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August 24, 2005
Old Man Week: Confound these so-called liberals
You know, I was starting to despair of ever being able to come up with a good set of topics about which to rant in a curmudgeonly fashion. I just haven't really been that cranky this week. It turns out, however, that I needn't have worried. Sure enough, there's a surefire blood-boiler that shows up right on my doorstep a couple of times every week, and I'm going to go ahead and grouse about it.
I'm speaking of course about Maureen Dowd's column in the NYT. It's something I've mentioned repeatedly, and will continue to mention as long as her marginally informed tirades against "W." continue to besmirch the Op-Ed page, and further drag down the level of public debate in this country.
(NOTE: At some point in writing this, my blood pressure elevated to the point where, perhaps as the result of a small stroke, I started writing in the second person. I'm not sure what that's about.)
First of all, whatever you call the president of the United States at your botox & self-congratulation parties, when you speak of him publicly or mention him in print, he is "President Bush" or "Mr. Bush." Look, I don't like him either. I think he's failed this country in just about every way he possibly could.
When you call him "W." or, for some reason, "Bikey W." (as in this weekend's column), it's obvious that you're just speaking to people who already agree with you, and hoping to give your readership something to snicker about at the MoveOn.org watercooler. Bully for you. Don't you think your time & energy (to say nothing of your column inches) might be better used in contributing something to the debate? Maybe new information, or a new argument?
I mean, I get that there are plenty of hateful, cynical people out there complaining about how "stupid" Mr. Bush is, or how Secs. Rice or Rumsfeld are "evil." These folks would clearly rather pat themselves on the back for having the keen eye to spot the iniquity than actually put any effort into thinking specifically about what's wrong with the country or planning better courses of action and ways to get people elected who can put those plans into effect.
So, say you were an opinion columnist in what is, for better or worse, the Paper of Record. Would you think the best way to use that bully pulpit would be to get people to laugh cruelly at the foibles of their elected official and the "ignorant" people who elected them? Would you encourage your readers to feel more disenfranchised, and that they just don't have anything in common with those "Red State" folks who got us into this mess? Hey if it moves books for Ms. Dowd, and papers for the NYT corporation, why not, right?
For a moment, let's consider an alternative. Maybe you tone down your rhetoric a little bit. Maybe you learn to refer to the man in the Oval Office respectfully, so someone outside of your coterie might acutally take your words as something other than fanatical hate-speech. Then you can do some research. Maybe come up with a new fact or figure to show that, hey, the president really is doing bad things to his country. There really are reasons to criticize him other than that you just don't like the guy or the people who voted for him.
When the Democrats take back at least one house of the legistature next year, it'll be because the Republican leadership has used their overwhelming power to overreach time and time again, and that the results have rarely been positive, and have at times been legitimately disastrous. I say this to preempt any celebrating by the left that any victories in the midterms, or subsequently in 2008, will be anything other than a vote of no confidence on those already in power.
The fact is, the way that Mr. Bush took the White House and his GOP colleagues took the legislature, was by appealing to our base nature. "You're scared? Vote for me." "I'm just like you. Vote for me." That's exactly the level that Ms. Dowd and those like her on the left seem to be working at. I'm saying that's wrong. It might work to get a democratic senate next year, or even a democrat president in '08, but the same pendulum effect will swing power quickly back to the right unless those gains are built on a solid intellectual, political, and rhetorical foundation.
I firmly believe that we have the facts on our side. We have nothing less than the full force of reason in our corner. The only way that we can possibly lose in the long run is to follow Maureen Dowd and those like her into pettiness and partisan intolerance.
Posted by matt at August 24, 2005 09:08 AM
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Comments
see, now i went and got myself all worked up and had to write another letter to the editor about how much i depsise maureen dowd. old man week indeed!
Posted by: matt at August 24, 2005 12:02 PM
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