Trying to Understand

Lately while watching the increasing nastiness among Republicans and Bush supporters (and this is not even getting into the right-wing and nut-wing pundits and talking headsters who are simply angry at everything, such as Ann Coulter, Michael Savage, Sean Hannity and to a lesser extent Rush Limbaugh), I have been trying to understand what motivates such animosity and vitriol against the Democrats and especially Kerry. Could it be that American politics has reached a crossroads where if you are not on our team, we must hate you?

Its not simply a matter of "we hate the left-wing because they have done such trememdous damage to this country", because how can any normal and rational person believe that the left has ever truly had significant political power in this country. No successful and influential socialist, Marxist, or anarchist parties have taken over and created policy or captured the presidency. No major structural or economic change has been from an effort to advance socialism and the like. The arguments -- if we can be honest and reflective for a moment -- have always been within a fairly obvious range of opinions, economic policies, and social principles. Even the War on Poverty or Roosevelt's alphabet soup were within a limited range of political ideas. And who were the ones to initiate the actions of FDR during the Great Depression? Industrialists like Ford who demanded that Roosevelt do something before their was revolution in the streets.

So all of this meanspiritedness directed toward the Democrats and Kerry (not to mention Bill Clinton who dared to upset the "We are amazing Reagan revolution" and that is why he was hated, I mean how dare he interfere with the Republican jugernault that was remaking America and the world with the Republican hegemony AND he was from the unwashed masses, how gauche) -- this meanspiritedness seems to be about not just winning elected office but of creating a new reality, a new paradigm where the other team must be vanquished. And how do you do this? You turn them into villains (whether true or not does not matter), you make them your enemies, you turn them into all that is unholy and decadent. Perception matters more than reality here.

And what do you do with villains? You do not negotiate, right? You do not discuss the nature of your differences. You eliminate the opposition by any methods at your disposal. You destroy them. This is Lee Atwater politics run amok. This is the beginning of the end for the American political culture. Think about it, where does politics go from here? What middle ground is left? Apathy will rule among those who are not involved in the attack side or the defending side. People without great ability will become elected officials because nuance and policy consideration will not matter, only winning.

And the rest of us, will only lose.