Waaahh!! The Bad Man Called Me a Bad Name! Waaahh!!
September 22nd, 2007
Okay, granted, the name-calling of General Petraeus by MoveOn.org was puerile.
That said, what of the right-wing reaction? Is the right wing, or the military, or the general, so weak and easily scarred that such name-calling warrants this level of outrage?
Of course not. The outrage is purely self-serving; the right wing has found that they can manufacture a villain which they can easily “fight” and cast themselves as heroes and defenders of a man in uniform, and they are pulling out all the stops in order to do so. And they can depend on the fact that the media loves a good, dirty fight–something the right-wingers excel at.
I for one am glad to find someone on the left to make extreme statements. Some body has to do the hard work and heavy lifting.
The right is filled with people like that – Ann Coulter’s wish that a supreme court justice be poisoned is one such example.
The point is the far right extremist basically blaize a path of cover for not quite as far right-ist who come along and look reasonable by comparison. Thus Bush, Cheney and Company look moderate compared to Coulter and her cohorts. Leaving the U.S. in the grips of far right wing junta.
Politics requires tit for tat for us to get back to a reasonable center, let alone a left of center. Touche for Move-on. Thank you sir. Can we have some more?
Yes. Then there is the “mote in thy brother’s eye” aspect. Before they can demand Democrats condemn MoveOn, they have to condemn Ann “Invade & Convert” Coulter, Rush “Magic Negro” Limbaugh, Bill “Too Many Offensive Statements to Choose Just One for a Nickname” O’Reilly, and so one and so on.
Perhaps this is a sign that the grassroots are FINALLY going to stop getting sand kicked in their face. Lets hope it trickles up to the dem leadership.(Although I wont hold my breath.)