December 31, 2003
More Wild Nonsense
About Bush Hatred
Bob (Can I call him Bob? How the hell's he gonna stop me?) Samuelson takes a little bit of data and (I suspect) a lot of right wing propaganda and spins a story out of all proportion to reality. Imagine my shock. Indeed, among most Americans, Bush doesn't [inspire the H-word] either. Because surveys didn't ask, we don't know how many Americans hated past presidents. But now the question is being asked, and the answers show that only a small minority -- millions, to be sure -- claim to hate Bush. One poll in December found that 3 percent did. The hating may have been slightly higher in the Clinton presidency, because the same poll asked respondents whether they now hate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, and 5 percent said they did. But the central conclusion is striking: Most Americans don't see themselves as haters.What in the hell is striking about that conclusion? I'm gonna say it again. I don't hate Bush. I don't know what kind of man he is personally. I've never met Bush nor do I ever expect to. I don't care. I only care about his policies, and those I do hate.
I've never met any politician. The closest I ever came is I saw Alan Cranston up close once. To me, they're just politicians. I don't want to say they have one-track minds, but I do think they have minds with one big ol' urban highway and a bunch of little dirt roads. The highway concentrates on getting elected. That's what politicians really care about. Policies, personal behavior, everything else travels the dusty lttle tracks.
Probably no pollster asked the question, but I sure would like to know what the level of Bill Clinton hatred was. I gar-own-tee it was higher than any Bush hatred today. The "Bush hatred" claim is just another classic example of right wing projection. See Dave Neiwert (pronounced Nye-wert-- I hate having my own name mispronounced) at Orcinus for a good discussion of this ( type "projection" into Find to get to the right spot on the page).
Whatever nasty accusation the right makes against the left, it's usually indicative of the kind of nastiness that lies within them. (I'm rubber and your--STOP THAT!)
Tip O'The Tam to Atrios and Pandagon.
|
From the Trenches but it's a good blog anyway. 
Contribute Here. Give Early, Give Often. Sign Columbine father's petition to extend the assault weapons ban. 
Help California's homeless mentally ill. Help yourself. Search this site Use Edit|Find to scan page. My Manifesto "For Progressives: What We're Gonna Do" A blueprint for progress while confined to a two-party system. Fat Poppa's (Phaedrus') Political Ditties (mp3s) Me on the harp and vocals "We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty." "There is no way for a citizen of the Republic to abdicate his responsibility." Edward R. Murrow "Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are Conservatives." John Stuart Mill And if ya listen ta Rush Dimbulb . . . . 
Archives
The Samizdata Credits design by maystar powered by blogger Atom XML/RSS Site Feed 
help?
c'mon, li'l help 
Search4Blogs The Me What I Am I took the name Phaedrus from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Not that I'm as smart as that Phaedrus, but I am a ghost. Sort of. I started doing odd jobs at a motel when I was 14. I lasted one day at a McDonald's, quit, lasted a lot longer at Taco Bell. I've been a gas station attendant, janitor, die cast production worker, day laborer, course maintenance at a miniature golf course, warehouse, union janitor, cabbie, statistical clerk, pool cleaner, working homeless for a few weeks (day labor), and several other things I can't remember. And I've survived. Sort of. I'm not a Marxist, but I am a genuine member of the lumpen proletariat. Largely paraphrasing the secular saint Woody Guthrie: "This shit is Copyrighted in U.S., under Seal of Copyright # 000000 (cuz this part's not true), for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught using it without my permission, will be considered mighty good friends o' mine, cause I don't give a dern. Publish it. Twist it. Rewrite it. Swing to it. I wrote it, that's all I wanted to do."  This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. |