Posted on 01/15/2005 5:42:40 AM PST by Libloather
PEST infects die-hard political losers
Posted on Tue, Jan. 11, 2005
If you happen to be compiling a list of all the things that were wrong with the recent election, jot this one down. George Bush may be the first president whose re-election produced a bona fide mental affliction among members of the disappointed party. So many New Yorkers sought therapy after the grim reality of Nov. 2 settled in on them, that their attending shrinks were able to identify a new neurosis: Post Election Selection Trauma or PEST. A definitive list of symptoms has yet to be worked out, but it will probably include incessant weeping, loss of sleep and a sudden desire to apply for Canadian citizenship.
It's one thing to be a sore loser. It is something else when this is diagnosed as a medical condition. Though psychology is out of my bailiwick, I do know what it is like to watch my party lose an election, and I can agree that medicinal remedies are sometimes in order. But as these are dispensed without prescription at the liquor department in a grocery store, I never thought to wonder whether they're covered by my medical plan.
As a political scientist I can diagnose PEST pretty well. It occurs in persons who were not prepared for the possibility of defeat. Republicans have usually been immune to this condition, owing to the fact that they tend toward pessimism. Of Republicans I know, about half had confidently predicted a Kerry victory while the other half were anxiously unsure. None would have fallen into a clinical funk had Florida or Ohio gone the other way.
By contrast, Democrats clustered in the lower east corner of New York state simply could not believe that George W. Bush would be re-elected. They had swallowed whole Michael Moore's portrait of the president as a malevolent clown, weak of mind and wicked at heart. Bush opposes gay marriage out of a desire to wipe out homosexuals. He opposes the Kyoto treaty on global warming not merely because he's wrong, but because he actually wants to destroy the environment. His war in Iraq was motivated by simple greed. He probably imagines he can load a giant tanker with Iraq's oil and sail away with it. On what planet could such a man be re-elected?
It didn't help that such outlets of liberal opinion as Harper's Magazine and the New York Review of Books did nothing all year but reinforce the Democratic Party line. I have been a loyal reader of both periodicals for a period of better than 20 years. While they were always liberal in bent, they used to be committed to articles that challenged the prevailing wisdom on both sides of the aisle. They were for that reason essential reading for liberals and conservatives alike.
But over the last year Harper's packed each issue with screeds against Bush and the Republican Party, with nary a dissenting voice to be heard. A vague impressionism has always been one of that journal's weak points. It's political writing relies all too often on hints, nods and winks, in lieu of evidence and argument. But of late it seems to have retreated into its own, slightly paranoid world. Editor Lewis Lapham provided proof of this when Harper's published his scathing description of the Republican National Convention days before the convention actually met.
The NYRB is more sober, but it has become just as unbalanced. In its pre-election issue 14 prominent authors were selected to comment on the choice facing Americans. Not one of them was able to imagine how anyone could vote for George Bush.
Small wonder then that New York Democrats were about as psychologically prepared for defeat on Nov. 2 as they had been for the Red Sox's victory a few weeks earlier. Imagine the poor soul with a Kerry button pinned to his Yankee's jacket, and a good case of PEST is hardly surprising. Perhaps the road to recovery lies in trying to understand those in New York, and in the larger country outside it, that went Republican. But just right now New York Democrats don't want to know what kind of country that is.
Kenneth C. Blanchard Jr., is a professor of political science at Northern State University. He is director of NSU's honors program. The views presented are those of the author and do not represent those of Northern State University.
President Bush and first lady Laura Bush wave with Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife Lynne Cheney in Madison Square Garden after the President's acceptance speech during the final night of the Republican National Convention in New York in this Sept. 2, 2004 file photo.LM (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)
NYT Book Review has not been "sober" since before the 60s
Nahhhh.... they've had this condition for a long time.
"Imagine the poor soul with a Kerry button pinned to his Yankee's jacket, and a good case of PEST is hardly surprising."
ROFLMAO!!!
I can tell this guy isn't from Pennsylvania.
Absolutely. I offered to the editorial board of a local paper to take them on tours of Reddest America to try and bridge that gap. They declined - they just don't even want to envision our side of the political spectrum - probably because doing so might bestow some legitimacy on it from their exhalted perches.
Best just to call us right-wing Christian fundamentalist nutbars so all their liberal friends can nod in unison.
The rat leaders and propagandists were so prolific with their lies, hate-mongering and fear-mongering that some of the more gullible of the party sheeple bought the whole big mess....no wonder they're whacked out!
These blue-staters were already carrying the social virus of depression and complaint. George Bush being re-elected was only akin to one more "thing" to complain about. Yep they have a real syndrome, and the problem is themselves.
Building up to Inauguration Day's climactic GLOAT.
President Bush until 2009. Take that you pests.
"On what planet could such a man be re-elected?"
Not to mention that in the winning combination of red states, he won 57% of the vote. That should be more troubling to the 'rats than the 51% national margin.
Suggests a substantial base for a conservative candidate in '08.
By contrast, Democrats clustered in the lower east corner of New York state simply could not believe that George W. Bush would be re-elected. They had swallowed whole Michael Moore's portrait of the president as a malevolent clown, weak of mind and wicked at heart. Bush opposes gay marriage out of a desire to wipe out homosexuals. He opposes the Kyoto treaty on global warming not merely because he's wrong, but because he actually wants to destroy the environment. His war in Iraq was motivated by simple greed. He probably imagines he can load a giant tanker with Iraq's oil and sail away with it. On what planet could such a man be re-elected?
In short, the Democratic Party bought into the MoveOn.org/Michael Moore ultra-Left faction of the Party hook, line and sinker. As a result, they got too emotionally worked up and when President Bush won, the result was just too many cases of depression and general despondency. Small wonder why Rush Limbaugh wants to give advice to the losers on-air and Sean Hannity if offering his Dr. Hannity segments for these people all the time on Hannity's radio show.
Alas, it's affected my sister-in-law, too. Because Senator Kerry lost, my brother's house didn't have Christmas decorations this year and didn't even hold the annual Christmas party at their place. This is just getting out of hand. 
LOL! The sore losers are having a conniption. It all comes down to their intellectual capacity and their inability to get over it. Put it this way... they aren't as smart as they pretend. Man, just get over it! It's that simple.
I believe this is absolutely true.
The prood is in the Editorial pages (out here, that would be the Portland Oregonian) where the PEST Moonbats have nothing better to do than write letters to the editor for everything under the sun.
The tsunami was a Godsend for the Left, because it enables them to demand that Bush cancel the Inauguration, Laura forgo the dress, use Airforce One to transport aid packages, etc., and send all of that money to Indonesia or Sri Lanka.
All of the above ideas have been presented in the Oregonian in just the past week...
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