No Way to Treat a First Lady

WASHINGTON -- After all the lectures from the superior folks on the left about the, well, "deplorable" tone of the Trump base, it has come to this: Tuesday morning, middle and high school students booed first lady Melania Trump as she spoke at the B'More Youth Summit on Opioid Awareness.

Rather than use the cringe-inducing incident as a teachable moment about civility, which is a focus of the first lady's "Be Best" anti-drug, anti-bullying campaign, progressive pundits applauded the teens' nasty tantrum.

April Ryan of Urban Radio tweeted, "Your husband can't disrespect #Baltimore & its late, great leader Rep. Elijah Cummings & then @FLOTUS thinks it's going to be all love. In order to show others how to #BeBest, Melania Trump has to convince @realDonaldTrump."

Tweeps typed out a new hashtag #Melaniabooed so they could share their glee at attempts to humiliate the first lady.

Progressive activist Ryan Knight crowed, "@FLOTUS is not a victim. She got booed because she sat back in silence as her husband has betrayed our country, our constitution, and our values. She's earned every single one of these boos. HER SILENCE IS COMPLICITY."

Actor Mark Hamill came out with what he clearly considered a clever retake on the first lady's anti-bullying and anti-drug "Be Best" efforts. "#Boobest," tweeted Hamill. (Alas, young Skywalker has gone to the dark side.)

"In my years covering her, this was the first booing of @FLOTUS by a crowd at one of her solo events," said CNN's Kate Bennett, who was with the pool that covered the event.

The president's family members are civilians. Unless they make overtly partisan statements, they should be off-limits from the commander in chief's constant critics, who never sleep.

Melania Trump's "Be Best" campaign, to my mind, is the first lady's unique way of standing up to her husband's bullying ways. Her signature issue is an unapologetic call for more civility and less self-destruction -- and that is driving progressive furies insane.

She got booed, not for scolding kids on drug use, but for telling those struggling with addiction to "reach out for support." And assuring them, "It is never too late to ask for help."

If teens did the same to former first lady Michelle Obama, their behavior would be called hate speech. And rightly so. Cable news anchors would share their horror at such incivility, because that's no way to treat a first lady.

From what I've seen -- and I've looked -- coverage about the Baltimore teens' be-worst behavior was scant and light on lectures. For once, cable viewers could watch and wonder, "Where's the outrage?"

Their hatred toward Melania Trump is so out of control that, the day before -- when President Donald Trump brought Conan, the military attack dog wounded in the fatal raid that killed Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, into the Rose Garden -- CNN contributor Joan Walsh tweeted that it was "terrifying" Trump and the first lady moved away from the canine warrior.

How dare Melania Trump not stick her head into Conan's mouth? For folks such as Walsh, it's not enough to hate Trump. You have to hate his whole family. (In what felt like a return to the 1960s, Walsh also criticized the first lady's coat as "slightly macabre.")

The left sets up a series of rules for how you have to treat their icons -- with kid gloves. Victims who made anonymous accusations didn't want to come forward with their decades-old charges, so even the accused should be gentle. The public doesn't have a right to know the whistleblower's identity because of the courage it took to come forward.

The first lady reacted with more style than those who jeered her. In a statement after the event, she concentrated on the focus of her remarks, not the bellowing that greeted her good intentions.

"We live in a democracy and everyone is entitled to their own opinion," she tweeted, "but the fact is we have a serious crisis in our country and I remain committed to educating children on the dangers and deadly consequences of drug abuse."

".... April Ryan....tweeted, "Your husband can't disrespect #Baltimore & its late, great leader Rep. Elijah Cummings...."

I think I discovered the problem here.

Baltimore is a democRATic sh*thole. Run by corrupt blacks and rat-infested. Not much to respect there.

And Elijah Cummings was not a great leader. Part of his district was the leading rat-infested sh*tholes of the city. As a "great" leader, he never did anything to improve it.

Cummings and his wife were corrupt (she still is) as the day is long. They got wealthy off the backs of his poor constituents. They used his congressional office to trade favors for payola. And now she wants to run to fill his vacant seat to continue her graft.

Not sure when the poor black folks of Baltimore will ever figure out that Cummings was stuffing his own pockets with cash and not doing anything for them.

But April Ryan should know better but then she's a democRATic "progressive" activist. She's part of the problem when she doesn't call it like it is. Instead she continues to further the myths about Baltimore and Cummings.

Oh yes, “The late, great leader Elijah Cummings, and Baltimore.” The “great” leader was a known philanderer and adulterer who made a mess of his personal life, and made a mess of Baltimore. It’s a statistical fact that most of those kids have at least one STD, and the infection rate may be higher than 90%.
All the promoters of sexual degeneracy are on the Left. The entire pornography industry is for the Democrats, and are Democrats. Those who hate America and teach these poor kids to hate America as well are Democrats. The entire juggernaut bent on destroying America is of the Left. Career criminals vote Democrat because the know that Democrats will not punish them for their crimes. Child rapists vote Democrat. The Sex Slavery industry votes Democrat. Sexual perverts vote Democrat. God haters vote Democrat. Millions who live off of Welfare vote Democrat. Felons vote Democrat. Drug dealers vote Democrat. MS 13 vote Democrat, along with the Bloods and the Crips. Muslim jihadis vote Democrat because they know that the left will promote Islam for no other reason than that is will weaken the United States. Jew haters have achieved a permanent and growing franchise in the Democrat Party. Haters of Israel all vote Democrat because they know that the Left hates Israel as well and wants it wiped off the face of the earth. That’s why Obama gave Iran $ 150 Billion; and the plane loads of cash US Dollars? What was that for? That was because cash is needed to buy the weapons of terror on the black market to supply their sponsored Terrorists around the world. With that cash they bride politicians, buy guns and bombs to blow up little children. Their sympathizers vote Democrat. Hollywood hates the real America and it votes Democrat. The anti-theists of Academia vote Democrat. The industrial murder industry that sucks the brains out of babies and throws them in dumpsters votes and spends Millions for the Democrats. The ones who bring Drag Queen perverts into our schools to destroy the souls of little children vote Democrat! People who kill innocent people in the name of Communism and spit on the American Flag vote Democrat. In fact President Obama started his political career in the living room of such a terrorist. So if you hate God, hate America, and hate righteousness vote Democrat; at least you’ll be with those you love: the Father of Lies and his children.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.