negative outlook on America was doubtless what appealed to Omar the most.
Check it out here. (WARNING: This video contains obscene language that some readers may find offensive.)
It’s no laughing matter ? pic.twitter.com/HNDmm2Q627
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) January 6, 2020
Since there’s always a good chance of finding a fair number of knuckleheads following a Twitter account belonging to someone like Ilhan Omar, it’s no surprise that a lot of the responses thought this was just great.
Unfortunately for Omar, some in the audience weren’t biting at all.
— Romanticamper (@romanticamper) January 6, 2020
What’s amazing is that you used the American system to get what you wanted, now you want too destroy it while you’re people come in with men plus 4 wives driving luxury cars using Tanif/food stamps and government insurance. Sending suitcases of $ ?. Yet shit on us & chant ? ?
— ?⭐️✨?BigGirlNancy?? (@Nancywantsyou) January 6, 2020
the woman who hates free speech tweeting probably the greatest advocate for free speech is amazing
— david westley (@davidwestley5) January 6, 2020
Why would a Congress person post a video that includes the use of “f” word?
— Gil Bates (@STARZ_AND_BARZ) January 6, 2020
The problem with Omar’s post, aside from its obscenity — what’s appropriate for a stand-up comedian isn’t exactly the same for a sitting United States congresswoman — is that Carlin’s point is no more valid now than it was then.
Is the United States of America remarkably good at making war? Of course it is, which is the major reason there even is a United States of America, as opposed to some Balkanized collection of colonies under various European rulers.
Is that all the United States is good for? Of course not. A country that was good for nothing but war would not attract between a half-million and a million free human beings to become new citizens every year — including own Omar’s family.
A country that was good for nothing but war would not be a global economic leader that enriches its trading partners as much as itself.
A country that was good for nothing but war would not be the envy of every other country on the face of the earth – it might be feared, but it would not have the cultural impact that the United States does, on every aspect of civilized life from entertainment to consumer products to politics.
George Carlin was a supremely talented entertainer who used a gift for biting sarcasm and withering humor to amass a fortune worth about $10 million when he died in 2008.
Carlin was too smart a man not to know how lucky he was to be born into a country that was materially wealthy enough to reward his talents – and confident enough of its own worth not to be too insecure about the court jesters pointing out its faults.
Unfortunately, Democrats of the 21st century – the likes of Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and others Rep. Dan Crenshaw on Sunday called the “blame America first” crowd – are not in his class. (Crenshaw was appropriating a quote from President Ronald Reagan’s United Nations Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick.)
And a socialist hack like Omar – who stoops to recycling a comedy bit nearly three decades old to insult the country that gave her a new life and a new freedom she refuses to appreciate – never will be.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
