| Topic: |
Science > Abortion |
| User: |
"Papa Jack" |
| Date: |
01 Oct 2003 10:11:31 AM |
| Object: |
New Politics of President-Hating |
On October 1, 2003, the International Herald Tribune posted a
column by David Brooks titled: "The New Politics of
President-Hating." Go to:
http://www.iht.com/cgi-bin/generic.cgi?template=articleprint.tmplh&ArticleId=111884
__________________________________________________________________________________
Excerpts:
Have you noticed that we Americans have moved from the age of
the culture wars to the age of the presidency wars? Have you noticed
that the furious arguments we used to have about cultural and social
issues have been displaced by furious arguments about the current
occupant of the Oval Office?
[...]
The culture warriors were passionate about abortion, feminism or
prayer in schools. But with the presidency warrior, political dis-
agreement, cultural resentment and personal antipathy blend to
create a vitriol that is at once a descendant of the old conflicts,
but also different.
"I hate President George W. Bush," Jonathan Chait writes in a
candid piece in The New Republic. " I hate the way he walks. ...
I hate the way he talks .... I suspect that, if I got to know him
personally, I would hate him even more."
The quintessential new warrior scans the Web for confirmation
of the president's villainy. He avoids facts that might complicate
his hatred. He doesn't weigh the sins of his friends against the
sins of his enemies. But about the president he will believe
anything. He believes Ted Kennedy when he says the Iraq war
was a fraud cooked up in Texas to benefit the Republicans
politically. It feels so delicious to believe it, and even if some-
where in his mind he knows it doesn't quite square with the
evidence, it's important to believe it because the other side is
vicious, so he must be too.
The fundamental argument in the presidency wars is not that
the president is wrong, or is driven by a misguided ideology.
That's so 1980's. The fundamental argument now is that he is
illegitimate. He is so ruthless, dishonest and corrupt, he
undermines the very rules of civilized society. Many conser-
vatives believed this about Clinton. Teddy Kennedy obviously
believes it about Bush. Howard Dean declares, "What's at
stake in this election is democracy itself." The warrior goes
out looking for leaders strong enough to crush the devil.
Wesley Clark appeals to the warrior mentality when he
declares: "This is war. It's a culture war, and I am their
greatest threat. They are doing everything they can to
destroy me right now." It doesn't matter that Clark doesn't
yet have policies. This isn't about policies. So far the cam-
paign has not been shaped by how much of the Bush tax
cut this or that Democratic candidate wants to roll back.
It's about who can stand up to the other side. To the
warrior, politics is no longer a clash of value systems, each
of which is in some way valid. It's not a competition bet-
ween basically well-intentioned people who see the world
differently. It's not even a conflict of interests. Instead,
it's the Florida post-election fight over and over, a brutal
struggle for office in which each side believes the other is
behaving despicably. The culture wars produced some
intellectually serious books because there were principles
involved. The presidency wars produce mostly terrible
ones because the hatreds have left the animating ideas far
behind and now romp about on their own.
[...]
And for those who are going to make the obvious point:
Yes, I did say some of these things during the Clinton
years, when it was conservatives bashing a Democrat,
but not loudly enough, which I regret, because the weeds
that were once on the edge of public life now threaten to
choke off the whole thing.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Papa Jack smiles:
Just food for thought. 8^)
.
|
|
| User: "Ray Fischer" |
|
| Title: Re: New Politics of President-Hating |
01 Oct 2003 11:04:24 AM |
|
|
Papa Jackass <papajack@stic.net> wrote:
On October 1, 2003, the International Herald Tribune posted a
column by David Brooks titled: "The New Politics of
President-Hating." Go to:
http://www.iht.com/cgi-bin/generic.cgi?template=articleprint.tmplh&ArticleId=111884
__________________________________________________________________________________
Excerpts:
Have you noticed that we Americans have moved from the age of
the culture wars to the age of the presidency wars? Have you noticed
that the furious arguments we used to have about cultural and social
issues have been displaced by furious arguments about the current
occupant of the Oval Office?
Yes.
And as an example notice your screeching hatred of Clinton.
--
Ray Fischer
rfischer@sonic.net
.
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