by John Stevenson
At the
Democratic National Convention, a Muslim Pakistani-American spoke powerfully
and eloquently. Khizr Khan's son Humayun
Khan, a captain in the U.S. Army, had been killed by a suicide bomber in Iraq
in 2004. Khizr spoke of his son's
sacrifice. He eviscerated the Republican
presidential nominee for not having sacrificed for America and for advocating a
temporary ban on Muslims entering the U.S.
Khizr did not say that the Republican candidate had anything whatever to
do with the 2004 death of Humayun.
Khizr's
speech was widely praised. Conservative
columnist Peggy Noonan said the convention's "most electric line did not
come from a politician" but from Khizr: "You have sacrificed nothing---and
no one." The Los Angeles Times said
"Long after Americans have forgotten the nearly hourlong address Hillary
Clinton delivered...what will linger is the haunting, emotionally charged
plea...from a Muslim father whose son...was killed by a suicide bomber in
Baghdad." Negative reaction to the
grieving parents was virtually non-existent. The Khans were a sympathetic
couple, and were treated with respect and deference in the media. This was appropriate.
Now step
back a week to the Republican National Convention.
Patricia
Smith, who spoke at the Republican event, was not as eloquent or as smooth as Khizr,
but she was certainly as emotional and aggrieved. Her son Sean Smith had been a USAF veteran
and 10-year U.S. State Department foreign service officer. Patricia and many others blame Democrat
presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for Sean's death---and others---in the
2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.
So the Left
treated Patricia's unpolished but heartfelt speech with sympathy, respect, and
deference---just like Khizr's.
Right? Well, maybe not so much. Here's a sampling.
An essay in The Nation called Patricia's speech
"a cynical exploitation of grief."
A writer in Independent.co.uk, labeled it an "unabashed
exploitation of private people's grief."
Chris Matthews said it "ruined the evening" and "I
don't care what that woman up there has felt." MSNBC.com called it "a spectacle so offensive it was
hard to even comprehend." The
website crooksandliars.com said "Mrs. Smith was really most interested in
drinking blood rather than healing."
Washingtonpost.com dubbed it "an early dip into the
gutter."
And setting
the gold standard for bashing the bereaved (I'm not making this up) a GQ writer
said "I don't care how many children Patricia Smith has lost. I would like
to beat her to death." (The GQ
writer eventually apologized, but it took him three tries to get his forced
apology semi-acceptable.)
Sympathy and
hosannas for the Khans. Scorn, derision,
and hatred for the Smiths.
