Wednesday, December 08, 2004
NewDonkey.com: "Bush Hatred, Redux"
[Link via Talking Points Memo]
Sometimes, "catching liberals in the act of doing things right" just means catching them in the act of crystallizing everything that feels wrong about the right wing. New Donkey's "bottom line":
It's important to distinguish the smrking-ghoul public face of the right wing (the administration itself, its surrogates both official and unofficial) from people who vote for right-wing candidates. There are just too many otherwise smart, decent people in the latter category; I may not understand why they vote the way they vote, but I'm not ready to write them off, either -- too much of everyday life requires their input, their support, and (in many cases) their friendship.
I've got a friend whom I'll call Wendy (not her real name). Wendy is just one of the sweetest people I know; I've worked with her for many years, and she has been a true and loyal friend to me not only in work but in private life (where she has done many lovely favors for me and Mrs. FlJerseyBoy, together and separately).
In the months leading up to November, Wendy was in an agony of indecision. She agreed with Kerry on just about everything, she said. The one stumbling block was Iraq. (Yeah, I know: there really wasn't all that much difference between Kerry's "plan" and W's, except that we could have confidence in Kerry's ability to carry it off with something like coherence and humility.) See, Wendy knew a young soldier who was killed in Iraq last spring. When I asked her why that experience inclined her to vote for Bush, she said -- in evident distress -- something like, "It just feels like not voting for Bush would be dishonoring [the young man]'s memory, like I'd be saying he died for no reason."
Maybe unsurprisingly, my private response to this was one of horror. That is: Of course he died for no reason; he did not need to die at all, and he certainly did not need to die in a war embarked upon for the flimsiest of motivations. Yes, he died in honorable service to his country, as defined by the chain of command all the way up to the White House. But he did not (as BushCo would have us believe) die in defense of his country. He died because someone -- ultimately his "commander in chief" -- said, almost arbitrarily, "Hey, here's a place where we can go to war!"; and he died because the commander then sent him and tens of thousands of other young men and women to deal with the consequences of the commander's own whimsy. So to me, voting for Bush would be to dishonor her young friend's memory -- to dishonor it profoundly.
But I wasn't about to argue this case with Wendy. Maybe that makes me a spineless liberal, the worst sort. Wendy did in fact vote for Bush in November, and maybe if I and similarly squishy lefties had in face argued more vigorously with Wendy and others like her, Kerry would have carried Florida, Ohio, and all the rest, and we wouldn't be having this conversation now. I don't know. I don't know.
I wish to God she (and all the others) had not voted the way they did, saddling not only their own lives with the probable consequences but also the lives of all the rest of us. But whatever Wendy did in the voting booth, she did for her reason(s). Just as I hope she would rather have me as a deeply flawed friend than as a perfect but alienated acquaintance, I wouldn't have Wendy any other way.
Sometimes, "catching liberals in the act of doing things right" just means catching them in the act of crystallizing everything that feels wrong about the right wing. New Donkey's "bottom line":
I think today's Republican Party, and its leader, are built on a foundation of fundamental dishonesty about who they are, what they want, and where they are taking the country. As a Christian, I will endeavor not to hate them for that. As an American, I will endeavor to respect those who voted for Bush, because after all, they have as much right to the franchise as I do. But until they demonstrate the ability to walk, or perhaps I should say swagger, in a straight line, I will continue to hold the president, his advisors, and his allies in Congress in minimum high regard.God, that felt good. And it felt right, too ("feeling good" and "feeling right" not always overlapping categories of experience).
It's important to distinguish the smrking-ghoul public face of the right wing (the administration itself, its surrogates both official and unofficial) from people who vote for right-wing candidates. There are just too many otherwise smart, decent people in the latter category; I may not understand why they vote the way they vote, but I'm not ready to write them off, either -- too much of everyday life requires their input, their support, and (in many cases) their friendship.
I've got a friend whom I'll call Wendy (not her real name). Wendy is just one of the sweetest people I know; I've worked with her for many years, and she has been a true and loyal friend to me not only in work but in private life (where she has done many lovely favors for me and Mrs. FlJerseyBoy, together and separately).
In the months leading up to November, Wendy was in an agony of indecision. She agreed with Kerry on just about everything, she said. The one stumbling block was Iraq. (Yeah, I know: there really wasn't all that much difference between Kerry's "plan" and W's, except that we could have confidence in Kerry's ability to carry it off with something like coherence and humility.) See, Wendy knew a young soldier who was killed in Iraq last spring. When I asked her why that experience inclined her to vote for Bush, she said -- in evident distress -- something like, "It just feels like not voting for Bush would be dishonoring [the young man]'s memory, like I'd be saying he died for no reason."
Maybe unsurprisingly, my private response to this was one of horror. That is: Of course he died for no reason; he did not need to die at all, and he certainly did not need to die in a war embarked upon for the flimsiest of motivations. Yes, he died in honorable service to his country, as defined by the chain of command all the way up to the White House. But he did not (as BushCo would have us believe) die in defense of his country. He died because someone -- ultimately his "commander in chief" -- said, almost arbitrarily, "Hey, here's a place where we can go to war!"; and he died because the commander then sent him and tens of thousands of other young men and women to deal with the consequences of the commander's own whimsy. So to me, voting for Bush would be to dishonor her young friend's memory -- to dishonor it profoundly.
But I wasn't about to argue this case with Wendy. Maybe that makes me a spineless liberal, the worst sort. Wendy did in fact vote for Bush in November, and maybe if I and similarly squishy lefties had in face argued more vigorously with Wendy and others like her, Kerry would have carried Florida, Ohio, and all the rest, and we wouldn't be having this conversation now. I don't know. I don't know.
I wish to God she (and all the others) had not voted the way they did, saddling not only their own lives with the probable consequences but also the lives of all the rest of us. But whatever Wendy did in the voting booth, she did for her reason(s). Just as I hope she would rather have me as a deeply flawed friend than as a perfect but alienated acquaintance, I wouldn't have Wendy any other way.
