My text today is suggested by this phrase in Ross McKenzie's latest article. McKenzie is relating the conditions in the upcoming election, and among others he suggests the following:
"Among Democrats, a venomous hostility - a meanness - toward Bush rarely seen toward any president."
The sort of sentiment is widely asserted across the right wing; that our desire to remove President Bush from office is born of an irrational hatred and it is the sort of hatred never before seen in modern times.
You have to assume they don't remember the 1990s and they're hoping we don't remember them either.
For example, in the 1990s I remember President Clinton being accused of murdering Vince Foster and many others (the infamous Clinton Body Count). I remember the Right Wing press jumping all over that case and pushing it aggressively. I don't remember liberals accusing President Bush of rubbing anybody out.
I remember the Right Wing slamming into Chelsea Clinton a number of times. I particularly remember that funny bit Rush Limbaugh did on his lousy television show about the First Cat and the First Dog. I don't remember anybody on the liberal side who has played such crude shenanigans with President Bush's family.
Of course some of you might say, "Well, is Rush Limbaugh really representative of what Republicans / Conservatives are all about? Be fair Bryant." OK. Let's be fair.
The Republican party currently has four branches (Well it probably has more, but for simplicity's sake). Call them the Religious Right, the Libertarians, the Classical Conservatives, and the Limbaugh Conservatives/Neo-Conservatives. These categories aren't mutually exclusive, of course. In particular, there's a lot of the Religious Right who are also Limbaugh Conservatives.
I generally have no problem with Classical Conservatives or Libertarians; I don't often agree with their philosophies but I think they have a lot to say. More to the point, these sort of conservatives do not as often stoop to the same sort of tactics as the Limbaugh Conservatives/Neo-Conservatives. You can, in general, talk to them.
The Religious Right and the Limbaugh Conservatives, however, are another matter. A key point in understanding the Limbaugh Conservatives is that they not only believe that they are right (both in the moral sense and in the practical sense) the believe that they are obviously right. Anybody who takes the time to study the issues and try to understand what's going on will, barring some outside influence, come to the same conclusions that they do. Or to put it another way, if a person disagrees with their interpretation of events, there must be some reason for it beyond a simple disagreement. A liberal isn't just a guy or gal who sees things differently, but is someone who is willfully choosing the wrong answer. Maybe it's because the Liberal is crazy or a dupe or is a sophist hoping to gain some kind of power by promoting a wrong (again, both morally and practically) philosophy.
Because the Limbaugh Conservative's viewpoints are correct, and liberal viewpoints (or frankly any viewpoints that disagree with theirs) are so clearly wrong, there can be no real compromise. Witness Rush Limbaugh's jokes, back in the day, about how Liberals would become so rare we would need to keep one or two around in Zoos so we don't forget how bad liberalism really was. Note also Rush's constant beration of Centrist Republicans. He used to often say that there was little to no difference between a moderate and a far leftist (he's moved off this subject, it being an election year and all). Which makes sense, when you think about it. If there is only one correct answer, than all the other answers are wrong. It's just that some wrong answers are obviously wrong, and other wrong answers are more disguised.
To be fair there are plenty on the liberal side of the fence who feel this way as well (particularly, for example, academic liberals), but they haven't coalesced into a power within the party the way Limbaugh and his followers have.
So it's understandable why they see our dislike of President Bush's policies as irrational. They have to see it that way, because their own opinions on him are so self evidently correct. Any moral, rational person would have to come to the same conclusions they have (President Bush has done good by tax cuts and in protecting America, but hasn't done as well at shutting down liberal programs or closing our borders to immigration). If Liberals have come to a different conclusion it must be that we are irrational.
Incidentally, it's clear that the Limbaugh wing of the Republican party has a lot of influence in the White House. You need look no further than Vice President Cheney's willingness to give up a half hour of his valuable time to appear on Rush's show. They presumably know that they need to keep Limbaugh Republicans happy in order to win in November. Given the Administrations handling of Foreign Policy, however, I wouldn't be surprised if this way of thinking were not somewhat common in the Bush White House.
Which I suppose is another irrational reason to dislike President Bush.
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