The Scriptorium

Daniel Lapin hits the nail on the head. The left’s obsession with Cheney’s hunting accident isn’t so much about the accident itself, but their inability to understand hunters and non-city dwellers.

Iran wants to blow us to smithereens, American soldiers are fighting a deadly enemy in Iraq, and the central bank might raise interest rates – but many journalists consider only one piece of news worth reporting: Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot his friend in a hunting accident. Do you think they would have been as obsessed had Al Gore accidentally broken a friend’s leg in a skiing accident six years ago? They would have rightly ignored it because skiing is well, normal, while hunting is alien.

Not only have most liberals never gone hunting, most don’t even know anyone who goes hunting. In fact most wouldn’t know a Browning A-Bolt long action Stalker from an office stapler. They simply cannot believe that someone who hunts actually made it to the White House. It reminds me of that New York matron talking to her friend in November 1984. Ronald Reagan had just won every state except his opponent’s home state of Minnesota and she said, “I can’t believe that man won. I don’t know a single soul who voted for him.”

Liberals regard people who own firearms and who go hunting as weird. Repeatedly telling the Cheney hunting story proves that Republicans are not fit to govern a civilized country. Liberal news media really believe that reminding Americans that they have a hunter for a vice president will bring a Democratic victory.

The Bible does not treat the hunter with disdain. The Jewish patriarch, Isaac, dispatched his son Esau explicitly to hunt him some venison. Isaac wished to partake of a meat meal before delivering to his older son the Divine blessing he had received from his father Abraham. The farmer and the hunter are both needed. The farmer works hard preparing and sowing his field, but he must then wait for rain and hope the locusts stay away if he is to harvest his crop. By contrast, the hunter depends upon his own resources. If he is swift and accurate, he will eat. Self-reliance coupled with faith in God is a biblical ideal and this may be precisely why liberals disparage hunting. Not everyone is equally competent and successful in the hunt.

A second reason why liberals sneer at hunting is that it takes place outside of the city. Back in November 2004, the most interesting red-blue election map was the one that reflected voting patterns, not by state but by county. It revealed that while Kerry won in most cities, George W. Bush owned the surrounding areas. Even Seattle, San Francisco, and New York City are surrounded by conservative country where worship is more important than entertainment. Yes, liberals tend to be city-dwellers and they don’t trust the people out there in Wal-Mart country. In fact, they fear them as one always fears the unknown. This was the genius of the 1972 movie “Deliverance,” which terrified city audiences by telling of back-country brutes with bad teeth. . . . . . .