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Originally Posted by tw
More quotes from someone that MaggieL considers a lefty extremist
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I can tell the difference between that level of discourse and chanting "mental midget". Can you?
I don't consider myself a conservative, but rather a small-l libertarian, verging on objectivist. I didn't say anything about "insults" or "fringe" or "extreme". I did mention a "shrill screed", because that's exactly what I saw. I've seen it before...directed at Nixon. I'm not at all a fan of Nixon now nor then, but I recognize the same drumbeat now in the Bush-hating crowd that drove the Nixon-hating crowd then--a crowd I was very much part of at the time.
The problem with that approach to politics is that it confuses "criticism" with "critical thought". It's very comforting to hang out with a crowd of like-thinking Bush haters and swap chimp jokes, or foam at the mouth about the conspiracy theory du jour. In addition to the warm sense of cameraderie it confers upon the participants with the addition frisson of beleving they're not only righteous, but intellectually superior to those poor red-necked red-staters outside the cult.
But the real tragedy of it all is that that style of thought seems to relieve the participants of any need to offer anything viable as an alternative. "I hate Bush, just like alll my friends. Isn't that enough? Hey, do you TiVo the Daily Show?".
In 2000 I voted for Gore. Not enthusiastically. In 2001 I became glad that that was the minority opinion, because the post-cold war pax didn't last anywere near as long as we'd hoped, and the idea of Gore at the helm in such times was almost as chilling as Clinton, or (Goddess help us) Carter.
The truly frustrating thing for me about Bush and his buddies is that there's nobody in the opposition I can like better...and that a pretty low bar to pass.