As Calarato often advises: BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT. Wrong.

The voters’ approval rating of Congress is nearly tied with the low ratings provided Geo W Bush; in fact, it’s the lowest in 14 years! In fact, the AP poll has it at 64% DISapprove… that’s DISapprove of the Democrats in Congress, keogh. The voters doNOT support your position, your party, your party’s leadership of Congress… and that’s pretty bad considering the GOPers had Foley, prok barrels unlimited, DeLay, Cunningham, etc etc etc.

It took your side about 3 months to get lower. Ouch.

And to think that all the Democrat leaders of Congress oppose the corrupt, evil exercise of militarism and political hegemony by the BushCo forces on the poor ol’ Iraqi people. Yeah, people are turning away… from Congressional leadership by the Democrats.

Try this on for “size” keogh:

http://www.pollingreport.com/CongJob.htm

You can’t even write “but they DISapproved of you more”. Right, we’re going crazier and crazier. LOL

No I dont think we think that in general. We think that in those instances where Leftists give thier support to evil regimes in the world or when they attack the US for defending itself because that is being for the enemy. So when that happens, then, yes, those people involved are enemies.

And no one said that Jews dont do evil. So that’s non sequiter made out of your desperation to avoid thinking.

This is a universal rule that all sides of the political spectrum, possibly including myself, would benefit from following

Have you ever noticed that?

I think it also partly stems from the very use of criticism as THE tool for insight and understanding in higher ed settings/studies by intellectuals… it’s how they were trained to see the world, the exercise of power, the interplay of institutions, etc. At UofM, we were trained to look at institutions like the stock market and think, how can that model be tweaked to allow totalitarian SEAsian countries to embrace foreign investment? How pure does Free Trade need to get before labor and commodities truly do migrate irrespective of borders? How can one apply free market mechanisms to natl policies to get govt out of the business of providing housing for the poor? Glass half full or empty… it didn’t matter… use the model and don’t make unrealistic criticisms the enemy of the practical.

But that’s just being a wolverine.

You know, a major tenet of LeftWing fundamentalism hasn’t always been the negative “faith” in America the Ugly. I don’t think JFK was practicing that fundamentalism when he called on the younger generation to roll up their sleeves and do great things for our country and the world. But I think monopolizing the “rights” to the American Dream shifted from the libs to cons about the time of RR’s ascendancy. Maybe it’s shifting again –if the Dems make good on their promise to be on the lookout for the middle class.

It’s clear now that hating America by the Left has replaced hoping for a better America (or working to secure a more just America). That’s a sad thing to opine.

File this under “What the hell are you talking about?”:
“hatred of Jews or Israel is a “canary in the coalmine” warning.
and then this:
“Throughout most of history, the Jews have been a righteous and decent people”
Not true at all. Jews have committed evils the same as everyone else.

Stop the madness!!!!!!

But, your point about dictators, appeasement, and anti-semitism raises an interesting historical parallel.

so that links Jews and Christians in a commonality of being opposed by the same force.

The more insightful historians have noted that any broad movement toward anti-semitism was a foreshadowing of even greater evil and that any rise of hatred of Jews or Israel is a “canary in the coalmine” warning.

You guys are going crazier and crazier; no wonder the majority of Americans are rejecting you…

So, basically, 2000 years ago, Christ prophesied the existence of Bill Maher.

After years of trying to figure these peolpe out , that seems to be the best fit.

The episode is cute and clever and I loved it when it came out. But the bottom line is this: The real Seymour Skinner is a war hero – a POW beyond John McCain. And he is depicted as an insufferable a**hole, with his corny, positive belief in America – and he is ultimately run out of town on a rail, with even Marge Simpson approving.

Is _The Simpsons_ written by military-hating hippies? You decide.

(a) for reasons explained, they have an inner compulsion to malign and slander the good,
(b) the classic critics’ need to make themselves seem important through criticism,
(c) as a means to other ends – for example, as a means to ‘blank out’ the real threats facing us; or as a means to justify redistributionism / socialism (which they desire for reasons explained).

Dan asked, “Why do so many intellectuals and their allies on the left have so much hatred, so much contempt for the United States, their own nation?”

My theories were/are:

(0) Because America is good, and a safe target for them.
(1) Because we as a culture – led by our intellectuals – are removed from survival concerns / focused on trivia…
(2) …and we/they WANT to be removed from survival concerns / focused on trivia. And denying the real threats out there – always blaming ourselves, as if we had great control over things – is a strategy to support that.
(3) Because our intellectuals WANT to believe in their own self-perceived importance.
(4) Because we as a culture – including (or led by) our intellectuals – characteristically ignore the past, including the lessons of history.
(5) Because as someone else indicated, our current generation of intellectual leaders is heavily invested in an Orwellian up-is-down, black-is-white view of the world that made a virtue out of their Vietnam-era cowardice.

I would like to take this opportunity to expand on point (0). It goes back to the Evan Sayet speech that people have cited. Left intellectuals inevitably “hate the good, for being the good” because their basic moral, emotional and intellectual goal is to erase all moral distinctions or questions of what people deserve, and that drives them to tear down the good. Sayet explains it.

I would also like to take this opportunity to add 2 more reasons, (6) survivor’s guilt and (7) lust for power. We have, historically, been more prosperous than the rest of the world. I said why: our development of capitalism, democracy, science as a package. But Left intellectuals don’t get that, and don’t want to get it. All they see is this “unexplained” or “unfair” wealth – that magically drops from the sky, as it were – and that must be “redistributed” and/or punished. By them. Redistributionism satisfies their guilt and their power-lust together – 2 birds with one stone. And to justify redistributionism, they must attack America (or its practice of democracy-with-capitalism).

My fear is that American society is rapidly reverting to the norm. Already, we have in place a hereditary ruling class when senate and house seats are passed on from generation to generation to members of the lucky sperm club. Our political classes are a self-selected elite insulated from the effects of their policies on the electorate. It is easy for them to embrace amnesty because to them there are no differences among “peasants,” they all exist to be ruled over. It is also what makes it easy for them to accommodate the butchers of Beijing and break bread with leaders of terror-states like Syria. John Kerry and Al Gore don’t fly commercial, and will never have to worry about terrorists blowing up any of their private jets. George W. Bush doesn’t have to worry about his ranch being trashed by illegals because the Secret Service will keep them at bay.

George Bush has more in common with Ted Kennedy and John Kerry than he does with any of us poor saps. Laws like McCain-Feingold virtually ensure the perpetuation of the self-selected, hereditary ruling class by making it financially impossible for a person of modest means or humble birth to challenge those in power.