Democrat to Rich Lowry: Look, Your Obama Criticism is 'Almost Treasonous'

"Dissent is patriotic." Until it isn't. On Fox News this morning, Top Hillary Clinton supporter and former DNC communications director Brad Woodhouse flew right past 'unpatriotic' -- a former bugaboo of the Left -- and leapt straight to the T-word. Why?

National Review editor Rich Lowry had the temerity to notice and name President Obama's self-evidently weak foreign policy vis-a-vis Russian aggression in Syria. Rather than debate Lowry on substance, Woodhouse accused his counterpart of "cheering on" Vladimir Putin while disparaging Obama -- which is tantamount to near-traitorous conduct, or something:

Social media immediately exploded in justified mockery, prompting Woodhouse to offer Lowry a reprieve from his Thought Crimes Against the State:

Rich - you're no traitor - you just sounded a little too happy about what Putin is up to. https://t.co/r0qHF7iBox
— Brad Woodhouse (@woodhouseb) October 6, 2015

How generous. By the way, the news hook for this exchange is the increasing evidence that Russia's pro-Assad interventionism in Syria involves clear actions against US interests; it's not a fight against ISIS, as claimed. In the face of Obama's ambivalence and weakness, Putin is escalating his defiant meddling, basking in the glow of American humiliation. Ah well. Details. In any case, as

Blake Seitz reminds the Free Beacon's readership, this is hardly the first time the Left has excoriated conservatives fora alleged anti-American disloyalty in recent months. Many incensed liberals charged that 47 Republican Senators who sent a letter to Iran's leaders spelling out America's separation of powers (in advance of the disastrous nuclear deal) were guilty of treachery, with some demanding the 'violators' be prosecuted for asserting their constitutional role. Months later, President Obama declared that domestic opponents of his nuclear giveaway to the Iranian regime (namely, large, bipartisan majorities of Congress and most American voters) were making "common cause" with death-to-America zealots. Harry Reid spent an insane amount of time denouncing the Koch brothers from the Senate floor last year, en route to an epic electoral beat-down, describing the libertarian-leaning businessmen and prodigious philanthropists as "un-American." And he's back at it today:

2014 flashback, Harry Reid is on the Senate floor hammering away at the Koch brothers and their "filthy money."
— Michael McAuliff (@mmcauliff) October 6, 2015

Prosaic demagoguery. The thesis of Mary Katharine Ham and my book, End of Discussion, is that many on the Left are increasingly resorting to tactics that seek to "win" political and cultural debates by preventing those debates from actually happening. It takes intellectual exertion to argue on the merits and compete in the arena of ideas; impugning motives and casting opponents as de facto evil -- racist, sexist, homophobic, unpatriotic, etc. -- is lazier, easier, and all too often effective. I'll leave you with this soothing flashback voice memo to Brad Woodhouse from the woman for whom he's now shilling. Ah, the good old days: