For my money, the most telling comment about the George Washington Bridge story was the e-mail that noted that the kids stuck in traffic were "children of Buono voters." It reminded me of the comment Richard Nixon made that the "Jews" didn't vote for him. In Republican minds, it is perfectly fine to do things that harm people that didn't vote for Republicans. This is what makes the false equivalency narrative especially pernicious.
The Wrong get to justify their us against them mentality with the "Both sides do it" cover. The truth is that both sides don't do it. The Wrong does it, the left does not. I was reminded of this commercial for Hebrew National Hot Dogs:
http://www.youtube.com/...
The Wrong thinks that the left does it, too, because they have no problem doing it. I'll explain below the fold.
Psychology tells us that people often see their own faults in others. I'm not vindictive, my enemy is. The Wrong praised Governor Christie's openness this week in contrast to President Obama's response to scandal. I would like to specifically talk about the IRS scandal.
THERE WAS NO IRS SCANDAL! Here is what happened. A Republican Congressman asked the IRS if they had looked into the tax-exempt status of right leaning groups. Of course they did! That is the job of the IRS. They DID NOT target the groups, nor did they deny the tax-exempt claims. All they did was look into them. It was later revealed that they reviewed the tax-exempt claims of left leaning groups- surprise, surprise! The Wrong is still claiming that President Obama personally directed the IRS to "go after" right leaning groups.
The left doesn't look at those who voted for the other guy as targets for retribution. They don't look at their voters as "Real Americans." On the left, there is no "Them." If "They" didn't vote for you, shouldn't you wonder why rather than saying F-them? When you have no problem penalizing people who didn't vote for you the last time around, why are you surprised that they are not more inclined to vote for you this time?
What is happening? Black people don't vote for Republicans. Republicans pass laws to prevent black people from voting. Black people become less inclined to vote Republican. Republicans wonder why they are portrayed as racist. Rewrite this paragraph substituting hispanics, women, Jews, Muslims, or Young People for Black and you get the same result.