A General Dissembles

[Crazed Rabbit]

Much the same can be said about the "right" and the administration. If you don't agree with us, you hate freedom, that sort of thing.

Hmm. Not really. Who exactly said 'you hate freedom if you don't agree with us'? On blogs and the like, right wing posters tend to be less vehement than left wing posters, perhaps stemming from the progressive stance of the left that demands change. Or perhaps progressive ideals like socialism appeal more to uncritical thought.

Whatever the reason, they are very much alone in their fanaticism. Read some blogs and what they wish upon the Bush administration officials. They smirk when his spokesman gets cancer. They've even attacked John Edward's wife for criticizing the 'Betray Us' ad by MoveOn.Org. I'm going to bring up Lieberman again because its a great example. A long time democrat run out of his party by the left because he disagreed with them on war.

They also differ in the impact they have on the mainstream sections of the party. Look at who pays attention to Ann Coulter (noone) and who pays attention to that dailyKos guy (the democrat national committee).

CR

[Xiahou]

In case anyone didn't know what a dullard Robert Scheer is...

[drone]

Hmm. Not really. Who exactly said 'you hate freedom if you don't agree with us'? On blogs and the like, right wing posters tend to be less vehement than left wing posters, perhaps stemming from the progressive stance of the left that demands change. Or perhaps progressive ideals like socialism appeal more to uncritical thought.

Whatever the reason, they are very much alone in their fanaticism. Read some blogs and what they wish upon the Bush administration officials. They smirk when his spokesman gets cancer. They've even attacked John Edward's wife for criticizing the 'Betray Us' ad by MoveOn.Org. I'm going to bring up Lieberman again because its a great example. A long time democrat run out of his party by the left because he disagreed with them on war.

Well, I wasn't really referring to right-wing bloggers, I was speaking about the people with actual power. They will usually be a little less vehement, for appearances if nothing else.

In my opinion, the attitude problems of the "left" comes from many sources. Foremost is the frustration of both being shunted out of power for so long and their inability to convince more Americans to vote for their candidates. There is probably some intellectual snobbery going on, as well as a lack of accountability. Now that Congress is Democratic, the accountability issue should be disappearing (of course, they haven't really been able to get anything done anyway ).

The big difference in the past 20 years between the Dems and the GOP has always been organization and issue discipline. The GOP is better at presenting a common front, while the Dems get a cacophony of opinions from center-right to wacko-left. Coming to a consensus is going to be harder, especially when they haven't even been fed scraps for a while.

They also differ in the impact they have on the mainstream sections of the party. Look at who pays attention to Ann Coulter (noone) and who pays attention to that dailyKos guy (the democrat national committee).

Well, no one pays attention to Coulter because they don't have to. The "right" blogosphere takes their cues from the administration/RNC/official party line, and are mostly supportive. The DNC is incompetent, and trying to incorporate the wide spectrum of viewpoints makes their job so much more difficult. Until they sort this out, the GOP will continue to eat them alive. Lieberman got kicked out, and he still got elected as an independent. Just goes to show that the Democratic leadership is a bunch of maroons.