Nonetheless, the notion that the McCain campaign, and conservatives more broadly, have stooped to an unprecedented level of "sleaziness" with negative, nasty and mendacious campaign tactics has become the accepted media narrative over the past several weeks. "Smear" is the word you most often hear nowadays next to "Republican." But while it may be true that some in the conservative fever swamps have resorted to ugly tactics, they don't hold a candle to the left's rhetoric over the past eight years.
I have no interest in a pissing contest over which side has the most, or the worst, haters. Let it be said, though, that neither side has a monopoly on malice. I recall spending an evening talking to conservative friends who moved to Minneapolis-St. Paul a few years back, and still couldn't get over the bigoted and vicious comments about conservatives they routinely overheard (and said nothing about, just endured in silence).I remember too back in the early 1990s, when I had longer hair, an earring and wore combat boots, and lived in Washington DC, people often mistook me for a liberal, because of the way I looked. It was fascinating, and disgusting, to hear what many liberals said about conservatives when they didn't think any were listening.
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Mr. X
October 23, 2008 1:09 AM
There is a difference between calling someone a Muslim and calling someone out on their treatment of persons at Guantanimo or calling the president out on his laughing at Karla Faye Tucker when she pleaded for her life (Bush killed her in the Electric chair).
Actually, we execute criminals via lethal injection down here in Texas.
Scott,
If you tell me where you are -- Auschwitz or Buchenwald -- I'll try to come get you out.
I can probably pull some strings with Heinrich Himmler.
We go to the same evangelical megachurch and I sometimes see him at Nascar events.
Scott,
PS: It occurs to me that you ought to hide your laptop. If any of the guards catch you with that, you'll be sent straight to Dr. Mengele or else to Wasilla itself, there to be forced to eat mooseburgers all day long.
Turmarion, I liked your post and I agree with its substance.
There was a movie about the life of Lee Atwater ("Boogie Man") in town recently. I didn't get to see it, but I understand that it showed how this very talented man (the proto-Karl Rove) perfected the politics of personal destruction against Dukakis in 1988.
I don't like to say it, but I think the Republicans have been better at "mean" than the Democrats (except for Nancy Pelosi). The Democrats until recently appear to have opted for a self-righteous, above-it-all tone. I'm not talking now about Right-Wing or Left-Wing bloggers, but about politicians and those who run political campaigns.
I recall a couple of years back hearing Tom Daschle (before he was defeated) interviewed on Meet the Press or some other talking head show, and he seemed to have perfected the sigh, the "how sad" self-righteous tone. I really wondered as I listened to him if that was working for him.
Perhaps mean works better than playing the put-upon martyr. But I would prefer that Republicans and Democrats adopted neither of these tricks.
Hey Rufus,
Appreciate any help I can get ;-).
I also want to point out that if things to really start to break down, liberals will not be turning the other cheek. We will fight for the the founding principles of this country. I don't anticipate that it will come to that and I am doing my part to prevent that by pushing back on what I see as the very dangerous trends of the past eight years before they are allowed to go too far.
I would also remind the conservatives that there are more of us than there are of you. I am perfectly willing to live and let live, after all that's what liberalism is all about, but I am not willing to stand by and watch our public fabric torn apart for political gain. Liberal does not mean soft.
I am especially concerned by Palin in particular flirting with incitement. She's by all appearances not too bright and I don't think she understands she is playing with dynamite with some of what she was saying. At least for now I am willing to give her the benefit of the doubt, but it needs to stop. I very much appreciate McCain's very public steps back from that precipice.
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