Just last week, I was kvetching with an Indian colleague of mine about an unpleasant person we'd both had to work with on occasion. When I noticed he was projecting a lot of negative assumptions on her, I pointed out that, hey, I know it's easy to do that with someone we already dislike, but maybe we shouldn't assume so much. His response: "That's why you Yankees always elect Republicans. Your side worries about nuances like that and theirs doesn't."
I thought I appreciated how right he was. I didn't. Not until I read Alexandra Pelosi's interview in Salon this week about her new documentary.
Yes, the money quote from the interview is "I think that the blogs have poisoned the political atmosphere in such a way that I never saw this kind of anger and hatred in 2000." Silly as that is, I barely noticed it by the time I got that far into the interview. My head was already swimming due to earlier remarks like:
Well, more than 58 million people voted for John McCain, and I know that everyone on the coasts is on an Obama honeymoon right now, and they seem to forget that more than 58 million people did not want Barack Obama to be their president.
Everyone on the coasts? And nobody between Pittsburgh and Las Vegas? But I digress. There was also...
They're really unhappy that Obama won. And they're really having a hard time dealing with this whole economic stimulus package. They're totally opposed to that kind of government. I talked to people who had bad holidays, who had a hard time getting through the inauguration, are disappointed in their country, are sad about the direction this country is going. And it's not getting better, it's getting worse. They're looking at this, "We're all socialists now," and they're not laughing. The Newsweek cover, "We're all Socialists Now", I got like literally a dozen calls the day that Newsweek came out. I don't know what Newsweek's intentions were, but that is terrifying to a lot of people.
And it only gets worse.
Now, I had my share of moments when I wanted to ask Pelosi why on earth she couldn't just recognize that they're wrong, Obama is not a socialist and the stimulus isn't going to...well, do whatever they probably believe it's going to do. But that wasn't the worst of it. Some people just don't want to see the truth, even when it's good news. We all know that. No, what I really couldn't swallow was the never-quite-spoken, but obvious sympathy she feels for the 58 million people. Even as she blithely notes that her last name is a dirty word in many circles for no good reason, the interview is rife with suggestions that we are somehow in the wrong for being glad Obama won, and that we owe his opponents something or other.
I don't get it, Ms. Pelosi. I really don't. First of all, what is it we do owe them? Respect? I think they got that in the form of Obama bending over backwards to be "bipartisan," and they showed us all what they thought of that. But even more than that, I really want to ask, why the sympathy? It's nice to be gracious to losers when you win and all that, but evidently you've somehow failed to notice that they had no such thing for us in 2004 (or even in 2000, when by rights we won!).
Which brings me to my real point in posting this diary. I'd like to ask all Kossacks to share their stories about their experiences with Bush supporters in 2000 and 2004. How many of them did for you what Pelosi is doing for them all here? Exactly how many of your Republican acquaintances came to you and said, "Look, I know you're not a communist, I know you love America just as much as I do and simply see things a bit differently, and I hope Bush gives people like you a place at the table and a voice in Washington"? How many of them even acknowledged the vicious demogoguery against everyone to the left of John Ashcroft, much less actually denounced it? How many of them voiced the slightest concern that their party's devotion to Bush might be a bit much?
I ask because I realize I could be wrong or my experience could be unusual here. That said, I honestly do not recall a single example of any of the above. I'd be curious to hear from those of you who have. But trust me, I will understand if this diary doesn't get many responses! :)