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2006-03-21 Home Front: Culture Wars
Bush is a victim of America’s political civil war
Gerard Jackson

The Bush presidency has revealed the enormous ideological rift that has been developing for more than forty years in America, and yet the vast majority of Americans are still not fully aware of it even though there has probably been nothing like it since the civil war.

On one side of the political gulf there are the fanatical win-at-all-costs Democrats whose vital ideological core does not believe in the legitimacy of the Republican Party just as abolitionists didn’t believe in the legitimacy of slavery and the Southern Democrats in the legitimacy of Lincoln’s presidency.

To these Democrats, the Gores, Hillarys, Reids, Jesse Jacksons, Streisands, etc., the Republicans are the equivalent of nineteenth century slave owners. The irony of which is completely lost on these fanatics considering that those slave owners were Democrats

These comments are not mere speculation. About six years ago Curtis Cans, head of the Center for the Study of the American Electorate, pointed out that political inspired hatred has been building up for some thirty years, blaming television for this phenomenon. But 1972 was the year that the radicals captured the Democratic Party. From that moment the Democrats’ ruthless urge win began to be transformed into a policy of political extermination.

These radicals brought with them the disease of the crusading spirit of intolerance. Firm in the righteousness of their cause (however incoherent at times), convinced that America was built on injustice, exploitation and oppression they have waged an unconditional war against the infidel, the barbarian conservative, the enemy of all that is good and just. That the Republican Party was formed on an anti-slavery platform is something these dangerous fanatics have tried to write out of history, just as they try to suppress anything that contradicts their Orwellian views

Much of the last century’s politics remind me of the religious wars of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries where the battleground was doctrine and the object the saving of souls. Heretics, on both sides, who refused to recant frequently met a fiery end at the stake. Although it is true that Martin Luther did not, unlike the lovely Mr Alec Baldwin, did not favour putting to death those who disagreed with him.

But fanaticism has a price and that price is the abandonment of reason and tolerance. That is why some Dems feel free to accuse Bush of being evil and wanting to reintroduce slavery. We see the same thing in Hollywood where, for example, a huge Hollywood crowd gave a Streisand a rousing reception when she called on it to vote for Gore because he will stack the Supreme Court with ‘judges’ who will twist the Constitution to fit their ideological agenda. (So much for the separation of the powers)

According to this deep Hollywood thinker the 1999 election was “a war against bigotry, against discrimination of any kind, racial, religious or sexual orientation.” To her and the rest of “Hollywood’s celluloid intellectuals,” Republicans are the forces of Darkness while the Democrats are the forces of Light. This feeling is genuine, pervasive and dangerous and it is poisoning the whole of the body politic, eating away at civil political discourse.

How did these Democrats arrive at such a risible and contemptible view of conservatives, or anyone else who disagrees with them? Having convinced themselves that they alone are concerned with social justice and oppression, and only they care about the poor and the underprivileged it is but a short step to assume that anyone who questions their vision or so-called remedies must be stupid or malevolent.

Just as religious fanatics from centuries past could not tolerate the existence of those who questioned their theology and so could only ascribe to these critics a devilish malevolence, neither can our “new Democrats” tolerate any who challenge their sacred political doctrines.

Gerard Jackson is Brookes’ economics editor
Posted by anonymous5089 2006-03-21 05:10|| || Front Page|| [11139 views since 2007-05-07]  Top

#1 "The right thinks the left is stupid; the left thinks the right is evil."

Posted by Robert Crawford">Robert Crawford  2006-03-21 08:06|| http://www.kloognome.com/]">[http://www.kloognome.com/]  2006-03-21 08:06|| Front Page Top

#2 This has been true since the days of Hamilton and Jefferson. It will always be true. The problem right now is we're too evenly split.
Posted by Nimble Spemble 2006-03-21 08:09||   2006-03-21 08:09|| Front Page Top

#3 On one side of the political gulf there are the fanatical win-at-all-costs Democrats whose vital ideological core does not believe in the legitimacy of the Republican Party just as abolitionists didn’t believe in the legitimacy of slavery and the Southern Democrats in the legitimacy of Lincoln’s presidency.

more like ...

...Democrats whose vital ideological core does not believe in the legitimacy of the Republican Party just as Marxist didn’t believe in the legitimacy of multi-party democracy.
Posted by Javirt Whaiter9406 2006-03-21 08:13||   2006-03-21 08:13|| Front Page Top

#4 "The right thinks the left is stupid; the left thinks the right is evil."

That's why the Republican presidents have, without fail, been portrayed as dumb. More like the left is naive and self destructive.
Posted by ed 2006-03-21 09:16||   2006-03-21 09:16|| Front Page Top

#5 I read somewhere that Republicans are either portrayed as dumb, or as cold hearted bastards.

Nixon was a cold hearted bastard.

Reagan was both. First term he was portrayed as dumb, then as a cold hearted bastard when it was realized the dumb thing didn't resonate.

Bush senior, when they even noticed him, was a cold hearted bastard out of touch with the people and uncaring.

Bush Jr is doing the Reagan. First he was dumb and Cheney was running the show behind the scenes, then he became Hitler. I read that going into the 2000 election Bush knew the two general media positions and positioned himself as dumb feeling that it was a better way to go with America.
Posted by rjschwarz">rjschwarz  2006-03-21 09:52||   2006-03-21 09:52|| Front Page Top

#6 I'm getting to the point that I think the left is evil.
Posted by anonymous2u 2006-03-21 13:23||   2006-03-21 13:23|| Front Page Top

#7 Funny, I think that the Left is both evil and stupid.
Posted by Secret Master 2006-03-21 15:05||   2006-03-21 15:05|| Front Page Top

#8 The problem is not liberals. The problem is leftists who have convinced enough sheeple that they, too, are liberals, rather than American hating scum who use the blessings of liberty to destroy the USA from within.

Pathetically and shortsightedly, liberals are blind to the fact that even if they realize their fantasy of defeating the evil conservatives by swallowing hard and aligning themselves with leftists, they will then be the authority de jure in leftsist's crosshairs.
Posted by Hyper">Hyper  2006-03-21 15:10||   2006-03-21 15:10|| Front Page Top

#9 good article
Posted by 2b 2006-03-21 16:16||   2006-03-21 16:16|| Front Page Top

#10 I still think bi-partisanship will congeal on the Iran issue. Jihad life is cheap.
Posted by Listen to Dogs 2006-03-21 16:26||   2006-03-21 16:26|| Front Page Top

#11 OT : Listen To dogs, did you see my french websites list here (see comment)?
Posted by anonymous5089 2006-03-21 16:28||   2006-03-21 16:28|| Front Page Top

#12 it will take a couple catastrophic poll losses but teh Dems will eventually split into two parties, or start putting reasonable candidates (other than poseurs for mil support) who actually want to protect our nation as no. 1 priority. I'm only 46, so maybe not in my lifetime...
Posted by Frank G">Frank G  2006-03-21 18:20||   2006-03-21 18:20|| Front Page Top

#13 The problem began with VietNam and the draft. Most of the Dems went to college to take the 2S deferment and avoid the draft. To keep from dealing with the fact that while they were hiding, safe in college taking political science courses, those who couldn't afford to go to college were drafted and had to go to war in their place, these worms demonized the war and those who fought it. They were cowardly, intolerant slime then and they have not aged well.
Posted by RWV 2006-03-21 22:27||   2006-03-21 22:27|| Front Page Top

#14 "The right thinks the left is stupid; the left thinks the right is evil."

Thanks, RC. You took the words right out of my mouth.

I've been saying the same exact thing for awhile now, in particular to my associates on the left. I think it acurately captures the fanatcism of the left, which is the main point I try to make when arguing against it.
Posted by eltoroverde 2006-03-21 23:18||   2006-03-21 23:18|| Front Page Top

14:34 Frank G
14:28 Melancholic
14:27 NoMoreBS
14:14 swksvolFF
14:12 swksvolFF
13:54 mossomo
13:51 mossomo
13:50 NoMoreBS
13:50 Abu Uluque
13:44 Abu Uluque
13:41 NoMoreBS
13:39 Abu Uluque
13:36 mossomo
13:36 swksvolFF
13:32 mossomo
13:26 Frank G
13:12 Regular joe
13:12 mossomo
13:11 swksvolFF
13:08 Abu Uluque
13:00 swksvolFF
12:59 Regular joe
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