Idiot extraordinaire Rich Lowry attacks liberals over Trayvon Martin murder

By Michael J.W. Stickings

In case you were wondering, National Review editor Rich Lowry, occasionally somewhat less insane than most on the right, is indeed a STUPID... FUCKING... IDIOT.

In a post at NRO today, he tries desperately to make the case that "the lives of young black people are cheap, unless they happen to fit the right agenda," specifically the right leftist agenda, as liberals ignore most of the violence against blacks and only bother to care when there are political points to be scored, as, he thinks, in the case of Trayvon Martin.

This is utterly ridiculous, of course.

Conservatives don't care about "the lives of young black people in communities beset by social disorder," and Lowry's fooling no one -- no one outside the conservative echo chamber, that is -- by mentioning murders other than Martin's as supposed examples of liberals not caring.

All Lowry is really doing is trying to score his own political points by suggesting that it's liberals and not conservatives who are the racists, while also trying to marginalize the Martin murder.

This is the sort of thing conservatives do in order to try to convince themselves that they're not a bunch of racists. (They may not be, but many of them are, and movement conservatism is steeped in racism.)

The implication of Lowry's "argument" is that Black America is a horrifically violent place and that White America is right to be fearful of it.

And in this case he actually says that the Martin murder has only become an issue (for liberals) because the killer isn't black: "There is no comparable epidemic of half-Hispanic neighborhood-watch volunteers like George Zimmerman shooting young black men. Nor is there an epidemic of cops doing the same."

In other words, it was a one-off. Nothing to see. No big deal. Move on. 

What are we to make of this nonsense?

Steve M. rips Lowry apart:

You know what's one huge difference is between the Zimmerman killing and every killing Lowry lists?

It's simple: In every case Lowry lists, everyone in America acknowledges that a crime has been committed. No one questions the notion that these killers should be arrested and tried. No one thinks the law protects the killers -- no one thinks the law ought to.

There's more beyond this. Liberals would like to see more economic opportunity for America's have-nots, and a reduction in easy access to guns. Liberals believe that personal responsibility plays a huge part, but that societal conditions do also.

But changing those conditions doesn't fit the right's agenda.

And Barbara O'Brien puts it bluntly: "If Trayvon Martin was killed for walking while black, I'd say Lowry is guilty of writing while stupid. And bigoted. And being a whiny self-absorbed wingnut.

Yup, that about sums it up.