Posted on 12/11/2003 3:11:20 PM PST by Holly_P
My favorite episodes of the “Little Rascals” were the ones with the “He-man Woman Haters Club.” No matter how badly Darla wanted in, she couldn’t break into the all-boy club. If Darla is around today and wants to join a club, there’s one that is taking applications for membership every day. It’s the “Bush Haters Club.”
Animosity toward political opponents is nothing new. In the 1800 presidential race, Thomas Jefferson’s supporter’s claimed that John Adams had ordered a military officer to London to bring back four girls to serve as his mistresses. Adams’ supporters in turn accused Jefferson of being an atheist, a charge which has unjustly followed Jefferson through the centuries.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. In the 1990’s the political right was dubbed “a vast conspiracy” by Hillary Clinton, and Clinton critics were called “Clinton-bashers.” The tide has turned with George W. Bush in the White House. The “bashers” are on the left, and they’re taking the art of dissent to new levels.
Part of the animosity for George Bush comes from the image of him painted by the press. Cowboy George, waving a branding iron and shouting “Hey, yall,” makes for an easy target. But the real Bush is nothing like the image the intellectual elite have of him. While in London, President Bush met with Menzies Campbell, foreign affairs spokesman for the Liberal Democrat party. Campbell was surprised by the real G.W.. During a discussion on the ePolitix website, Campbell said that the U.S. President was “totally at odds” with the image the media puts forth. Campbell explained: “He is personally extremely engaging. He has a well-developed sense of humor…and when he engages in a discussion with you he is warm and concentrates directly on you. He looks you straight in the eye and tells you exactly what he thinks.” But it was what Campbell said next that made me think: “I was not persuaded by what he said, but I was most certainly surprised at the extent to which the caricature of him was inaccurate.”
Campbell clearly acknowledges that George W. Bush is often inaccurately and unfairly portrayed in the media. But anti-Bush sentiments are going further and deeper than can be explained by mere political caricatures. Dislike is ripening into hatred, as reflected in the titles of two recent articles in left-leaning magazines. ''Call Me a Bush-Hater'' is the latest from “Progressive” magazine, and The New Republic featured a piece called ''The Case for Bush Hatred.''
New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, an outspoken progressive, discusses the phenomenon in a recent column. He says that the Democrat base is “becoming so angry that some are hoping for bad economic figures and bad Iraq news just to hurt President Bush.” And he’s right. Gary Kamiya, executive editor of Salon, bares his heart to his readers. “I have a confession,” he says. “I have at times…secretly wished for things to go wrong. Wished for the Iraqis to be more nationalistic, to resist longer. Wished for the Arab world to rise up in rage. I'm not alone: A number of serious, intelligent, morally sensitive people who oppose the war have told me they have had identical feelings.”
While I commend Mr. Kamiya for his honesty, I’m annoyed by his confession. In describing the rationale behind his thoughts, he says: “Some of this is merely the result of pettiness -- ignoble resentment, partisan hackdom, the desire to be proved right and to prove the likes of Rumsfeld wrong. What if you’re convinced that easy victory will ultimately result in a larger moral negative -- four more years of Bush, for example...?”
A writer on the website Democratic Underground took the sentiment a step further. This self-described “58 year-old broad” lays it on the line. “The only way to get rid of this slime bag WASP-Mafia, oil baron ridden cartel of a government,” she says, “relies heavily on what a [expletive-deleted] hole Iraq turns into. [Our soldiers] need to die in defense of a lie from a lying administration to show these ignorant, dumb Americans that Bush is incompetent.”
Those with strong opinions understand how hard it is to accept views they believe to be hurtful to their country. Thomas Jefferson said as much when he said, "A man whose political principles have any decided character and who has energy enough to give them effect must always expect to encounter political hostility from those of adverse principles."
To wish the death of American soldiers just to make a political point is sickening, and goes beyond mere dissent. These so-called “Bush haters” are entitled to their opinions of the President, but they’ll have a hard time convincing the public by calling for an influx of body bags from Iraq.
(Mike North writes a regular op-ed column for six newspapers in the southeast Tennessee, northwest Georgia and northeast Alabama region. He is a professional land surveyor with True Line Company, Land Surveyors. He is a former Walker County School Board member and a student of history and political science. He can be reached at Mike@myhumbleopinion.net
This bears close watching. If DU has been elevated to quotable levels, as FR, then it will be read by and reach its influence to the electorate.
He has successfully stolen quite a few of their issues.
Morally SENSITIVE?? Uh.. GOOD heavens.. how can ANYONE equate being MORALLY SENSITIVE and wishing for the death of Americans.. be in their right mind and wish this? OOPS ....
They are. And there IS none.
I no longer have trust or confidence in the people I'm sworn to defend. I really wonder, sometimes, why I keep doing it.
I've been worried about these openly angry, Bush-hating weirdos for a while now. I just hope the Secret Service is paying attention and paying these people the appropriate visits.
Doesn't that qualify gore for a visit?!
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