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What is political correctness? The Oxford American dictionary defines political correctness as: “the avoidance, often considered as taken to extremes, of forms of expression or action that are perceived to exclude, marginalize or insult groups of people who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against”.

Under such a definition of political correctness, h. res. 579 is certainly a contender. As I reported earlier this month, the House of Representatives passed h. res. 579 in order to defend Christmas against what has been described by right wing Christian activist groups as a “war against Christmas”.

What the supposed war against Christmas actually consists of is… prepare yourself for the gruesome violence of it… people saying “Happy Holidays”. Oh no! The Religious Right insists that everyone say “Merry Christmas” at this time of year, and not any other traditional holiday greeting. The Religious Right says that Christians are so persecuted and that Christmas is so beleaguered that everybody in America should go around using special language that makes the super sensitive Christian fundamentalist community feel emotionally secure.

That seems to fit the definition of political correctness pretty well… except for one thing: Political correctness is the use of selective language to protect “groups of people who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against”, not groups of people who just think that they are disadvantaged or discriminated against. The obvious truth is that Christians and Christmas in America are no more disadvantaged or discriminated against than sports fans and baseball.

Christmas is everywhere, as widely celebrated as ever. Christian churches are everywhere too, and have expanded their presence onto the radio and across the television spectrum in a way that no other religion has ever managed to do. Only someone who never reads outside the partisan right wing press could imagine a different reality.

So it is that the writers for the right wing site NewsMax accuse the 22 congressional representatives who had the integrity to step out of the crazy “there’s a war against Christmas!” witch hunt and vote against h. res. 579. NewsMax says that these representatives “Hate Christmas”.

NewsMax cites Republican Representative Jo Ann Davis as saying that h. res 579 was necessary to fight against “political correctness run amok.” Yep, you got that straight. People having the freedom to say whatever kind of holiday greeting they want is now “political correctness run amok” according to the right wingers who control the federal government.

You can stop your head from spinning now. If we don’t take back Congress from right wing control in 2006, we’ll all have to get used to a weird alternative reality in which the freedom to say what you want is attacked as political correctness, and campaigns that claim to be against political correctness declare that only language that makes right wing extremists feel safe is acceptable.