Back to the Bubble

MSP Magazine editor Adam Platt on the Bush administration and the Republicans who support it:

I despise this Bush administration as much as anyone. And I recognize that among the delegates to the RNC are the truest of its true believers. But c'mon--don't these Republicans know the country hates their war, their abrogation of the Constitution, their manipulation of science, their attempts to politicize every once-sober function of government, and their attempts to label anyone who would disagree with them as unpatriotic?

Adam Platt on his own political orientation:

A year later, I seem to be one of the few moderate lefties who still wants to see Al Franken elected.

{Rim shot!}

Jeff Fecke, call your lawyer, somebody is stealing your act.

Of course, it is a long tradition in this town for the most partisan voices on the Left to call themselves moderates or centrists. They may even believe this to be true, which is a sobering comment on the nature of their social and professional circles. The fact that many of these people are in the media illustrates the uphill battle conservatives have in getting a fair hearing for their ideas and candidates.

This over-the-top, teeth grinding, garment rending language engaged in by these "moderates" also illustrates the mental state necessary for supposedly intellectual and sophisticated people to believe empty suit candidates like Al Franken and Barack Obama are OBVIOUSLY superior to their more qualified and moderate Republican rivals.

If you allow yourself to accept the worst possible slanders about one candidate (or party), you can turn your brain off and support the other guy, no matter what his flaws or fitness for the job.

Who wouldn't automatically vote against candidates responsible for abrogating the Constitution, manipulating science, politicizing EVERY once sober function of government, etc. etc. And who wouldn't despise the voters who support these candidates. I know I would.

The problem is, none of these assumptions are true about the GOP. These are wildly hyperbolic distortions and outright falsehoods about George Bush and Republican voters. They are products of the most strident and partisan elements of the Left, engaged in a propaganda effort to demonize and assassinate the character of those standing in their way to power.

I don't take Platt to be a member of this particular cohort. He doesn't produce these notions. He's just happy to accept them, allegedly base is voting behavior on them, and pass this info along to all his readers as his own wise judgment.

If only he would take the time to critically analyze these irresponsible accusations! If he would make a point of truly understanding what the responses of the accused are to these charges! If he would read the best and brightest of Conservative observers on these issues before jumping to conclusions! I'm sure he'd see the light and he'd be much more fair in his commentary about Republicans. Maybe even realize people like George Bush, Norm Coleman and John McCain are honorable men working with difficult, complex jobs. And perhaps acknowledged they were/are the superior choice in an election, given the alternative.

{Rim shot!}

Uh no, I don't believe that's possible. Because I don't believe the incidence of George Bush abrogating the Constitution has anything to do with the votes of people like Platt. He'll vote against Bush whether he abrogates his brains out or not. It really doesn't matter. Platt is a man of the Left. He's going to vote for his fellow travelers, always. You just can't say that publicly when you're trying to come off as a moderate in order to persuade people to vote against Republicans.

Instead we get more demonization and the politics of personal destruction. Victor Davis Hanson noted this phenomenon recently and had these thoughts on what is bound to happen if Obama wins in November:

After destroying the protocols of good taste and decorum, an infantile 60s generation in their age and sobriety will now understand that they themselves (see Thucydides on Corcyra) are likewise in need of some shared standards of public expression, rightly fathoming that such easy venom weakens a free society.


Yes, the Left will suddenly adopt a new maturity about a President Obama, and responsibly demand of us all to excise from our vocabulary over the top hate speech, such as comparing an elected administration to Nazis or fantasies about killing American presidents. (Ed. note - like this?)


And this, once again, will be as it should be-albeit eight years too late.


Amen.