Last week I wrote Regretting Bush about my gradual disillusionment with the Bush administration. More than most things I write, I was particularly interested in the response of various readers to this piece.
I cross-posted this article at both RedStateand DailyKos( I regularly cross-post at both) as a way of gaging the response of the more partisan and ideological. Unfortunately for the most part, the response was all too predictable. While my article was certainly not the best thing that could be written on the topic, the comments lead me to believe that I was fairly close to the truth.
RedState
I was encouraged by a few of the comments at RedState, one of the most heavily trafficked Republican/conservative blogs. But unfortunately most of the comments degenerated into typical knee-jerk reaction without any thinking.
Perhaps the worst comment was
this one from a soldier in Iraq. I expected much talk about why we shouldn't pull out of Iraq, etc. but instead the commenter wanted to lecture me on economics:
"As a soldier in Iraq you tick me off.
So your attitude of teaching Bush a lesson, wanting to teach the Republicans a lesson that is epitomized by this thread reflects lack of knowledge & appreciation for the economic benefits that Bush has contributed, the first and only president to lower tax rates during wartime, record revenues into the federal treasury, lowering the deficit in spite of the record spending in a time of war, HEELLLLOOOOO!!!!!! in a time of WAR so that you and yours with an attitude of your ilk contributing to the Pelosi-Reid majority so that on the verge of success, we are getting our funding cut off because YOU DIDN'T BELIEVE YOU ARE PART OF THE WAR ON TERROR BY YOUR VOTES AT HOME.
Not only are you an economic ignoraamus, you are a military ingoramus as well, you never read something like an Army at Dawn where we lost 6000 Americans in a day to Rommel at Kasserine Pass, how FDR lost 60 seats to Republicans shortly after landing in N Africa because of lack of action on the part of the allies. Wars are full of mistakes and now we have adjusted our strategy and you come here to wine about you regret your vote for Bush on the verge of losing funding for the troops in a time of war.
If it wasn't for Bush, we would still wring our hands with inaction about Sadam's WMDs and we wouldn't have his tax cuts and we probably would have done anything to anyone after 9/11.
As for Katrina, I went there, its not all Bush's fault you dunkkopf, local louisianans suck when it comes to taking care of their people, it took the 82d to help their awesome rajin Cajun, get thing under control.
Since the Bush tax cuts in 2003, the GDP has averaged 3.5% with job creation at 6.7 million; from 9/11 to 2003, the GDP was 1.1% with enemic job creation. If I ever talk to you anywhere, you better have a copy of military history and the Wall Street Journal or Investors Business Daily in your hand or I will kick you in the butt and force your wife to do pushups because you have no spine for a fight."
This soldier's parroting of uber-partisans Sean Hannity, Hugh Hewitt, and Ann Coulter makes me wonder what has happened to the conservative tradition of critical thinking. (I can't wait to see how many on the Left scream bloody murder that I would even suggest that conservatives aren't all mentally impaired)
DailyKos
So what about DailyKos? Surely the Kossacks appreciated my denunciations of the Bush administration.
Nope.
Here are some classic quotes:
- "Kerry wasn't and isn't perfect, no question about it, but can you possibly be unclear that Bush's unique combination of amorality and incompetence is beyond anything seen by the United States in the last 150 years?"
- "Everyone knew Bush was a f**kup in 2000. It was the joke of the campaign. Everyone knew he would f**k up the economy, he would try to ram failed Reaganomics down our throats again. Everyone knew he was a liar, a failure, a drunk, and jerk.
Anyone who claims that he though Bush would be a better choice than Gore or Kerry deserves the next 2 years. This is your fault".
- "Bush was not an UNKNOWN in 2000. Anyone with 2 brain cells knew what an a-hole this guy was. HE was a joke, a coke head, alcoholic, jerk, stupid etc. You are an example of the poorly informed and ignorant masses in this country who put us in a situation that is going to be very hard to dig out of. You have no excuse."
- "Why so many people voted for the guy, and why they supported him for so long in the face of all the facts and the knowledge that he was a pathological liar. Incredibly bad judgement is the only excuse I can think of, and I blame you and people like you for not caring enough to figure that out during the elections.
Somebody elected those shitheads, and it wasn't me.
Sorry for the hostility, but I have a lot of it, and it has been going on for a long time while I have watched our government, our economy, our constitution, our military, and our world credibility go down the toilet."
Not that I write posts to please anyone, but it seems that I would have had to portray Bush as the Spawn of Satan to please the folks at DailyKosand portray Bush as God's Anointed Leader to please some of the folks at RedState. In all fairness, there are plenty of people on the Left and the Right who are willing to question their own beliefs and keep those "on their side" honest. Why then does it seem that harsh vitriol and rhetoric has won the day? Why do those blogs that are the most extreme tend to draw the most traffic?
Politics Is War
Unfortunately, the idea that "politics is war" appears to have won out. A few years ago David Horowitz wrote The Art of Political War and Other Radical Pursuits, which is quite the Machiavellian political campaign manual. While I am not naive enough to believe that there isn't a bit of truth to this idea, the idea of political war and viewing our political opponents as enemies is having a corrosive effect upon American society as a whole.
Since Horowitz wrote his book in 2000, these other books on politics have been published:
This is just the tip of the iceberg of books portraying half of America as either fundamentalist war-mongering Neanderthals or amoral terrorist-sympathizing urban elitists.
Unfortunately this sort of thinking is quite prevalent these days. Back around 2002, I remember having a conversation with some co-workers about politics. I mentioned to them that while we may disagree on methods, we certainly have the same goals. They disagreed and said that in fact we don't have the same goals, that those like me (right-leaning) actually are evil and have evil intent. And they were serious.
Beyond Partisanship and the Civil Public Square
So what are the alternatives? Should we simply accept politics as war and try to win?
In Part II, I will do my best to answer these questions about how we can have civil dialogue in a diverse and pluralistic society.