The Left thinks everyone who isn’t conservative agrees with them. Nothing could be further from the truth.
And now Democrats got smacked upside the head by the last person they ever expected.
Sports Media’s Most Prominent Voice Delivers a Rare, No-Excuses Call for Actual Civility
He’s not a conservative commentator. He’s not a political pundit. But after surviving Saturday’s terrifying breach at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner in Washington, sports commentator Stephen A. Smith delivered a message that cuts across every partisan line — and one that Americans serious about the state of their country need to hear.
“For the purposes of what transpired this weekend, I felt the need to address it because I was there. I was in the room,” Smith said. “And it was a crazy, crazy experience to say the least.”
Stop Talking. Start Doing.
The core of Smith’s message was aimed directly at political leaders and media figures on all sides, and it didn’t come wrapped in comfortable equivocation: “I’m sick and tired of us giving lip service to the narrative of dialing down the rhetoric. We need — enough of that. Stop talking about it and do it. Stop talking about it and do it. You know, let’s debate policy. Let’s talk about what’s actually happening in our country from a policy perspective, whether we agree or disagree and why.”
Smith was careful not to turn the moment into a partisan cudgel. He acknowledged that one could take issue with the current administration’s own rhetoric, but stated plainly: “all of that is, to me, at this particular moment in time, irrelevant, because I’m not going to sit up there and blame them for the actions of some really sick individuals that’s willing to do harm, and dare I say, attempt to kill people because they don’t like the state of our politics or anything like that.”
The alternative — inflaming that rage further — was what Smith put squarely in the crosshairs of people who call themselves journalists and public officials: “engaging in name-calling, speaking about people in incendiary and derogatory fashion and fomenting and feeding into the hostility and the ire that some sick individuals out there want to exercise and engage in.”
Personal Responsibility and Patriotism
Smith also made a point that gets lost in the daily partisan noise: Americans live in the freest nation in history, where every grievance has a legitimate, peaceful outlet. “Can it be better? You’re damn right,” he said. “Does it need to get better? You’re damn right. But in the same breath, you understand you’re an adult. You’re responsible for your own actions.”
His message continued: “There’s a lot that we don’t like that’s going on in our country. That doesn’t mean we’re going out trying to kill people.”
Smith also endorsed the President’s argument on the White House ballroom, adding his own simple question: “If it’s the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, why the hell is it not at the White House?”
For Americans tired of watching leaders mouth platitudes about civility between rounds of scorched-earth politics, Stephen A. Smith’s no-nonsense response to the Correspondents’ Dinner shooting was a breath of fresh air. Now the question is whether anyone in a position of actual power is listening.
