John Andrews' “anti-American” hit list includes CNN, CU, Garrison Keillor, U.S. Rep. John Murtha
Written by Media Matters Staff
Published
In a broad attack on media outlets, universities, and politicians, Denver Post columnist and former Republican Colorado Senate president John Andrews warned of a “deadly ... anti-American virus” that could lead to what he described as a “convergence with Europe: borders erased, enterprise stifled, liberty fading, birth rates falling, Islam ascendant, faith censored and secularism supreme.” Among those infected with the “virus,” Andrews claimed: CNN, the University of Colorado, Harvard University, the American Civil Liberties Union, U.S. Rep. John Murtha (D-PA), and humorist Garrison Keillor.
According to Andrews' March 3 column, “Anti-Americanism denies that the United States is a force for good in the world” and “ignores America's virtues and magnifies our deficiencies.” Andrews also claimed that "[t]he anti-Americans are like spoiled children. They confuse imperfection with malice, resent what belongs to others, and condemn as abuse any refusal to indulge them while petulantly demanding avoidance of consequences and continued enjoyment of unearned benefits."
After accusing several international leaders of sharing "[t]his infantile mindset," Andrews condemned a number of domestic targets as being “infect[ed]” with the anti-American “virus”:
This infantile mindset obviously serves the fanaticism of an Ahmadinejad in Iran, the opportunism of a Chavez in Venezuela, the cynicism of a Putin in Russia, or the chauvinism of a Chirac in France. But the United States is resourceful and generous enough to deal with all those. It helps that we know many of their own people admire America and would love to come here.
Whether we can survive the spread of anti-Americanism among Americans themselves is another question. Disavowal of our country's fundamental goodness, blindness to the evidence of how many people she has liberally blessed for so long, denial of America's worthiness to lead the world -- these attitudes gaining among our elites do constitute a deadly virus.
The virus infects “citizen of the world” news organizations such as CNN and The New York Times; universities such as Harvard, Stanford and, yes, the University of Colorado; sneering columnists such as Paul Krugman and Garrison Keillor; powerful lobbies such as the ACLU and the NEA teacher union; and, of course, politicians such as Congressman John Murtha and Sen. John Kerry.
America today sends abroad “a terrible message of duplicity and hypocrisy,” branding us an “international pariah,” Kerry told the World Economic Forum in Switzerland last month.
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For many of us, though, the watchword is still “America without apologies, America as it was meant to be.” Our land shines bright even as it strives toward unrealized ideals. Not for us the elite vision of convergence with Europe: borders erased, enterprise stifled, liberty fading, birth rates falling, Islam ascendant, faith censored and secularism supreme.
Concluding his column, Andrews wrote, “Millions here, thank God, still have patriot bloodlines and a backbone. Not for us the bile of ingratitude. Not for us the anti-American virus.”