I was going to go off on a rant about the current state of the Democratic Party, but Michele Catalano already did an excellent job of it today and I’ve really nothing much to add. Read it now.
What She Said
Published
I was going to go off on a rant about the current state of the Democratic Party, but Michele Catalano already did an excellent job of it today and I’ve really nothing much to add. Read it now.
I read more thoughtful critiques by first-year college students. If I were a professor, I’d give her a C at the very best because the logic is so full of holes you could drive a tank through them. Yes, Republicans are supporting their man like giddy schoolgirls at N’Sync concerts did five years ago. Even the Democrats most revered figure of the last quarter century, Bill Clinton, didn’t get the kind of blind allegiance Bush is getting. The left is not bowing down to Kerry because we don’t believe he’s the Messiah, merely a better candidate for President than Bush is. He’s an untested commodity and we’re willing to give him a chance to prove himself before we coronate him homecoming queen.
Obviously the right doesn’t hate Kerry yet. I didn’t hate George Bush in 2000. I merely didn’t want him to be President. Most Republicans didn’t hate Bill Clinton in 1992 (apparently, Ms. Michelle is less than 12 years old since she doesn’t remember the GOP hatred towards Clinton). The actions of sitting Presidents inspire anger, frustration and even hate among political opponents. The actions of campaign challengers are far less likely to inspire the same sentiments. If Kerry is elected, I’ll hold Michelle to her claim that she’ll be a respectful dissenter to his Presidency. Somehow, I think she’ll have a conversion before 2008 if Kerry takes the White House. The idea that both parties aren’t filled with the same level of acrimony towards their opponents is quickly discounted by recent history.
Her other Pollyanna moment was the idea that the left is legislating through fear. Dick Cheney and Dennis Hastert have outright told Americans to expect devastating terrorist attacks if Kerry is elected. What tactics have mainstream Democratic operatives used comparable to that level of fear-mongering?
The more I think about the essay, the less worthy of it seems of the C that I previously suggested it deserves.
I believe that the author of the piece summed it up well before even opening her discussing with this:
[The following is a rant. A venting. There’s probably no point to it, but sometimes I have to remember that my blog is a personal space in which I let off steam and I don’t always have to make a point or answer a question, even my own questions. Sometimes I just want to yell.]
I am inclined to agree with Mark above that the logic in the article is horribly flawed. Therefore, I think (in the authors ‘defense’) that it needs be taken with the proverbial grain of salt as she herself indicates it should be. After all “Sometimes [she] just want[s] to yell”…
Mark: Michele was a Clinton Democrat.
As bad as some of the anti-Clinton arguments were, they don’t even come close the level of vitriol, hatred, and anger coming from the Democrats this cycle. The fact that Michael Moore was treated like a head of state by the DNC says it all about how the fringe left is firmly in control of the Democratic Party.
Again, this explains a great deal about why I can’t support John Kerry. Of course, given that I like and approve of Bush even less, I’m kind of low on options.