Posted on 02/18/2003 6:34:55 AM PST by FairWitness
Edited on 05/11/2004 5:34:15 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
The Presidents Bush and Bush are tough for me even to think about. The men have confounded my hard-earned biases about who is deserving of respect in America. They also have made me abandon the easy and shallow belief that politicians I disagree with must always be bad people at heart. I was reminded of this recently when New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd wrote a piece quoting a 1986 Washington Post Magazine profile I wrote on then-Vice President George H.W. Bush. While trolling for bluefish in Bush's famous Cigarette boat off the coast of Maine, I engaged him and his then-obscure son George W. in a debate about the power of social class -- the money, education and influence awarded to people through the accident of birth.
(Excerpt) Read more at stltoday.com ...
Can I get a witness?
I agree with the "few - - are evil" part. For the vast majority of liberals I think it is more an unwillingness to face up to consequences of beliefs that were formed at an early age (in spite of evidence of failure), the "normal" resistance to change, the tendency to "think" in feelings rather than facts and logic that keeps them on the plantation.
It baffles me that grown people must convince themselves that those with whom they disagree are stupid or malevolent. It's a poison that creates uncivil debate and self-righteous political correctness. Yet, truth is, I didn't always think so open-mindedly. I used to be quite a self-righteous twit in my youth. Coming to know the Presidents Bush and Bush changed me, helped me learn that no class -- rich or poor -- has cornered the market on decency or wisdom.
This author is also a very decent man! His insights swing both way FReeper friends. I see a lot of conservatives taking the low road and doing the very same thing. Let's be honest with ourselves and realize that such base discourse only demeans our cause and creates enemies where we'd really like to have friends.
Most liberals (this author, Hitchens and a few others are the exceptions) seem incapable of remaining civil toward those with whom they disagree. They have to hate, insult, slander and mock anyone who holds differing views. Thus, you have the so-called anti-war types calling Pres. Bush a Nazi and caricaturing him as Alfred E. Newman, instead of just saying - calmly and rationally - that they believe he's wrong.
Cheers to the ThirstyMan!
Not all who disagree with you are anti-american devils ..................... Well, some are.
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
Thank You!
One of which is that Harrington undermines his own argument about civil debate by supporting the malevolent violence of killing pre-natal infants. Those who have been murdered thusly are not around to to be either agreeable or disagreeable in debate. They are not around to be baffled because they did not survive to be 'grown people'. They were robbed even of the ability to be convinced that that those with whom they would have disagreed were stupid or malevolent. Maybe it's me, but I'm not in the mood to be receptive to a moral lecture about uncivil debate and self-righteous political correctness from someone whose mother did not kill him, but who nevertheless supports the theft from others of that which he himself was allowed to retain and professes to value.
Cordially,
So much of what we read in the press comes from those behind-the-scenes position papers and the just released partisan talking points, fed to and published by an eagerly awaiting press.
Recall the word "gravitas" making its rounds among Bush's detractors during the last campaign? Rush made a point of it. Suddenly Mario Cuomo and Co. [all the Democrats] were saying simultaneously that George W. Bush "lacked gravitas". OK, who'd ever heard of "gravitas" before? But all the dems were pounding away at W's lack of "gravitas". It hurt. It was obviously a cleverly devised ad hominem distraction.
I believe this author, Walt Harrington has seen beyond the position papers and for doing so, he will be hated and suspected. He stands out! He has correctly identified the Bush's most endearing trait. They are decent American people who deserve credit for being decent American folk, even if one disagrees with them politically.
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