For the past couple days, I've been mulling around an idea. I noticed it a few days ago, when I was browsing the various blogs looking for information on candidates for a particular 2006 race. I hit up all the big names, and something occured to me...
Both sides are angry, both sides feel passion about their cause, and neither side is above the occasional dig at the other. What I wasn't expecting was the level of personal hatred the right feels for the left. As an "angry left wing" guy, I'm used to be angry, depressed, distressed, irate, and furious --
at the government. By extension, that feeling extends to the people that embody the government: Namely Bush, Rumsfield, Cheney, Ashcroft, and so forth. As evidence mounts, so does my despair and hatred for their actions.
I once told a joke to a friend of mine that went something like:
Someone once asked a wise man, "You're stuck on a deserted island for the next 10 years, and you can only have one person with you. Who would you pick: Bill O'Reilly, George Bush, or Ann Coulter?"
The wise man replied, "O'Reilly! I'd want the one with a vagina!"
My friend said, "I'd pick Bush, because, you know, when he's not ruining a country, I bet he's a fucking
blast at the party scene."
And I thought, "He probably is."
You see, I, and I seem to notice most of the so-called angry left can seperate the horrific actions of the administration from the people duped into following them, or even the actions from the people themselves.
Take, then, for instance, the flipside: The angry right, Freeperville. In a thread about Iran making vauge threats to Isreal, the comment appears:
Just had an idea. What if we inducted all male illegal aliens into the armed forces and stationed them in Iraq, or trained them to defend us against eventual moves by Iran in the middle East? We'd be out a few uniforms, but they would have to toe the mark. If they served us well, they could become U.S. citizens accordingly!
I cannot even begin to explain how angry that makes me. I'm not an immigrant, nor are my parents, or parents' parents, but somewhere along the line, I'm sure someone in my family was, and I'm pretty sure being treated like that would've angered them. Then, I found two more replies:
Plus all the lawns on base would look great!
The Mrs. had a similar same idea -- and the Dems wouldn't complain, after all, the immigrants would just be doing the jobs that Americans don't want to do (so they say)...
What the
fuck! I thought racism hid behind closed doors these days. I was going to say, "I thought racism was dead" but that is just the hopeful liberal in my rearing its ugly head.
I relay a conversation, heavily edited and 2nd hand, from a political campaign:
"And here's a bit about [opponent] [doing something really stupid] and his [coworkers] had to [intervene] [in full view of the public]."
"Wow. Who's leaking that?"
"No one, we don't fight dirty."
"Sometimes, I wish we were slimeballs."
The difference is simple: The Angry Left is angry at actions people choose, while the Angry Right is angry at who people choose to be.
The more I dwell on it, the more afraid for the future I am, and the more resolute to stop that future I become.