On another thread, a member is discussing the President's recent description of those who oppose his policies as 'the enemy'. Earlier today, my opposition to his policies was described as 'obnoxious'.
What do liberals really think about conservatives? Do you conservatives care? Does being described as an 'enemy of the state' or a 'child throwing a temper tantrum' or 'not grasping reality' make you more introspective or inspired to rethink your opinions or attitudes? How about being called names or described in other unflattering terms?
Discuss.
What do liberals really think about conservatives? Do you conservatives care? Does being described as an 'enemy of the state' or a 'child throwing a temper tantrum' or 'not grasping reality' make you more introspective or inspired to rethink your opinions or attitudes? How about being called names or described in other unflattering terms?
Discuss.
The problem, my friends, is US!
Lets start with the brilliant analysis of Eugene Robinson, the Pulitzer Prize winner who writes a column for the Washington Post. In a piece that runs under the charming headline "The Spoiled-Brat American Electorate, Robinson writes that, According to polls, Americans are in a mood to hold their breath until they turn blue. Voters appear to be so fed up with the Democrats that theyre ready to toss them out in favor of the Republicans for whom, according to those same polls, the nation has even greater contempt. This isnt an electoral wave, its a temper tantrum.
Who knew that Eugene Robinson wasnt merely a brilliant journalist, but a brilliant psychoanalyst too. The voters are reverting to their childhood. They are scared and in desperate need of a security blanket, which they have sadly found in the Republican Party. In the punditry business, Mr. Robinson writes, its considered bad form to question the essential wisdom of the American people. But at this point, its impossible to ignore the obvious: The American people are acting like a bunch of spoiled brats.
Funny how those very same American people werent spoiled brats at all when they voted for Eugene Robisons candidate in the 2008 presidential election. As long as the voters were slobbering over Barrack Obama, everything was just fine. But once the swooning ended, once the voters came back down to Earth, well, thats when they morphed into spoiled brats throwing a tantrum.
Eugene Robinson didnt come up with this idea all by himself. Peter Jennings made precisely the same point in 1994 after the Republicans won control of both Houses of Congress for the first time since the 1950s. Some thoughts on those angry voters, Jennings said in a radio commentary. Ask parents of any two-year-old and they can tell you about those temper tantrums: the stomping feet, the rolling eyes, the screaming. Its clear that the anger controls the child and not the other way around. Its the job of the parent to teach the child to control the anger and channel it in a positive way. Imagine a nation full of uncontrolled two-year-old rage. The voters had a temper tantrum last week. Parenting and governing dont have to be dirty words: the nation cant be run by an angry two-year-old.Ah, but Eugene Robinson and Peter Jennings are hardly alone. There are other brilliant pundits who have been examining the sad little mind of the American voter. In the New York Times, Maureen Dowd came to realize that what was ailing America was Americans. Obama, in this view, was the wise grownup stuck with the unenviable task of governing a nation filled with fearful, mental defects. The dispute over the Islamic center has tripped some deep national lunacy, she wrote. Obama is the head of the dysfunctional family of America, a rational man running a most irrational nation, a high-minded man in a low-minded age. The country is having some weird mass nervous breakdown.
And in Newsweek, another liberal, columnist Jonathan Alter, concluded that the American people simply do not know whats good for them. They arent rationally aligning belief and action; theyre tempted to lose their spleens in the polling place without fully grasping the consequences, he wrote.
Still another liberal elite, Jacob Weisberg of Slate, the on-line magazine, wrote that The biggest culprit in our current predicament, he wrote, is the childishness, ignorance, and growing incoherence of the public at large. He is referring to the tendency of some voters to want it both ways: give us more stuff but cut our taxes; we want government to fix our problems at the same time we want government to shrink. Lets be fair: there is something to his argument.
Still, the view is taking over among the liberal media elite that the voters yes, that means you! are acting out. And yes, the voters you again! are throwing a tantrum. You are children and not too smart children at that. Of course, theres a pretty good chance that you would get well in the proverbial New York minute if only you went back into your trance and fell in love with Obama and the Democrats all over again. And did you notice? The pundits didnt write columns about voter temper tantrums and the like when they sent the Republicans packing in 2006 and 2008. I guess theyre only tantrums worth writing about when the voters turn on their fellow liberal Democrats.
More here:
It?s Not Only the Economy, Stupid | BernardGoldberg.com