As I read (yet again) a post critical of the president on Instapundit, one of my favorite blogs, I noted how frequently conservative and right-leaning blogs — as well as the leading conservatives newsmagazines — have criticized the president. And yet in the comments section to this blog — as I’m sure on many left-wing web-pages — every time we criticize a disingenuous (or downright dishonest) Administration critic, our own critics contend, in the words of one such critic, that in our “worship of Bush,” we engage in “rabid attacks on anyone who questions Bush Administration actions.”
Now, if there’s any Republican president (since Lincoln) whom I come close to “worshipping,” that would not be the incumbent, but the late, great Ronald Wilson Reagan. And great as that good man was, I would only say I honor him, not worship him. That said, given that I have noted on at a variety of occasions (e.g., here and here) that decent as a man as is the current President Bush, he is no Ronald Reagan, it is clear that I neither worship President Bush nor engage in rabid attacks on anyone who questions his Administration’s actions. If I did that, I would be engaging in rabid attacks on myself from time to time.
Given the variety of opinions, including criticism of the president (such as Glenn’s today), on conservative blogs (and editorial pages) many of which generally support the President, it seems that the way the Administration’s critics (and our own) wishes to understand the nature conservatives is not by studying our ideas, our writings and public statements, but by taking issue with a conservative demon of their imagination. I know I’ve said this before, but it bears repetition.
It is an interesting irony that our critics on the left contend we attack anyone who criticizes the Administration when it is they who criticize anything the Administration does — or blames it for any ill which has afflicted the world since George W. Bush took office on January 20, 2001.
-Dan (AKA GayPatriotWest): GayPatriotWest@aol.com
🙂 Aw, c’mon. You’re back pedaling on Bush. Pretty much until the Harriet Myers debacle brought his failings to the forefront, many conservatives engaged in the “my president is right, right or wrong” philosophy. Conservatives loved the fact that he appeared kick ass, that is until his ratings plummeted and the fact that more conservatives are turning against the seemingly unending conflict in Iraq. The recent supreme court ruling has, by golly, made people sit up and realize “gosh, we really are a nation of laws and even the president must follow those laws” Too bad y’all didn’t remember the lessons we supposedly should have learned from Nixon.
Even my conservative friends (both straight and gay) freely admitted that from the momented he was appointe….er….somewhat elected as president, they felt he was an idiot, were/are embarassed any time he strays off-script and constantly remarked that they felt he had “good people around him”, as if that would take off the sting of his idiocy.
I love it when we disagree with Bush, it’s a Conservative “Crack-up” and “Conservatives are falling apart”.
Kevin, you make things up about conservatives as you go. I have criticized him on federalism and taxes long before Harriet Miers — as have many others in the blogosphere and other conservatives media.
And I highly doubt you conservative friends called him an idiot, unless, of course, you define anyone to the right of DailyKos as an idiot.
Your comment does help prove my point though–you just define us as you want to see us, not as we are.
This behavior isn’t limited to the Left, there are many on the Right who also engage a demon of their imagination. My conclusion is that it is rhetoric designed more for entertainment purposes than public discussion of the issues.
The beauty, and horror, of the Information Age we live in is that it takes what used to be barroom conversations and puts it out there for everyone to see.
“Everyone is not entitled to their opinion. They are only entitled to their informed opinion.” — Harlan Ellison
Conservative criticism of Bush goes back long before Harriet Miers. We have taken him to task for signing a CFR bill widely viewed as an assault of Free Speech, for his profligate spending ways, for passively gutting school choice provisions from the NCLB, for signing Ted Daschle’s bloated Agriculture subsidy bill, and for many other policies.
But that’s what the left doesn’t get. They don’t see “We disagree with Bush policy X, and would prefer Policy Y” as a form of criticism. To get your props, you have to accuse Bu$h of being Hitler. You have to scream that Dick Cheney is wiretapping people’s shopping lists. You have to shriek that the war in Iraq is for oil and the J-o-o-s. You have to whine that when a terrorist headchopper’s precious Koran gets scuffed, it’s an atrocity worse than a Soviet gulag! And you have to entertain the possibility that everything that happened on 9-11 was orchestrated in a boardroom at Halliburton by people who would be happy to exterminate all the gays if they had a chance.
Because to the left, if it’s not insanely irrational, it’s not really criticism.
And let’s not forget that before taking on his current responsibilities, the president’s press secretary had criticized several policies of the man who tapped him for his current job.
raj provides another example of ignorant right-bashing: “BTW, the Nazis and their Anhaenger did not only murder Jews. They also murdered more than a few gay people, something that more than a few right wingnuts wish to sweep unterm Tisch.”
I am unaware of any mainstream conservative who approves of the Nazi regime’s treatment of gays or thinks it unworthy of comment.
#7 V the K — July 18, 2006 @ 1:08 pm – July 18, 2006
I am unaware of any mainstream conservative who approves of the Nazi regime’s treatment of gays or thinks it unworthy of comment.
I’m sure that you can provide us with a link to at least one mainstream neo-con (neo-cons being the only “mainstream conservatives” among y’all) who can substantiate your lack of “awareness.”