A Little Less Hate, Please
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I've been thinking about the level of political discourse lately... more so since I started this site. What is obvious to all of us is that we are in a VERY polarized period right now. In fact, if you read enough "discussions" in blogs and elsewhere, it strikes you that people are not "talking" at all... they are just making their points and getting ready for their next point. It's almost as if we are all getting to be professional politicians or something. We play for the opinion of the "undecided" (whatever that means), knowing that we cannot sway the opinion of the one we are engaging.
Did debate and conversation always go this way? Was there a time when Americans actually TALKED about issues? A time when we would actually listen politely to one another and maybe... just maybe... we would or could be convinced of one of our "opponent's" points? Or... have black and white- good and evil- finally squared off into their respective corners for the beginning of the final bout- leaving subtlety far behind?
One thing is for sure- I am completely correct when I say that the far left (and even the not so far left) has one thing that binds them all together: a seething, raging, irrational hatred for our President. Without trying to sound like they are wrong on everything, I will say that when their "reasonable" discussions ALWAYS contain phrases like "Bush is a liar" and "no WMD's" and "Halliburton did it" and "he's so stupid", then it is very hard to take them seriously.
Think about it. It is clear that the left never, ever worked as hard on an election campaign as they did in 2004. They wanted ANYONE BUT BUSH, and it showed in who they chose to run for them. They spent untold millions of dollars on smear after smear... all to no avail. Meanwhile, the Right quietly went about its business... and most "normal" Americans went about theirs, as well. Then, even with all of that effort and money, they could not do it... and they continue to lose power in the House and Senate. Why is this?
Mostly, it is because they have let their slip show... and their "slip" is their hatred and their anger. Anyone not blinded thusly can see how crazy they all look... good grief, you have only to look at some of the comments on this very site to see that, for them, all roads lead to Bush is the devil. One commenter on my site was making the point that war is wrong... that it is never okay to hurt other people... that violence is NEVER the answer... and this was in the SAME post where he said Americans must LYNCH President Bush. It is stunning how seemingly intelligent people can be so deluded.
Personally, I love people... and I always have. An Infantry Marine for two decades, I still have a problem with an over soft heart... and it often gets me in situations I don't necessarily want to be in. However, even a soft heart can become hardened when faced with the irrational anger and hatred that is so often spat in our faces when we want to support our country and our President. People that I would probably otherwise be happy to hang around with have decided that anyone who supports President Bush is a stupid, dumb, evil, mean SOB... and that is that.
PETA, NARAL, NOW, AFL-CIO, NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, NYT... and hundreds of other groups with their own respective agendas have one common thread- and it appears to be the one they hang their political futures on. I don't know if it's going to work for them long term, though... it's just too hard to maintain such hatred in any but the most extreme political types.
I think that relative peace will come back to our national discourse. Once more control is shifted to the proper side, the irrelevance of the DFL (Deranged Far Left) will push it back into the dark corner where it belongs.
Then maybe we can all go out together and get a cold beer (or the tofu beverage of your choice).
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posted by kmg at 06:27
2 Comments:
I noticed in your article that all your examples were from "the left" but of course we know hyperbolic rhetoric does not come just from the left. In fact I would argue that the right takes the left in this field whether its the rants of coulter (who is linked on this page) or michael reagans "Howard Dean should be arrested for treason and either hung or put in a hole until the war's over" or the dailey Right-wing radio rants to the standard "*choose the liberal you want to hate* is a traitor". It goes on and on and on to such a degree that I have come to the conclusion that when right-wingers talk about liberal 'hate' it is almost always a manefstation of not only their usual hypocrisy but projection on their part. I also found it amusing that on your media examples you did not list FOX or other notorious right-wing media outlets
Maybe because Fox isn't spewing hatred-laced invectives...
In any case, you are right that there are examples on both sides- but the vastly overwhelming majority are from the far left. There is over there a collective hatred so strong and so venomous that it boggles the mind.
If it weren't already so ridiculously obvious, I would take the time to point out the virtually daily "demonstrations" put on and fueled by the hateful far left. You can point to a few people on the right (both of whom you quoted being indisputabley correct, by the way), but we can point out hundreds and thousands per day.
Your smugness belies the ignorance in your argument.
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