Posted on 06/18/2008 3:33:31 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Jonah Goldberg at The Corner:
I caught the beginning of the Daily Show the other night and saw what appears to be a recurring segment: “Barackaphobia.” This, as you might guess, is where Stewart mocks anybody who is overly concerned with Barack Obama’s ideas, background, whatever. In short, anybody who takes stark exception to Obama or the cult of Obama is paranoid. [...]The left loves to characterize conservative dislikes and disagreements as “phobias” and other maladies of the mind. Specifically, conservative “hate” is based on “ignorance” and “fear.” Rhetorically, this tactic amounts to a way for liberals to avoid arguments on the merits….
Barack Obama, as we speak, is being added to that list. If you don’t love and embrace Obama, you’re afraid of him (and, again, fear is the root of racism, etc etc.). You’re fearful of change, scared of hope, terrified of progress.
…whatever fair examples of “Barackaphobia” may be out there for Stewart to beebop and scat on, there were tens of thousands of better examples of what could easily be called Bushophobia (or what many call “Bush derangement syndrome”) over the last 7 1/2 years, and I don’t recall Stewart mocking anybody on that score very much.
Well, of course. That’s because if you’re from the left, you’re really “smart”, “all” of your politicians are visionaries with flawless policies, and all of your opinions are true. If you’re on the right - or more exactly, if you’re not on the left - you are “stupid.” Your pols are “stupid” and all of your opinions are based on fear, prejudice or the lack of an inelegant education. That’s just how it is.
But there was a time when Jon Stewart knew a moment of self doubt, where he almost faced his own Bush-o-phobia, and it nearly shook him to his core:
“What if Bush - the president, ours - has been right about [Iraq] all along? I feel like my world view will not sustain itself and I may - and, again, I don’t know if I can physically do this - implode.”
Stewart wasn’t alone in his scary moment, as I noted back then.
Jonah is of course, quite right. You can easily find a bajillion examples of “Bush-o-phobia” both fair and unfair - mostly unfair, much of it intellectually dishonest and just running along a stream of narrative, like the dead thing Chesterton talks about when he writes in The Everlasting Man, “A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.”
You can find examples of people on the right (at least occasionally) agreeing that the Bush-criticisms from the left have some substance to them. I wonder if we’ll see anyone on the left ever conclude that maybe, just maybe, there is some substance to the observations of Obama’s shortcomings, that make them more than just “stupid,” or “phobic.”
That would be interesting.
Do not question Fearless Leader. Do not point out that the Emperor Wears No Clothes.
Barack the vote, man. All the cool kids are doing it.
Question authority. Except of liberals.
“Jonah is of course, quite right. You can easily find a bajillion examples of “Bush-o-phobia” both fair and unfair - mostly unfair, much of it intellectually dishonest and just running along a stream of narrative...”
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NObama:
http://no-bama.blogspot.com/
I’m proud to be a bitter reactionary, clinging to God and my guns.
The thing is Republicans have never been hip. Liberal Dems like to think of themselves as really hip and with it. They always fall hard for the “hip” candidate. Of course Obama has it all over McCain as “hip”. I doubt most libs ever really think about the stupid positions they take. Like Stewart most just want to be with the hip candidate. I doubt Steward could debate any half-educated conservative. Without his jokes and snide comments most libs like Stewart come to a gunfight with a rubber band.
But that dog wont hunt.
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“Barackaphobia?”
To me, it is more “Barackonausea.” He is getting better (read this: more questionable) coverage than an old time Soviet President in Pravda.
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