Mao Tse – What?

Here's the quick and dirty on the recent controversy involving  White House Communications Director Anita Dunn's high school commencement speech.

Anita Dunn White House Communications Directorcommencement speech.

* Ms. Dunn referred to her favorite political philosophers (favorite for advice on the matters she was speaking on), Mao Tse Tung and Mother Teresa for advice to the graduates.

* Glenn Beck of Fox News jumped all over it.

* The White House jumped all over Fox News.

* Ms. Dunn said it was meant to be ironic and funny.

* Glenn Beck jumped all over that.

* President Obama said he wasn't losing sleep over it while in the same speech he castigated Fox News for biased reporting.

* Glenn Beck jumped all over that.

and so on, and so on, ad nauseum.

Here are my thoughts on the matter starting with the practical and moving to the ideological.

The Practical

When giving a public speech don't do the following:

1. Take quotes from dictators who killed innocent people (feel free to use dictators who didn't kill anyone)   Estimates of  people Mao killed to maintain power range from 20 to 60 million. Along with Mao you might want to  avoid  quoting  Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, Pol Pot, Saddam Hussein, Idi Amin, Nero, and Attila the Hun to name a few.

2. Group together people who don't go together.  Mao and Mother Teresa? One puts bodies into gutters while the other fishes them out. Any humorous comparison here would abate the total incoherence of this connection. Dunn commented in her speech that these two are not normally grouped together. Ms. Dunn there is a reason for that.

3. Make "jokes" using mass murderers.

4. Insinuate that homicidal dictators are political philosophers.

Enough of the practical.

The Ideological

We should not be surprised by comments like these in the public square. A people and a government who are comfortable aborting over one million of their own children each year and encouraging and funding other countries to do likewise should not be expected to know why casting Mao in a favorable light and grouping him with Mother Teresa is a bad thing.

Missing from the debate on this matter is the content of Mao's quote. Mao answered a challenge to his plan to bring communism to China and himself to power against great odds with the following quote, "you fight your war and I will fight mine". Ms. Dunn explained to the high schoolers that they should not let others' views and rules keep them from accomplishing their goals. Don't follow other peoples' choices and paths. You lay out your own path.  Seize power the way Mao did. Unfortunately, this is the mantra of our culture across party lines.

Ms. Dunn did use some discretion in her speech. She avoided quoting the one person you mustn't ever mention in public. If she had used the unmentionable name for a quote she may have used something like this,  "You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."  Think of the controversy that would have stirred.

Mao or the other guy? Choose you this day.